Richard Willis 1960-2007

Richard's love of the audio industry had its beginnings as a lad in Kingswinford, Dudley where during the 70s he listened to local rock bands in JB's and the Wolverhampton Civic Hall. He tapped a toe with many an up and coming band, such as Thin Lizzy & the local lads Slade.

After studying at Leeds University Rich returned to his native West Midlands in the early 1980s and got to know a small band of audio enthusiasts who were running Stage Audio Services.  These were Nigel Morris (who now runs communications company RadioTek), Paul Owen (Metallica's monitor engineer and now a partner in Thunder Audio Inc, one the leading US audio rental firms), the late 'big Johnny' Newey.and Kevin Mobberly (who remains the boss of Stage Audio). 

Rich worked at Stage Audio Services as a freelance PA tec and soon became a favourite FOH engineer for many bands. He also worked at Beacon Radio at this time and engineered recordings as well as live sound.  He produced and engineered a number of albums for the Hampsters and recently enjoyed mixing them once again at the Cropredy Festival.

It was while touring with Wonderstuff in the late 1980s that he came across a funny looking PA in a venue in France made by L'Acoustics. 

Richard had the vision to spot some new up and coming audio brands, which led to him setting up Showcom Audio Ltd with his old friend Nigel Morris.  Together they acquired the UK distibution rights for L'Acoustics products and established the brand in the UK before they created their own UK distribution business.

Showcom Audio were also the first UK distributors for Camco, bringing the revolutionary brand of high power lightweight amplifiers to the attention of the likes of SSE Hire, long before the rest of the world had caught on. 

Richard joined SSE Audio Group in the spring of 2003.  His initial task was helping to prepare the infrastructure for SSE's new headquarters in Redditch. His contribution was invaluable in enabling the company to relocate over a weekend and be open for business as usual on Monday morning - a quite remarkable achievement.

Richard was responsible at SSE for radio communications equipment and digital consoles.  He also organised training and helped both crew and customers to become familiar with all the new types of digital consoles that continue to enter the marketplace. 

In the summer of 2006 he was promoted to the position of equipment Sales Manager, where he was able to use his knowledge to persuade customers to part with their hard earned.

He would be the first to admit that getting the paperwork in line was never his strong point, but Richard's extensive audio knowledge, along with his anecdotal stories of rock n roll and his dry Black Country humour won him many new friends and customers for SSE. 

In was in this role that he arrived at London's Novotel in Hammersmith on Monday 5 February 2007 with SSE colleagues including directors John and Heather Penn, Spencer Beard and Emma Barwell.

This was for the annual TPi Awards - the sort of industry networking event that Richard loved.  Sadly it was here that Richard died of a heart attack, leaving his colleagues and many in the industry in shock. 

However, we feel certain that he would have had a dry brummy smile as all those who had been with him raised a glass in his honour and Bob Doyle was able to say a few words to those assembled and pay tribute to him.

Rich leaves a wife, Glynis and son Adam, as well as his mother and brother, Rob.
 

Richard Willis, born 23rd April 1960, died 5th February 2007 

Compiled with the help of:

John Penn, SSE Audio Group
Nigel Morris, RadioTek
Kevin Mobberly, Stage Audio
Rob Willis, Rich's brother