Ricky holds fast to his passions

E ver since he was a young lad, Ricky Knight has had three big passions in his life: politics, music and his life-long partner L'Anne.

Ricky's parents, Denis and Joan, were passionate peace campaigners - indeed Denis was a conscientious objector during the Second World War - so Ricky grew up greatly influenced by his parents' politics.

In 1969, when Ricky was 10 years old, he accompanied his parents, members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and joined over 100,000 people in Trafalgar Square on the second Aldermaston March, to protest against the H-bomb.

Ricky believed in his parents' values for a peaceful nuclear-free world and always wore his CND badge with pride.

Ricky met L'Anne when he was 15 and she 13 when he was attending Barnstaple Grammar School.

With the distraction of his lovely young girlfriend, his love for music and rugby, he managed to flunk his 'O' levels giving him the wake-up call he needed to knuckle down and study hard for his 'A' levels.

At 14, Ricky was drumming in Braunton-based band, the Clockwork Orange and remembers supporting Gerry and the Pacemakers at a gig in Bristol University and other gigs with the likes of Heinz and the Wildboys, Marty Wilde, the Nashville Teens and his favourites, Tony Rivers and the Castaways.

His ultimate dream was to become a professional musician but after his 'O' levels, he realised that more time was needed to be spent swatting instead of drumming.

His most inspirational teacher at school was the Rev 'Fritz' Benson who taught him French and German. When 'Fritz' took him on an exchange trip to Germany, Ricky was hooked on languages as well as forming a life-long friendship with his German exchange partner, Andreas.

Ricky's swotting paid off and with good 'A' level results he went on to graduate with a combined-honours degree in European Studies from the University of East Anglia.

The only drawback to life at University was that Ricky missed L'Anne and he was thrilled when, in his final year, she agreed to marry him. She moved to Norwich to be with him, where they lived for nearly 10 years.

Ricky found himself "graduating on to the dole" and took the opportunity to get back into his music. The band he joined already had their own drummer, so Ricky took up piano, something he had taught himself on his mum's piano when he was growing up.

For the next nine years, he tried his hand on the road with numerous styles from heavy rock to cabaret, culminating in an appearance on New Faces, the "original XFactor" when his band went on to win the All Winners' Gala final.

Once again Ricky's dreams of becoming a full time professional musician rose to the surface. Unfortunately, he never realised that dream. When he was 31, with two young children, Jason and Josie, Ricky decided he needed to get a "proper" job.

He moved back to Barnstaple, studied for his PGCE at Bristol University, and went on to work as a modern language teacher at Braunton School before moving to Pilton Community College where he remained until he retired last year to concentrate his efforts on politics.

Although politics always played a part in Ricky's life, he became much more involved in 1986 when he joined the Green Party.

"Up until then, I had always been a staunch socialist but I became more and more disillusioned with the Labour Party and more influenced by the Green Party, which honestly ticked all my boxes," he says.

Although Ricky worked hard campaigning as a Green Party candidate for North Devon District Council on three occasions, he was unable to penetrate the traditional Lib Dem and Conservative stranglehold both parties have locally.

He did however win a seat on Barnstaple Town Council where he has been the sole Green Party representative for seven years.

Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ricky travelled with 16 other coaches from North Devon, to join the two million demonstrating to prevent the imminent invasion. Like so many others, he thought that such unprecedented popular opposition would stop the war-mongering, but it was not to be; the fall-out from which still reverberates today.

So incensed was he when the UK followed the US into hostilities, that he and fellow anti-war protesters 'occupied' Barnstaple's Town Square, to protest against what he maintained, then as now, to be an "immoral, illegal and unnecessary war".

The invasion of Iraq however had a positive impact on Ricky in that he decided to run with his own philosophy "put up or shut up", getting ever more active in the Green Party and becoming the South West Regional Co-ordinator in 2004.

The role strengthened his profile within the party and he was selected as lead candidate for the South West Green party for the European Elections in June 2009, the Greens going on to pick up 144,000 votes, soundly beating Labour into fifth place and narrowly missing out on becoming the South West's first Green MEP.

Ricky is very much aware that the Green Party is more of an urban party and he will be standing as the Green Party's Parliamentary Candidate for Bristol West in the next election.

Ricky says it is a real accolade for him to represent what he believes to be one of the most challenging and exciting constituencies in the South West and feels he has a real connection with the city.

"My grandfather was from Bristol and my father was educated there and it is where I enjoyed doing my post-graduate studies. It was also the centre for our SW European campaign last year."

Ricky now spends most of his time in Bristol, working with the Bristol Green party on their election campaign strategy and is hoping to influence the younger generation, particularly the 10,000+ student population, to become more politicised and vote for the Green Party.

"Many of today's young people have become disenfranchised and disillusioned with politics, yet they are the ones who can really shape their future world. It really saddens me that so many first-time voters choose not to bother to vote – what difference will that make?

"I will be working on ways to inspire and motivate them and the rest of my constituents to vote Green at the next election."

The passions Ricky had as a lad are still as strong as ever. He remains happily married to L'Anne, who is also standing as a Green Party candidate for North Devon in the next election and is immensely proud of their children.

Jason has inherited Ricky's love for music and now teaches Live Music Performance at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. He and his partner have one son, with another due this June.

Jason played with his dad in local band Geneva for many years. He and his best mate, the band's drummer Dominic Greensmith, went on to play in rock legends Reef, who have recently re-formed.

Daughter Josie left a successful yet harrowing career working in Bristol with the Probation Service in rehabilitation and has now married and settled in Northern India, where she and her Indian husband run a restaurant and healing centre.

Ricky stills plays his music; his 60's harmony-band the Elderly Brothers is a particular pleasure for him and he recently entertained at a Haiti benefit gig at the Plough Arts Centre.

His rugby-playing days may well be over but above all, Ricky still holds fast to his parents' inherent passion for peace and social justice.

"Some people react against their parents' beliefs and opinions – not I. I know that my mum and dad would be proud of what L'Anne and I are doing, as are my own children – as I am of them."