Richard J Oliver

This article is about the keyboardist for the Welsh alternative metal band Lostprophets. For the TV chef, see Jamie Oliver.

Jamie Oliver (born July 16th, 1975), born Richard James Oliver, is primarily the keyboardist for the Welsh alternative metal band Lostprophets. He is the youngest of two children. He attended a different school from that of his bandmates, Coedylan Comprehensive, along with welsh singer Rhiannon Williams. He is also a backing singer in the band and does sampling. For the band's latest album, Liberation Transmission, Oliver's role in the band changed considerably. Before he had mainly used decks and sampling to contribute to the instumentation, wheras now he mainly plays keyboards. This change has been reflected live, with Oliver now mainly using keyboards during performances. Newer songs have also seen less screaming from Oliver than before, his vocals mainly contributing harmonies to Ian Watkins' melodies. The three songs performed from the band's forthcoming fourth studio album suggest, however, that Oliver will retun to a more "screamo"-based style in the future. These songs also see his vocals take more significant and more frequent parts in the music, sometimes taking different vocal lines as Watkins screams or sings himself simultaneously, in a similar way to some songs from thefakesoundofprogress (although in the studio these parts were multiple layerings of Watkins' voice).

His mother claims to use her faith-healing and reiki techniques to make him feel better from afar when he is ill. He was an avid skateboarder in his teens, and still skates occasionally. In his youth he was arrested and appeared in court charged with GBH.

The band have stated that Jamie was only added to the band so he could go on tour with them. Oliver and Ian Watkins had met on a car journey and got on so well the band asked their management if they could bring Jamie on tour with them (so he could work on an art project) in 2000. They were told they couldn't afford to take someone who wasn't part of the band or their crew with them, so Jamie bought a set of turntables and quickly learnt what he needed to play. It is unclear how this occurence coincides with ex-turntablist DJ Stepzak's departure from the band. Although Oliver was present for the touring cycle of thefakesoundofprogress and is included in the pictures inside the album booklet (he may also be the figure seen on the album cover), he did not musically contribute to the tracks on the album in any way.

Oliver is also an aspiring artist and had made quite a successful career before joining Lostprophets. Some of his works have been known to sell for up to £5000 each. Jamie studied fine art at Bristol University.[1] Jamie has worked with Ian Watkins on all of Lostprophets' artwork since 2003, possibly before, and he drew the pictures found in the booklet of the album Start Something (also used on covers for the Burn Burn single) personally.

Trivia

• Jamie is a member of the Westside Scooter club and owns a Lambretta.

• His dad is Neil Oliver.