Graham Cooper
My dear friend Graham died on Saturday 29 May in Portugal.
We met in 1971 when he was a member of the Lonesome Travellers Folk Group based in the East Midlands.
He was a versatile musician, being a fine singer, guitarist and pianist. We teamed up in November 1972 and did our first gig in Gravesend on the 3rd. We then went on to complete 300 appearances together before calling it a day in December 1975 with a final gig in Derby.
It was a mad time.
In 1971 I had issued a solo LP Writer of Songs and this had ignited my career and brought me a raft of gigs and a commission for a second album, Friends of Mine, which Graham collaborated on, both in performance and writing. Our first song was Autumn Song and we knew immediately we could work together. Generally Graham would footle about on guitar or piano until we found a feel and a basic melody that gave me the inspiration for a lyric.
The album was well received and we were instructed by the record company to accept a manager and agent, Tony MacArthur, who had previously worked with Three Dog Night.
This threw us, unprepared for what was coming, into the commercial pop/folk world. Before we knew it we were opening for Focus on their first British tour, opening for the Kinks on their comeback gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and then finding ourselves being introduced by Tom Paxton at our own London solo debut.
We did Peel Sessions, The Old Grey Whistle Test and wrote a series of songs for The Camera and the Song, a BBC TV programme that basically launched the idea of the video, and finally followed Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel at the Reading Festival at 10 o’clock at night in the open air!
More followed, but try as we might we couldn’t write the hit single the record company was now demanding, and we left MacArthur and joined the Ann Dex agency. This led to us going on Combined Services tours to Belize, Cyprus and Germany.
During this period we wrote and recorded the album Fantasies From a Corner Seat which again was very well received and were planning the next album Someday when artistic differences led to our split.
Fortunately we remained friends and the friendship strengthened over the years. We did perform again, reprising the songs of the 70’s. Our last gig together was on March 20 2010 when Graham was very ill, but still the consummate artist and partner.
After our split Graham worked with Fiona Simpson and with Rosie Hardman before finally emigrating to Portugal to play golf. However, he found a thriving musical scene over there and was soon in demand, playing solo as well as in various combinations and bands.
Graham was a rock for all those he worked with. In our time together he took everything in his stride and kept us both focused on what was important. I could not have done what we did without him.
He will be missed by so many, particularly his wife Maggie and his brother Michael.
It was Tom Topping at the Black Horse Folk Club, West Kirby who first called us “Harv the Marv and Sooper Dooper Cooper”.
Super he was, and a wonderful friend and colleague.
Our last work together was a song Graham sent me the opening line for. He wanted to sing it at a concert in memory of his friend Judy Hancock.
