Dogs Must Be Carried

Dogs Must Be Carried is a comedy music collective started by Richard Cray whose primary belief is that the fun needs to be put back into music.

Since 1998, the collective has recorded original comedy songs, pastiches of certain artists, direct parodies of songs and the occasional mutant cover version, some of which are actually quite good. Most were made using a low-fi ethic of no budget, hardly any instruments and an eight-track cassette Portastudio, although both editing and mastering are now done in the digital domain.

Initially, these recordings were made purely for the amusement of friends. However, after several of these friends started chipping in with ideas, the parodies became more cutting - whilst still remaining affectionate towards their targets - and other material started to display the occasional original hook.

After four and a half years, Richard, along with Jeremy Wray, tested DMBC's commercial potential, successfully corrupting its target demographic when their co-written track United Kingdom of Whenever (a parody of Liam Lynch's hit United States of Whatever) received airplay from Christian O'Connell, Steve Lamacq and the legendary Dr. Demento.

In the summer of 2005, DMBC became the "house band" of leading independent podcast Comedy 365.

As a result of this exposure, a self-funded debut CD, ALL OF US ARE STARS BUT SOME OF US ARE AIMING FOR THE GUTTER, was released in May 2006.

A new podcast, The Dogs Must Be Carried Top 50, began its run on Comedy 365 on August 31st, 2007.

Richard Cray was born.

His school years were largely forgettable, except for that incident with the paraffin and matches. During this time, Richard had his first taste of fame starring as Colin "Thunderbolt" Dexter in Eagle magazine's football photo story Thunderbolt and Smokey.

Sadly, by the time he reached 15 everyone had realized that he couldn't actually play football and, seeing as there were no roles for an acne-ridden love interest in My Guy or Jackie, he left school to work for the British Government.

Luckily, around the time the giros stopped, Richard became the Commercial Producer at RTM Radio in London just in time for the first recession of the 90s. He also presented the programmes Packed Lunch and The Pickle Programme, although you wouldn't have heard these unless you were either very ill or an insomniac.

After three years, he achieved his ambition to have some wilderness years and it was during this time that he hatched the Dogs Must Be Carried blueprint for world domination.

Richard is currently writing the first series of The Test Card, a self-written six-part sketch show intended for podcast, radio or, quite frankly, anyone who’ll have it, as well as continuing to have material rejected by producers nationwide.

He has been a co-producer of Sketch Club, a comedy showcase for new sketch and monologue talent at Downstairs at the King's Head, Crouch End, London, as well as a regular techie for many reputable comedy acts on the London fringe.

He has also successfully written material for ITV1’s Shoot the Writers...but don't let that put you off.