hard rock

Ricky Warwick

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Frontman of The Almighty and later Black Star Riders, splitting his time between hard rock bite and stripped-back acoustic storytelling with a Celtic accent.

Ricky Warwick was born in 1966 in Newtownards, County Down. He got his first guitar at fourteen and was drawn first to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, then to harder-edged acts like Motörhead, MC5, Stiff Little Fingers and The Clash. His family moved to Strathaven, Scotland, when he was fifteen, and it was at his new school there that he met future bandmates Stump Monroe and Floyd London.

His first break came when New Model Army invited him to join as rhythm guitarist for their Ghost of Cain tour, an experience he later credited with teaching him about songwriting and stagecraft. He then formed The Almighty in 1988 with guitarist Andy McCafferty and his school friends Monroe and London.

Through the early 1990s The Almighty toured the UK and Europe supporting Motörhead, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden and Metallica before headlining their own shows, releasing five studio albums and one live album, though they never broke through in the United States despite touring there in 1993. That year Warwick also performed with Stiff Little Fingers at Glasgow's Barrowlands, a gig later issued as the live album Pure Fingers.

The Almighty split in 1996 and Warwick moved to Dublin to form (sic), whose sole album was released only in Japan alongside a UK EP. That band broke up in 1999, and Warwick rejoined The Almighty for two further albums before it disbanded again in 2001.

A solo acoustic tour in 2002 renewed his interest in performing, leading to his first solo album, Tattoos & Alibis, released in October 2003 and made up almost entirely of acoustic material, a direction he has continued alongside his later work fronting Black Star Riders and singing with Thin Lizzy.

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