Journalist Richie Taylor Dies in Dublin

The well known Irish musician and music journalist, Richie Taylor, has died, Hot Press has learned. He was aged 61. He is survived by his wife Sandra and three children.

Originally from Raheny on the north side of Dublin, Richie went to school in St. Fintan’s, which became a breeding ground for the Dublin rock community. Richie became a significant force on the Dublin rock scene in the 1970s, first as guitar player with The Great Saturday Night Swindle – a band that was signed to CBS Records and released one well-received album. He later shifted across to r’n’b, briefly joining Rocky De Valera and the Gravediggers, led by singer Ferdia MacAnna, with whom he subsequently worked in The Rhythm Kings. Other musical dalliances included stints with The Wilf Brothers (with Mark Venner), whose residency in The Lower Deck became one of Dublin’s hottest gigs. For his solo single ‘Stumble Into Love’, he emphasised his blues pedigree, releasing the record under the Richie “Milkboy” Taylor moniker.

While he retained an interest in playing, Richie got into journalism during the 1980s, starting with In Dublin magazine. Over a period of years, he worked for most of the Dublin-based newspapers, doing stints as entertainment correspondent with the Sunday Press, the Irish Independent, the Evening Herald, the Mirror and the Sun. He wrote extensively, often being the first with breaking music stories, especially during the Boyzone era, when he struck up an excellent working relationship with the band’s manager, Louis Walsh. He was a judge on numerous band competitions organised by Hot Press, as well as on the Hot Press Awards.

He had recently been back on the boards, playing both the Rocky de Valera and Rhythm Kings reunion gigs. Sadly, word filtered out among the rock community recently that Richie had had a stroke. However his death still comes as a great shock...

“Richie was a fantastically likeable character with a great sense of fun,” Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said today. “And of course, he really knew his music inside out. He was always a pleasure to talk to and to work with. He will be sadly missed by everyone involved in music in Ireland.”

Over the course of a long career, Richie was co-author of Irish Rock: Where It's Come From - Where It's At - Where It's Going
with Tony Clayton-Lea, which was published by Gill and Macmillan in 1992.