Richard Sinclair initially learnt to play ukulele encouraged by his singer father. He was a choirboy at school, and, aged 16, became a guitarist in The Wilde Flowers with his friends Hugh and Brian Hopper. The group never released any music in their lifetime, but became legendary as the progenitors of the Canterbury scene. In 1968 Sinclair was one of the founder members of Caravan, switching to bass and shared vocals with guitarist Pye Hastings.
The songs on Caravan and If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It Over You (1970), were group compositions; but Sinclair’s vocals and songs came to the fore on In The Land Of Grey And Pink (1971). For 1972’s Waterloo Lily, Steve Miller joined on keyboards; he and Sinclair went on to form Hatfield And The North.
