Rick Britton
Rick was born in 1957, and was indoctrinated from an early age in music. “My mother used to sing and play country guitar,” says Rick. “I started playing violin, viola and trumpet, then I picked up the saxophone…” For a while it seemed his destiny was to be a musician, but he was fated never to do any one thing for long. “I got sick of that, and went back to school to do a carpentry apprenticeship,” he says. His life as a carpenter met an abrupt end following a back injury, at which point he decided to go back to school again. He studied Music and Electronics for two years, after which he went to work for a number of audio electronics companies, “If you couldn’t find it, I’d build it,” he explains. “This was pre-MIDI: DMX had just come out.”
After a few years of this, Rick was getting itchy feet again. “I was bored and on the bench,” he says. “Robert Palmer was in town, and he happened to be looking for a guitar tech.” Rick hit the road and has never looked back – he’s worked for UB40, the Scorpions (alongside bass tech Russ Ryan) and Barenaked Ladies to name a few, covering all kinds of instruments. He spent over six years as guitar tech for Toto’s Tony Spinner and Steve Lukather, before he was approached to join Rush on the ‘Vapor Trails’ tour. One of the first things Rick did was redesign Alex’s guitar setup. “He re-wired my whole rig,” said Alex. “He’s a bit of a genius and really good with that sort of thing.” Agrees Howard Ungerleider, “He’s a brilliant tech, more than people know.”
Whatever’s next Rick doesn’t know but he doesn’t think he’ll stop adding to his range of skills. “If I could afford it, I’d go back to school for the rest of my life,” he laughs.