| Guitar & Vocals | Drums | Bass | Alto, Tenor Sax & Vocals | Tenor Sax |
I guess it started listening to Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Rolling Stones from when I was in THE WOMB. My eldest brother Ray Cooper was and still is, an original Rocker. He 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. 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. When I was growing up from 3 to 9yrs, drums and drumming were the things that influenced me more than guitars really.
During the 80's, I played 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, alongside Eddie Floyd, Otis Grand, Hamsters, Paul Lamb, there was a lively scene then.
That period was spent 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 shows and met some beautiful brothers and sisters. Mid 90's I made a couple of albums with a hot producer and songwriter called Simon Humphrey and we became good friends right up to this day. Not many people can say they have worked with all the stars and earned a living in the music industry all their life, well he can and he designed and built the best equipped and appointed studio in England It's called The Chair Works, based in Castleford.
Check the studio and Simon out at: www.thechairworks.co.uk
People often ask me about 'guitarists'. Well it was Chuck Berry that had the first major impact on me and the track was 'Mad Lad'. I just think it is a beautiful, visionary piece of guitar playing and it still gives me the 'tingle' after all these years. The next guitarist that impacted strongly on me was George Harrison. Not a lot of people give George enough credit, but he was very well respected by all the top rockabilly cats like Carl Perkins. I loved his stylish economy and what really stood out for me when I was young, was his 'tone'. To this day I can recognise George Harrisons guitar playing within a second or two, just by his 'tone'. Ted Nugent had a big impact on me in my teens and that is a laugh because I'm 90% vegan! However, he is a brilliant guitar stylist and his attitude to playing in a band on stage, was and is, an inspiration to me. I used to follow a British blues player called Stan Webb, go to see him at all the pub gigs around north and south London - just loved the 'emotion' he packed into his playing. During this time I would be listening every day to players like B.B King, Freddy King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker. In addition, I'm a huge fan of Johnny Winter and love the playing of Carlos Santana. Wes Montgomery and Grant Green are a couple of my favourite jazz players and I love Jimmy Smith! But of course, he is a keyboard player. Duane Allman, David Gilmour, Keith Richards, Bo Diddley, Billy Gibbons, Jimi Hendrix, these are all cats that have moved me and/or turned me on with their playing.
Important to mention two other names that were influential and inspirational to me at very different times. In the early 80's I took lessons with Emmett North Jnr and he introduced me to a whole world of chords and voicings and got me studying a Mickey Baker jazz guitar book. Emmett looks and plays just like George Benson and was over here touring with Barry White and doing a lot of session work. For a year, every week I travelled over the other side of London to sit in with him and watch and learn from a master guitarist. He showed me the spirit and feel you need to be a player and work with other players. His heart and musical soul are as big as Texas. My chords, voicings and many of the chops I use are directly inspired from this fantastic musician and guitarist. Check him out online: www.myspace.com/emmettnorthjr Another hugely influential guitarist for me was and is Dave Briggs. I first came across him playing some pubs around London and I can remember the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I saw and heard him play 'Promised Land' on a lunchtime show at what was probably the Greyhound in Sydenham. This guy was a total star to me and you will never hear a better, more soulful rock'n'roll/blues guitarist than Dave Briggs. I know he moved on to play with Scotty Moore in Nashville. One day I was walking along my road and 'bumped' into Dave, so I took my chance and said 'Hey Dave, I think you are great, can we get a band together? I'd love to play alongside you man'. To my surprise Dave said 'yes, sure, let's talk'. What a gentleman! For a couple of years we had a real hot and tasty rock'n'roll band called Men In Black, doing some obscure stuff from the 50's and some souped up contemporary 'rockin' country boogie'. Great times and I learned all about sitting in with the beat from Dave and making sure you complement the sound, as well as some sparkling, fluid, melodious rock'n'roll guitar playing! He helped me more than any other player, polish my act as a guitarist/singer.
Looking back over my time, I can see when I originally felt the power of Blues music. I was about 10 years old and heard John Lee Hooker sing 'My First Wife Left Me'. It just seemed so 'real' and many years later I saw how it all worked, you experience the trauma of things going wrong and busting apart, then by expressing it through Blues, you gain the power to destroy the isolation you feel 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. It was a lesson that never got forgotten.
I first really met the Blues however, when realising that experiences and people are not always what they seem, but like B.B King says, 'if you want to be the boss, you got to pay the cost!' There isn't a thing that I would change 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 and colleagues right here in Sheffield.
In getting 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 really. 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 also part of the truth, just as much as the highs.
But I never lost my faith. The Blues healed me.
The Blues healed me and brought me up to Sheffield, where I got hot wired into a crazy scene of dudes that know the Blues got Soul.
That know Rock'n'Roll got Soul.
That know the Funk got Soul.
Life is a gas and The Blues is where it's at.
Equipment: