Essex-based Love Island star's dad makes name for himself

Georgia Townend, 28, who was featured in this year's Love Island and now has around 85,000 Instagram followers, is not the only star in her family.

Her father, Richard Townend is a talented Americana musician and has made a name for himself.

He has had more than five British Blues Association songwriter of the year award nominations.

Georgia Townend and her musician dad, Richard Townend

Richard attended Leeds College of Music, before becoming a professional musician and moving to London.

After a while of playing for stars such as Ronnie Corbett, Charlie Drake, and Tony Christie, Richard started to lose his 'music mojo'.

He stopped playing and moved to Mundon around 20 years ago.

READ MORE: Love Island star opens up about her time on the ITV show

After years away from the studio, and a chance jam session at the Berwick Suite in Maldon, he was inspired again.

He said: "It was almost like an epiphany, without the gospel choir and sun shining through stained glass windows.

"This time though I set myself two goals, release an album and play a festival.

"I achieved that and now I am about to release my 13th album."

Richard has performed both nationally and internationally, gracing stages at festivals such as Ealing, Newark, Broadstairs, Colne, and in the USA, Netherlands and Belgium.

He writes music under the name The Mighty Bosscats.

Describing the name, Richard said: "They are a collection of musical friends, who help me guide my songs from conception to birth in the studio and it’s a fluid band, depending who is available.

"I met some super musicians when I played in Moscow on my last Russian tour.

"They really are amazing musicians who learn the songs from the CDs you send out, prior to the gigs."

His first ever Russian gig was at the House of Artists, a 500-seat auditorium in Moscow.

His last release was recorded live in Moscow in 2019.

"We had a 20 minute run through before the show, I was so pleased when I realised they knew my songs better than me, the band were perfect."

Due to lockdown this year, he recorded from home and used a couple of the musicians on his Live in Moscow album to record his 13th album, Short Stories.

The album is being released in mid-September, and already has rave reviews.

The whole project was put together by David Booth in Suffolk at the recording booth.

"It’s the 12th album I have done with him, he’s a fantastic musician and he even played drums on all the tracks," Richard added.

"Anton Ilyin provided the keys and Dennis Nazarov provided the Bass lines for most tracks. Very talented guys.

"Remote recording is quite a challenge, just getting the feel and ambiance right when it’s not collectively played all at once is hard, but we did manage to do it.

"I am a big fan of Mark Knopfler, ex Dire Straits, and I was privileged to have Marcus Cliffe, who actually plays for Mark, do three tracks for me.

"Marcus also helped to arrange and produce those tracks, he did a sterling job."

David Flanagan, who played with Richard at the Orkney Blues Festival, played double bass on two tracks. 

The album is available on Richard's website now www.richardtownend.com.

He also has a ticket-only acoustic session arranged for the launch at the Camden Chapel, on September 30 from 7 pm.

Show tickets can be purchased at bit.ly/2Wr2WfY.

Listen to some of Richard's tracks on his YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/themightybosscats.