After studying piano privately for 12 years, Rick gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where he studied piano, clarinet and orchestration. In March 2012, Prince Charles presented him with his Fellowship of the RCM. He was also made a Professor at the London College of Music.

As a much sought after session musician in the late sixties and early seventies, he played on more than 2,000 records, including such hits as Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken and David Bowie’s Space Oddity and Life on Mars, and worked with a real eclectic mixture of other notable artistes, such as Donovan, Cilla Black, Marc Bolan, Black Sabbath, Lou Reed, Mary Hopkin, Dana, Al Stewart, Elton John and John Williams.

In March 1970, he joined Strawbs. His first album with them, Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios, paved the way for ‘folk-rock’ and reviews from their concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 11^th of that year did much to take Rick’s career to a new level.

He joined YES in August of 1971 and has been in and out of that band on quite a few occasions! (One journalist likened the relationship to that of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, in as much as they can’t live with each other, but in the same breath, can’t live without each other! Rick told the journalist he didn’t disagree as long as it was accepted that he was ‘Richard Burton’!)