A teen singer is on the road to super-stardom after his band was chosen to film for Disney.
But world fame will have to wait for the 16-year-old Blake Richardson, who is under strict orders to finish his GCSEs before he is takes to the world stage.
Blake, who lives in Macclesfield and is a pupil at King’s, has already earned himself a fan base of adoring fans after his band New Hope Club was chosen to support hit pop rock band The Vamps on their UK and European arena tour.
But he needs to get his head down now because later this year the band will fly to the States to film for Disney.
Blake told the Express he can’t say too much about the project at the moment, but said it’s an exciting opportunity.
He said: “There is so much coming up I can’t talk about yet, but yes Disney are looking forward to working with the band and we are flying off to America straight after my GCSEs.”
Blake is the son of King’s Junior teacher Soulla Costanda and has been playing the guitar since he was just six, regularly performing on the King’s stage but also in St Michael’s Church. He hit the big time after hooking up with young musician George Smith from London and Reece Bibby – who became known as a member of X Factor boy band Stereo Kicks, from Accrington – over the internet to form New Hope Club. They met to make some songs and put them out on YouTube.
The boys soon developed a fan base and got signed to Virgin EMI, from which they were chosen to support The Vamps.
Singer songwriter and lead guitarist Blake said: “We soon developed something of a fan base and got signed to Virgin EMI and before we knew it we were touring with The Vamps, one of the bands I really love, and playing venues such as the O2, Manchester Arena, Glasgow Empire as well as Paris and Amsterdam. It’s been surreal.”
Blake names The Beatles, McFly, and other guitar bands as his role models rather than today’s typical boy bands.
On coping with the attention from adoring girl fans, he said: “It was strange but I also have to say pretty cool, but you simply couldn’t go out and about around any of the arenas for fear of being followed and not just by one but by a quite lot of fans.
“I learned so much on tour, not just about performing but about composition, writing on the road with The Vamps and getting a collection of songs together we can record in later years.”
