Grey Cooper Blues Experience - Press
Grey Cooper Blues Experience – Nottingham House, Sheffield
I love hearing funk bands on a weekend. There’s something about that caution-to-the-wind decadence that warrants sipping Tanqueray until the early hours. Which may have you guessing what this has to do with the Grey Cooper Blues Experience? Although never shying from delivering the odd flat-out blues number, the Blues Experience borrows from genres as widespread as jazz and funk, fused with Chicago, Delta and roadhouse blues styles. The result is an intriguing mish-mash that leaves the audience guessing, as sets can go anywhere the great magnet takes them. As their title would suggest, the band is headed by headed by the illustrious Grey Cooper on guitar and vocals. Legendary Sheffield keyboardist ‘Uncle’ Ralph Salt tinkles the ivories, you can probably guess what Dr. Sax does and ‘Mark ‘Main Man’ Laksevics’ is the mothership’s bass commander.
They opened the set with an instrumental that led into ‘Kind Hearted Lover’, a slower, roadhouse blues number that exhibited the more technical drumming abilities of Stevie Crewe. The solo was a slow burner, building and building into a solid blues cascade that railed down the scales. Grey’s restraint in some sections is equalled only by his total showmanship in others; the whole band dynamic is very cosy and tight as they continually bounce riffs off each other. ‘Ain’t That Too Much’ came next, a glamorous, sexy tale of love and treachery that oozed sleaze and seduction. By halfway through the set the pace had picked up with the frantically upbeat ‘Done Somebody Wrong’. The raw cosmic energy seemed to radiate from the Nottingham House and draw in students and street people like psychedelic catnip. It was infectious – one poor guy who only dropped by for a pint became embroiled in an epic funk odyssey and ended up cutting a rug. By the end it was madness, Grey had tried to calm the onlookers with the slower, moseying croons of ‘Sixty Minute Man’ but it was too late; the vortex was already out of control.
By: Neil Thornely
Anybody who knows the Sheffield music scene knows this guy has an enormous following in Steel City but Grey has been a professional musician since the mid 80's, playing guitar, songwriting and singing.
His earliest stage performance was the London Scout Gang Show at Drury Lane Theatre in 1972.
He has appeared in TV dramas, including The Bill, TV commercials and stage roles in the 90's.
Grey has also toured Europe with a couple of bands, including a soul review which featured Eddie Floyd and supported Lionel Richie.
He is currently performing regularly with two bands based in Sheffield.. Grey Cooper Love Party, which is a 10 piece funk band and Grey Cooper Blues Experience, a 5 piece R'n'B band.
Wayne Russell