BIO – Richard Lawson Music

Richard Lawson – Composer & Musician
In early 2025, Richard Lawson’s new composition, On Love Lost Day was featured on the Australian Art Music playlist in ABC Limelight magazine. and has since been playlisted on ABC Classic FM!! Performed by the Acacia Quartet, the recording marks the first single from his album, the song cycle How to Read a City, Your Place of Last Resort. A collaboration with both Acacia and Australian writer and musician Elizabeth Walton, the album is out now on all streaming platforms!
Richard first gained recognition as the explosive drummer for the ARIA-nominated punk band The Lime Spiders. After performing internationally at the Universal Amphitheatre, Roskilde Music Festival and the MTV Music Awards in New York, where they supported Iggy Pop, Blondie,
and the Ramones, Richard evolved into a multi-instrumentalist, contributing to over 25 recordings across many genres. He was the first drummer to perform on ABC’s RAGE and enjoyed regular appearances as a guest of Molly Meldrum on Countdown.
His emotive compositions explore themes of love, loss, and storytelling through intricate harmonies and lyrical intonation as well as unusual instrumentation.
Collaborating for the first time, How To Read A City, Your Place of Last Resort was performed by Acacia Quartet and recorded at Four Winds in Bermagui, NSW, after a period of extensive score development with Elizabeth. The project was supported by CreateNSW.

Already receiving radio airplay and media attention, the song cycle is reminiscent of the opulent Belle Époque era, and land in a space where the spirits of Ravel, Debussy, Philip Glass, and Vivaldi intertwine, infused
with his sparky punk inclinations.
Richard’s new song cycle is both an iterative and ekphrastic dialogue with Elizabeth’s poetry cycle of the same name. His innovative approach to scoring and notation responds to themes of grief in the Anthropocene, which had a significant influence on Acacia’s interpretation of his scores
and Elizabeth’s development of the music.
Audiences recently enjoyed a premier listening experience and poetry reading at Westwords Parramatta which was sold out
Compared by Simon Marnie, the event showcased On Love Lost Days, This is a recipe and How to Read a City, works which respond with urgency to the challenges of our times.

RICHARD LAWSON EXPANDED
As an ARIA-nominated, chart-topping punk rock drummer for The Lime Spiders, Richard’s legacy in Australian music history was cemented as the first drummer to appear on RAGE ABC TV. His music has evolved over a career spanning five decades through multiple instruments, bands, and genres.
As an inner-city band promoter/manager for The Scientists and an early version of the Cruel Sea, he left management behind when the Lime Spiders were signed to Virgin Records in 1987. Their international tours featured supporting Blondie, Iggy Pop, Johnny Rotten, The Ramones, and The Cult. They topped the American Independent charts, played Universal Amphitheatre, the Hammersmith Odeon, and smacked it out to 10,000 at Roskilde Denmark. Their hit Slave Girl was used as a soundtrack to epitomize an era in the ABC production Paper Tigers and covered by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Richard’s first solo release in 1994, Figtree Renaissance, garnered acclaim from Rolling Stone magazine, with classical, ambient, and electronic music influenced by Philip Glass, Kraftwerk, Vivaldi, and the Penguin Café Orchestra. As an autodidact performer and composer, he has a back catalogue of 200 works ranging from punk to classical and is interested in organic traditional classical ensemble work. With over 2,000 performances and 25 full length recordings Richard is a a multi-instrumentalist, recording percussion, guitars, mandolin, keyboards, collaborating with an eclectic array of Australian talent from Caitlin Hartnett to Acacia Quartet as well as emerging talent. He is an accomplished tenor, baritone and counter tenor and has tutored 300 music students.
In 2014 he received an Australia Day Award for services to music and community. Richard single handedly revived the acclaimed Gulgong Music Festival from 2010-2015 featuring over 80 Australian acts.
He performs over 100 shows a year in various line ups from solo to ‘Kings’, drumming at festivals, playing with Honey and other ensembles. In 2023 CreateNSW funded his collaboration with Acacia String Quartet, who recorded his song cycle, ‘How to Read A City’ based on the works of Australian writer/musician Elizabeth Walton, due for release in May 2025.
This work has generated interest from Screen Tasmania and was featured on ABC Limelights Art Music Playlist for January 2025.

‘Australian musical journeyman Richard Lawson has made a stop at every creative station it seems. His transcendence through the gambit of popular genres is to be acknowledged and he is an unassuming Australian music legend. All the way from 70’s Rock/Punk with the Lime Spiders through to Folk, across to Electronica then back around to Ambient/Classical, Richard’s made his mark.’ Shane Budini, Electronic Music Australia September 2022

More tour dates, details and contact

richardlawsonmusic@gmail.com 0447036783

richardlawsonmusic.com

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights of touring career with the Lime Spiders [1983 – 2007] and solo career includes, ARIA nominations – topping the independent charts in the USA as well as attaining Top 40 in Australia 3 times, during which time they recorded 4 albums.
European tour: 42 venues, sold out – audience capacity up to 10,000 at the famed Roskilde Festival –
USA tour (twice): 65 venues, sold out – Supporting Iggy Pop and PIL – Performed at MTV awards USA (most exciting new band) – NUMBER ONE US Independent charts – Music for ‘Young Einstein’ and ‘Paper Giants’ – . Numerous – ABC TV Countdown live performances AND the first band to ever play on RAGE.
Australia Day award 2014 for services to music and community for his work as Director Gulgong Folk Festival 2010 – 2015. He personally picked Daniel Champagne’s earliest festival performances, Melanie Horsnell, Imogen Clarke, Fanny Lumsden, Caitlin Harnett, Emma Swift, 19-Twenty, Sophie Hutchings amongst others- Director Mudgee Music Festival 2016 and numerous radio programs.
Current Projects: -10 solo LPs and 6 EPs in 12 years – soundtrack work, regular performances at festivals, venues nationally and on radio. Leader ‘Kings of Congo Congo’ – an explosive percussion ensemble and festival favourite made up of student. Mentor to emerging talent and private music teacher having taught over 300 students from 2003 – 2022 as well as Bushfire recovery teaching after Blac

Currently lives on the South Coast of NSW Australia performing regularly and writing and recording constantly with his musician/writer partner Elizabeth Walton.