Richard Hughes

Richard David Hughes (born 8 September 1975 in Gravesend) is a British drummer and member of the pop rock band Keane.

He befriends Tim Rice-Oxley and Dominic Scott at Tonbridge School, graduating in the late 1980s. He later attended University College where he majored in geography.

He worked as a secretary at the BBC as he needed money to support himself, and also to carry on the band project. For a short time he worked as a substitute teacher in a school.

At seventeen he learned to play the drums, and in 1995 he was invited by Rice-Oxley and Scott to join their band. Later they also invite Tom Chaplin to join the band, although Richard was initially against it, in fact he stated: “Amplifying Tom’s already very powerful voice with a microphone didn’t seem like a good idea”. Since the release of the second album Under the Iron Sea he has supported Tom Chaplin in singing.

He is an Amnesty International activist. On 3 November 2011, he gave a speech at the Oxford Union about his work with Amnesty International, and his campaign on behalf of Troy Davis.