Rick Guard is an English contemporary jazzsinger and songwriter. He performs as a solo vocalist or with other live musicians from two piece up to an 18-piece bigband. Guard made his debut with Decca Records, Guard is one half of a successful songwriting partnership with Phil Rice. The pair have successfully written for international artistes, film, TV and TV commercial advertising.
Career
Guard's first single gained top twenty positions in eleven countries and was in the top ten downloaded ringtones of that year. Amongst Guard and Rice's writing credits are hits for opera star Russell Watson, Canadian Ashley MacIssac, and opera singer, Jon Christos. Guard and Rice wrote the title soundtrack to the movie The Truth About Love, starring Dougray Scott, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jimi Mistry. The pair have also written popular theme music for English, Australian and Polish TV shows. They also have a song included on a best-selling Sony PlayStation game.
Appearances
Guard's gigging career so far includes performances in England for Elizabeth II, The Princess Royal, OK Magazine, Manchester United FC, Manchester City FC, the V2 summer festival, Children In Need with the BBC Orchestra, The Royal Festival Hall, Sky One TV, Granada TV, The Box video channel, MTV, Radio 2, Cardiff Red Dragon festival, Feel the Noise Festival Liverpool and other live public, corporate and private events and Manchester 235. Guard has received radio play on the majority of the independent, BBC and national radio stations, and particularly extensive airplay in Europe. Guard received the prestigious Belgian Zommerhit award. At the end of 2003, Guard's first single "Stop it I Like It" was in the top 75 of highest radio played records in the world chart. Guard has also gigged live events and TV in South Africa, France, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Egypt, Spain, Holland and Ireland working with artists such as Ronan Keating, Russell Watson, and Lionel Richie. He has played to TV audiences of four million and stadiums of up to 65,000 people.
