John straddles the novelty mainstream and the alternative underground like no other artist. He got his break in the music industry when the late great John Peel started to champion his band the Cuban Boys, and particularly Cognoscenti vs Intelligentsia (AKA The Hampster Dance Song). Jo Whiley followed, and before long it was competing with Westlife for the 1999 Christmas no. 1 slot (it reached #4). It also inspired numerous copycat versions.
Three Christmases later saw the debut hit from Rikki & Daz, the duo John (AKA Ricardo AKA Rikki) formed with Daz Sampson. Rhinestone Cowboy (Giddy Up Giddy Up), featuring a new vocal from country legend Glen Campbell, hit #12 in the UK. The duo also enjoyed a UK top 40 hit with the Barndance Boys. Their Filo Bedo project was initially only released in Spain, but all three songs John co-wrote for that project have since been recorded by other artists. John also co-wrote and produced the DJ Daz single The Woah Song, which was released everywhere from Taiwan to the United Arab Emirates to Austria. John’s band project Spray have now made two albums for Ninth Wave records in America. John has also worked extensively in creating music for film, TV, adverts, computer games and video games, and he has worked on several award winning pieces.
Co-writing Teenage Life is the latest of John’s many collaborations with Daz Sampson. John has watched every single Eurovision since 1982 (British entry One Step Further by Bardo), and co-writing the 2006 British entry would be a dream come true for him.