Richard Coles

Richard Coles (born 26 March 1962, Northampton, England) is a journalist and Church of England vicar. He is best known for having been the multi-instrumentalist who partnered Jimmy Somerville in the 1980s band, The Communards. He was educated at King's College London.

Career

Coles had previously played the clarinet on the song "It Ain't Necessarily So" which was a hit in 1984 for Bronski Beat, a trio which featured Somerville as its lead singer. The following year, Somerville left this band to join Coles.

The Communards were together for just over three years and enjoyed three UK Top 10 hits, including the biggest-selling single of 1986 with a version of "Don't Leave Me This Way", which was at Number 1 for four weeks. They split in 1988 and Somerville went solo.

Coles became a writer and journalist afterwards, most notably with the Times Literary Supplement and the Catholic Herald. In 1994 he appeared as a guest on the BBC News quiz Have I Got News For You.

After a successful career in the media, Coles was selected for training for priesthood in the Church of England. He entered his training at the monastic College of the Resurrection, Mirfield before leaving to work as Curate at St. Boltoph’s Church, ('The Stump') in Boston, Lincolnshire, and from there to St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, in London. He is also Chaplain to the Royal Academy of Music. He still does occasional broadcasting work, including Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3 which he formerly presented, and Newsnight Review on BBC2.

On May 15th 2008 he was on the Radio 4 panel game show 'Heresy'

External links

• BBC Lincolnshire - Christmas with Richard
• Sunday Times - Holy downshifters swell vicars’ ranks