He's dark and handsome with vocal chords and dance moves to make you quake - what more could a music-loving girl be looking for? Richard Green, 20, is a member of boy band Shake, formerly known as East Meets West. The trio are currently on the road, delighting female fans wherever they go.

Richard, originally from Kidlington, where his mum still lives, has blossomed from an amateur dramatics fan with a strong ambition to go on the stage. He said: "I was more of a thespian and was doing a BTec at Oxpens College in performing arts after leaving Gosford Hill School."

Richard was keen to go to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama or the Central School of Speech and Drama, but his age was against him.

"I was quite lucky but I was only 17. The thing about drama school is they want you to have a bit of life experience and they thought I was good but a bit young.

"I was really gutted. I went to London and got myself an agent by writing off to people. I started to do work on the Big Breakfast doing modelling."

There he had great fun and met Bradlee Studd, who decided to form a band. "One day a boy band were on and Bradlee said, 'You know, we could do that'. So then we started asking people how to go about it," said Richard.

They were put in touch with Richard Knight, who was appearing in a play. "We went to watch him and he had a brilliant singing voice," said Richard. But Knight wasn't keen at first to join a boy band. Then the lads saw an advert for a management company.

As East Meets West, they toured the UK and Iceland but felt they were being held back by their management's lack of resources. Things finally collapsed when fourth band member Andy went to live in Iceland after falling in love with it on tour.

The contract with the management company dissolved and East Meets West became Shake, signing to Colossus Records.

Richard said: "We decided to reinvent ourselves properly. There was already a band called North and South so we changed our name because it was too similar.

"It was very difficult to find a name that was not too cheesy. We were playing Monopoly one night and someone said, 'Shake that dice', and the other Richard said, 'Hey, that's a good name for our band'.

"It didn't give a message or mean anything and we liked it."

Shake combine vocals with slick, dynamic choreography. These days their image is more sophisticated. Gone are the bright orange anoraks and saucy white waistcoats. Now they are sponsored by a Japanese clothing firm.

"The clothes are not too cheesy and girls will scream whatever you wear. We weren't comfortable with what we were wearing before, but that's what we were told to wear." Shake claim they are different from other boy bands because they are men!

"We are like men while a lot of other boy bands are five foot two. We are quite tall and manly and I like to think of myself as quite masculine but not butch."

And Richard's taste in women? "I like sophisticated women like Liz Hurley and Demi Moore. I'm not into blondes."

The majority of Shake's fans are a little younger than Richard's ideal women.

"They are young ladies and I do think to myself, I'm sure girls weren't like this when I was that age but then I never came to watch boy bands.

"We don't really have a lot of groupies and the fans are usually quite well-behaved. With other bands you get bodyguards stepping in, but if we personally tell girls to calm down a bit, they usually listen.

"We try to be as nice as we can because we like our fans. And yes, I have been tempted!" Shake write most of their funky music to go with their choreography.

"Our dancing is really quite manic and funky. These days there are a lot of boy bands like there are a lot of guitar bands, rock bands and female soloists. The people we appeal to like variety because they get bored.

"At the moment, finances are tight because we are not signed to a massive record company but I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think we would make money," he said.

While Shake establish themselves, Richard works on the side appearing in adverts - including Rice Crispies Squares and Renault - and has even been in an M People video.

He added: "Whatever I'm doing, I always imagine I'm up on stage. Eventually I'd love to do a sitcom. Right now we are really enjoying what we do."

Shake play the Summerfest roadshow at Silverstone on August 23.

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