has worked in music, theater, and films since 1965 when he met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a fellow struggling songwriter. Rather than pursue Rice’s ambitions to write rock or pop songs, they turned their attention to Lloyd Webber’s obsession—musical theater. Their first collaboration was based on the life of Dr. Thomas Barnardo, the Victorian philanthropist, The Likes of Us. Their next three works together were much more successful—Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita. Rice has since worked with other distinguished popular composers such as Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast), Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Chess), and Stuart Brayson (From Here to Eternity). He has also written with Freddie Mercury, Burt Bacharach, and Rick Wakeman among others. He has recently written and presented 50 weekly podcast chats (entitled Get Onto My Cloud) which are mercifully short (25 mins max) reminiscing about his years in music, theater, and film—playing hits and flops, out-takes and number ones (bpn.fm/getontomycloud). In 2021 he and Peter Hobbs wrote “Gee Seven” for the Truro Cathedral Choir to coincide with the G7 economic summit invasion of Cornwall. Rice founded his own cricket team in 1973, which played its 715th match in 2021, and was President of MCC, founded in 1789, in 2002. He was appointed President of the London Library in 2017 in succession to Sir Tom Stoppard. He is a Trustee of Sunderland FC’s Foundation of Light and a Life Vice-President of the schools/cricket charity Chance to Shine. He crops up here and there in all branches of the media drawing on his extensive knowledge of the history of popular music since Elvis was a lad. He has won several awards, mainly for the wrong thing or for simply turning up.