Richard West (born 2 January 1964, London) is a British DJ, musician, actor and rapper, who uses the monikers Mr C and Sycophant Slags. He is best known as the frontman for The Shamen during their most commercially successful era. West is also a house music DJ and co-owner/co-founder of London's The End nightclub with Layo from Layo and Bushwacka. He is considered a leading proponent of tech house, a fusion of house and techno music. In 1995 his DJing talents came to the attention of UK rave promoter/record company Fantazia who asked him to mix their new album Fantazia DJ Collection 3 - Back to the Old Skool. He's also mixed CDs Psycotrance vol 2, X-Mix 6 on Studio K7, Sunterrain 100% unreleased on his End recordings imprint & most recently Superfreq Express on his Superfreq label.
Asked what the "C" in his moniker stands for, West said: “The most shocking one is cunt. It’s what I tell glossy magazines... A story I like to give to more religious people would be c as in the constant measure of the speed of light, and with c equaling light, that would make me the prince of light who has vanished into darkness — which is always a fun one. And the real reason is when I was a kid, I used a CB Radio and it was totally illegal, you have to have a handle. I called myself Chelsea Boy because I was a Chelsea supporter." Needing an MC name as a rapper, he modified Chelsea Boy into Mr. C.[1]
Richard West aka Mr.C was born in London in the late 60’s. He started MCing in the London clubs aged only 16 & soon earned a reputation as a fast talking vivacious rapper working with LWR radio’s Ron Tom, Jasper the Vinyl Junkie & Jazzy M. Mr.C then hooked up with Colin Faver & Evil Eddie Richards to became resident rapper at Camden Palace going on to MC for Colin Faver on the then illegal Kiss FM. Mr.C went into the studio to record his 1st house track with Eddie Richards as Myster-E in 1987. This inspired Mr.C to become a DJ to learn more about his beloved House & Techno music so in late ‘87 Richard took to the decks. Mr.C has since organized, promoted & been resident dj at: Fantasy (‘88), Base (Dungeons ‘89), Release (91), Harmony (92), Drop (93), Cyclone (94), Vapourspace (94 & 95), Flavour (The End 95 & 96), Subterrain (The End (95 - 2002) & Superfreq (The End/Junk Club/World-wide 2002 - Present).
In December 1995 Mr.C opened The End Club in London with Partner Layo Paskin which celebrated its 13th anniversary this last year. Sadly The End closed its doors for good on January 24 2009. 1 Chapter closes & another begins.
Mr.C is founder & owner of Plink Plonk records, cofounder of End Recordings & cofounder & owner of Superfreq Records. Mr.C has recorded under the names, Myster-E, Nu Jacks, Bass Bureau, The Shamen, Mantrac, Somnambulist, Animus Amour, Killer Loop, Mr.C & Tom Parris & Mr.C & 16B. Mr.C is best known as front man of the pop group The Shamen with whom he notched up a string of top 10 hits including Move Any Mountain & Ebeneezer Goode. The Shamen also won a highly coveted Ivor Novelo for Songwriters of the year 1992. Richard’s currently recording solo as Mr.C or as the Sycophant Slags with his production partner Adultnapper with releases on Sexonwax, End Rec, Hallucination Ltd, Superfreq records, Bombis Records & Poker Flat Records & has EP’s due later in the year under both monikers.
Mr.C also runs & promotes Superfreq events, which is now in its 8th year & ran monthly at Mr.C's club, The End until it closed down in January 2009. Superfreq now has monthly residencies at the brand new Cable Club in London Bridge, London, starting June 13 2009 & as runs bi-monthly events at Junk Club in Southampton & various locations in Calais. Superfreq has accomplished 5 successful seasons in Ibiza, 3 at Club Underground & the last 2 seasons at DC10. Superfreq took a summer off last year in protest at the way the authorities we treating the good people that were bringing the commerce to the island, but is back this coming season with Superfreq, every Thursday night from June 11 until October 1 at the brand new spot BoHo. Superfreq has also completed its 5th annual tour of South America as well as doing regular events with Made Events in NYC & at WMC Miami & regular events at Avaland in L.A. Superfreq has also done one-off shows the world over including U.S.A, Canada, Mexico, China, England, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Lithuania, France, Croatia, Greece, Latvia & Russia to name but a few places.
He states his influences as; Ska, Funk, Dub, Disco, House, Electro and Techno
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