Blake Richardson’s passion for music and performing was clear from a very early age and throughout his entire time at King’s. At the age of 5, Blake started learning the classical guitar, he then moved on to the electric guitar and he is now able to play both the piano and the drums. In Year 6, he was cast as one of the lead roles ‘Sky Masterson’ in ‘Guys and Dolls’ and throughout the Seniors he was involved in musicals and plays such as ‘Sherlock Holmes’, ‘Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘The Visit’; alongside entering the Music competitions and performing his compositions at St Michael’s church. Blake left King’s after his GCSEs in 2016, gaining As and Bs, which was a fantastic effort as he spent most of the revision time on a tour bus for his band ‘New Hope Club’ was support act for ‘The Vamps’.

Blake formed New Hope Club (NHC) in 2015 with George Smith and then the third member of the band Reece Bibby joined after he was on the 2014 season of The X Factor. The trio are a Pop/Rock trio who’s first recording was a cover of ‘Wake Up’ by The Vamps. This led to The Vamps signing NHC to their label Steady Records in December 2015 while Blake was still a student at King’s. NHC, went on to support The Vamps in three UK/Europe tours in 2017,18 & 19 after their debut performance on their 2016 tour. Alongside touring in Europe, the band supported The Vamps on their 2018 USA tour.

This all led to New Hope Club’s debut 4 song EP ‘Welcome to the Club’ which was realised in May 2017 and they spent 10 weeks on the Billboard Next Big Sound Chart, peaking at number 5. As the popularity of the trio grew it allowed them to headline their own shows at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London in June 2018 both of which were sold out. The popularity of the trio and their professionalism has catapulted their careers to diversify the work they do, they recorded two of the songs on the ‘Early Man’ movie soundtrack in 2018.

The trio released their first album in February 2020 just before the pandemic hit, and it reached number five on the UK charts which is a fantastic achievement. In December 2020, New Hope Club streamed a live performance for all of their fans, from the O2 Indigo and this Summer they completed their postponed sell-out 2020 UK tour. They are currently compiling their second album, which they are looking to release and tour in 2022.

Blake was a true fan of The Beatles from a young age and in 2021 he has secured a dream role for his career. Blake has been cast as Sir Paul McCartney in the upcoming movie ‘Midas Man’ a biopic of Brian Epstein and his career. We look forward to seeing the movie, and if you are around Liverpool in January/February look out for them filming. The below statement was released by the band –

“Blake Richardson is one third of British band New Hope Club, signed globally to Hollywood Records. Playing to sold out shows across multiple continents, including over quarter of a million people across 17 countries in 2019 alone, together with his band mates Reece Bibby and George Smith, Blake has amassed over 700 million streams, 226 million video views, 8 million followers in overall social reach to date and a UK Top 5 debut album.
'Midas Man’ is Blake’s theatrical debut.”

Blake has also commented:

“The last few months have been a dream come true – I’m so happy the news is finally out! It’s truly an honour to be playing the part of my idol Sir Paul McCartney in the film ‘Midas Man’. I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of this film and to be working with such an amazing team. Here we go!’