After Mr. Mister called it a day in 1989, the collective band members returned to the session work industry. Richard's career slowed down, which gave him the chance to raise a family, ride his bike, do some surfing and other things he had been missing out on for so long.

Nevertheless, he continued his songwriting. He co-wrote Madonna's 1994 smash single ‘I'll Remember’, written and produced together with Patrick Leonard and Madonna.

In 1992 Richard received a phone call from super-producer Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Pink Floyd, Rod Stewart, Roger Waters, Julian Lennon), who insisted on getting together to see what they could come up with. Doug Butlleman, Patrick's manager, knew Pat was looking for someone to do a new project with and suggested he should call Richard as well. They had lots of things in common; for instance, they had used about the same nucleus of session players. Patrick and Richard got together and started writing songs. It connected really well, so Richard agreed they could work together and they formed 3^rd Matinee, which evolved from Patrick's former collaboration with the late Kevin Gilbert (from a group called Toy Matinee). Toy Matinee consisted of Kevin Gilbert (lead vocals, guitars and keyboards), Patrick Leonard (keyboards and background vocals), with the help of Guy Pratt (bass), Tim Pierce (guitar) and Brian Macleod (drums and percussion). They released one self-titled album in 1990, featuring Julian Lennon (son of John) on a couple of tracks.

Patrick and Richard's collaboration took off, and they wrote about twelve songs their first two weeks working together! Richard commented: "Well, there's definitely an electricity about this, there is something really happening here." Finally, after about two years of writing, they sorted through the songs and decided which ones would make it to their first album. Songs like ‘I Don't Care’, ‘Family Tree’ (a sort of apology from Patrick to his wife), ‘Meanwhile’ and ‘All the Way Home’ (a tribute to late Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro; the song was inspired by what took place during his memorable funeral).

One problem was the band's name. They felt they couldn't use Toy Matinee again, although there were similarities. They kicked around about changing the name completely and tried miscellaneous names they didn't like. Patrick said: "We couldn't use Leonard/Page because of Coverdale/Page". Finally the label spoke up and said: "Guys, we hear enough of Toy Matinee in this. You should try and connect the two". Patrick continued: "We were going to call it 2^nd Matinee, and then we thought that 3rd Matinee sounds better".

On April 26^th, 1994, they released the album Meanwhile, followed by the single ‘Family Tree’. Patrick and Richard worked together to co-produce this album. They also wrote all lyrics with the assistance of Nick Laird-Clowes (The Dream Syndicate) and Marc Jordan on a few songs. The album never got the label support it deserved, but was picked up by more than 300 radio stations, simply because it was bristling with great, hook-laden music. Richard once commented: "It was discouraging in one way, but in another way it was great that it found an audience in spite of the odds."

They made some live appearances on radio shows, and also did a few concerts. There were plans for a follow up, but by the end of 1995, 3^rd Matinee had disbanded.

In 1997, Pat Leonard suggested to Richard that they make a second album, but Richard refused.