Ever since he was a young boy Ricky has always had an interest in music, he was given his first guitar at the age of 3 but it wasn’t until he was 17 that he really started to learn how to play it. It was the summer of ’96 when he wrote his first song, “Time is running out” a song that he still plays today, and it was from that point that he knew that this was what he wanted to be doing with his life.
It was ’97 that was the real turning point for Ricky, his health wasn’t great and he found it difficult some days to even get out of bed, however this turned out to be a good thing for his music as he spent most of that year learning how to play a number of different instruments including the guitar, the keyboard and the bass guitar. It was the bass guitar that would take Ricky onto the stage for the first time later that year.
As Ricky’s health improved he co-founded ‘White Lies’ with long time friend Stuart Brett. Finding other band members was never an easy task and the line up of the group was always changing but this didn’t seem to stop Ricky from chasing the dream. In ’98 Ricky signed up for a BTEC Popular music course at Lowestoft College which really opened his eyes to a whole new world and in the 2 years he was on the course Ricky done a run of gigs with a number of different bands both in pubs and on the big stage.
In the summer of ’00 he met his wife, Jackie and his music started to take a new direction. He got a job at his local youth club and started to run music workshop’s, passing on his knowledge to the young people that he worked with. It was around this time Stuart moved away to Norwich and was starting a family of his own and the band seemed to fall a part. Over the next few years Ricky continued to teach music and started to work on a new style of music as a solo project. Ricky had always been a fan of Hank Marvin and had always wanted to play in that style, and it just seemed like the right time for him. So over the next few years Ricky learned a number of songs in the 'Hank' style, He also continued to write his own songs.
In June ’07 Ricky met back up with Stuart and started talking about old times and it wasn’t long before they started playing music together again. All the old songs that they use to play were sounding better than ever and writing new songs came easy for them, Brett and Woods was born and they were ready for what ever the future would bring. see www.myspace.com/brettwoodsmusic
Even though Ricky enjoys the whole Brett and Woods thing, and 'Spiral' a rock band that he is also in, Ricky still enjoys the music he does by himself. In August 2008 Ricky played on stage for the first time by himself at the Casa Mia, in Southwold, and had a lot of fun doing it. It was after that he decide to do more solo work and see where life takes him.
Like he always says......"ONE LIFE, LIVE IT!"
Ricky say's.....
I have been playing this style of music for about 2 years now and I really like it, it's nice to come home after a long day and relax with something like this.
I am out gigging with a group called 'Brett and Woods at the moment and loving it but hoping to get out playing sometime next year with my own music so keep checking back for details.
I love getting feedback on my music so I know I'm getting somethng right :) hope to hear from everyone soon. You can also check me out at.....
www.myspace.com/rickywoodsunsigned www.myspace.com/rick__music
www.myspace.com/brettwoodsmusic
