| Richard Fidler was born on 18th November, 1964 in England. He moved to Melbourne when he was one, and then he moved to Canberra in his teens. Richard studied Political Science at ANU, where he achieved a Masters degree and he is also a talented musician who can play the guitar, the harp, the sitar, the axe and the dinner plates. He is also a very good painter and sculptor and his work is just as good as Paul's. At university, Richard set up a band with two of his friends, Tim Ferguson and Robert Piper. One night, Robert was sick, and Richard struggled to find a replacement. He walked into a pub where he saw a group called Gigantic Fly performing. The lead singer, Paul McDermott, struck him as someone special, so Richard asked Paul to take Robert's place for the night. When Robert left six months later to study mime in Paris, Paul took his place permanently. In the Allstars, Richard played the 'happy victim' as Libbi Gorr so beautifully described it. Because of this, Richard was never able to fully showcase his sharp wit and quick mind. He was portrayed as the mummy's boy, the one who's always picked on. After the Allstars split, Richard started getting interested in computers and multimedia, even writing the award winning 'Real Wild Child' CDROM about the history of Australian rock 'n' roll. When multimedia started to 'die in the arse', he signed with ABC to do Race Around The World. In 1997/98, Richard wrote a monthly column for net magazine Internet.com.au called Mr Nice Guy. In 1999, he had a half-hour spot on Triple J called 'Dick Predicts', in which he used his mystical powers to predict the future. However, he left that spot in mid-1999 to do Cosmopolitan Radio on the Austereo Network with Libbi Gorr, which got axed at the end of 2000. He also hosted Mouthing Off on thecomedychannel on Foxtel and he hosted and produced Aftershock for ABCTV, which was a show looking at the potential scientific and technological developments of the future. Unfortunately, it wasn't a major success, but we loved it anyway. Richard is married to Khym Lam, who portrayed the newsreader on DAAS Kapital. Khym is a model who is also a talented multimedia designer (she designed the RATW homepage) and she even wrote her own cookbook. She and Richard have a son, Joseph. Facts: Richard’s sister, Jane Fidler, used to work on GNW as an executive assistant in marketing. Richard got in major trouble at the ABC for dropping the magic word during the Big Gig (NB: Dani says that it was the last time the Five Blind Boys were ever on!) |
| Richard Fidler |