Jamie Oliver (born July 16th, 1975), born Richard James Oliver, is primarily the keyboardist for the Welsh alternative metal band Lostprophets,
although he additionally does backing vocals and samples. He is the
youngest of two children. He was the only one to attend a different
school from that of his bandmates, Coedylan Comprehensive, along with Welsh singer Rhiannon Williams, who was several years below him.
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 instrumentation, whereas
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 return 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.
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 occurrence 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 original mastering of the album in any way. As the
band themselves worked on the remastered edition, it can be assumed
that the notably larger changes in the turntable and sample parts
(recorded by Stepzak) compared to the other instruments is due to
Oliver’s influence on the record. It is likely some samples and
scratches added to the remastered edition were recorded by Oliver
(Watkins is known to have recorded additional vocals), but this cannot
be known for certain.
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 ÂŁ5000 each. Jamie studied fine art at Bristol
University.
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.
(source - wikipedia 10th Nov 07)
