Guitar & Vocals | Drums | Bass | Keyboard | Tenor Sax |
‘This ain’t Butlins, This is for real!!’ I KNOW that I was listening to Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran from when I was in THE WOMB. Rock’n’Roll. My eldest brother Ray Cooper was and is, an original Rocker. He still has the knife holes in his old leather jacket, from all the philosophical discussions with our Mod cousins on Brighton and Southend beach to prove it.
Rock’n’Roll man. Rhythm and Blues, that was the music that was played in my house. That is where it is at! The beat, it’s all about the beat! You put the beat with the real time emotions and the world rolls down at your feet. That’s the truth about the beat.
I was the youngest of 3 brothers and as Ray moved out, so the musical soundscape changed. Barry Cooper was the next brother up from me and I remember hearing so much progressive music from him, stuff that literally expanded my consciousness. Music that not only came from, but led and influenced change in people and society. I’d be watching and listening to him listening to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Psychedelic 60’s, Dylan, progressive late 60’s experimental like Can, Amon Duul 11. The Pink Floyd. When he wasn’t there I’d be endlessly leafing through the album covers, looking, learning, imagining. Thinking I want to do this. Thinking I can do this. The root was always what is real. When you enjoy the fruit, you need to know about the root. In the Great Orchard, my dad Ted Cooper planted some nice trees.
From the mid 80’s, I played around on guitar in funk and soul review bands and for nearly all the 90’s I was playing the Blues and fronting bands in London. Bands like The Nation, The Sundancers and Chillun. We regularly played the Wag Club in Wardour St, Mean Fiddler, the south and north London circuits. We played the blues in and out of town and in Europe too! I was writing the material, developing my chops, learning from the good guys, paying my dues and getting ready for the future. In that time I sure played some nice gigs and met some beautiful brothers and sisters, but I also met some chancers and timewasters! However, one good, good buddy that has stuck from that time is a guy called Simon Humphrey. He has earned his living as a producer and musician in the music industry all his life! Not many people can say that, nor that they have worked with all the stars. He designed and built the best equipped and appointed studio in Yorkshire, called The Radar Rooms, based in Castleford. This band is going to record there! Simon and I wrote and recorded a couple of albums together in London and not only that, the dude is so damn good, he used to keep popping up in my live outfits either playing bass, keyboards or even guitar. Can you dig that? Gee, how did God make some people so talented! He was my role model for South London ex pats coming up and becoming ‘honorary Yorkshiremen’ Best move I ever made.
Looking back over my time, I can see when I originally felt the power of Blues music’. I was about 12 years old and heard John Lee Hooker sing ‘My First Wife Left Me’. I was just entranced by the sense of desperation, that this man was busted, that things were not right. And yet I could feel his power, unconquerable power. By experiencing the trauma and expressing it through Blues, you gain the power to destroy that isolation and ultimately overcome whatever you need to overcome. That spiritual feeling stayed with me to this day. It was a paradox, but it was authentic and it was real. I knew that much and never forgot the lesson! I first really met the Blues however, when I realised that things and people (girls) are not always what they seem, but like B.B King says, ‘ ‘if you want to be the boss, you have to pay the cost!’ ‘ I wouldn’t change a thing about my life, because if I did, I might not be around some of the most happening musical people anywhere on the planet. I might not have met the people that have become blessed friends in a mean ol’ world.
As I got to know those Blues over the years, I laughed myself stupid, chopped down mountains with the side of my hand, grabbed the prettiest girls just falling off trees, did anything I wanted to. But gradually you see both sides of the coin. Ended up on my knees, all worried in mind.. dark, cold, no one around.. that was the truth. But I never lost my faith. The Blues healed me. I was shouting up to heaven.. ‘‘don’t forget me baby.. don’t forget me baby!!’ ‘ and you know what? Heaven did not forget me and instead, brought me up to Sheffield, where she hotwired me into a crazy scene of dudes that know the Blues got Soul. That know Rock’n’Roll got Soul. That know Sister Funk got Soul. Life is a gas and The Blues is where it’s at.
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