Colin Cooper; Climax Blues Band singer (Independent)
Hyfler/Rosner
Thursday, 17 July 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/colin-cooper-climax-blues-band-singer-869685.html
Colin Cooper was the lead singer on "Couldn't Get It Right",
the radio-friendly 1976 single by the Climax Blues Band and
their sole hit in their native Britain. The group came up
with the song after Miles Copeland, their manager, said he
couldn't hear any hits amongst the tracks recorded for their
ninth album, Gold Plated.
"Miles tried to persuade us to do an Elvis Presley cover,"
Cooper told Chris Welch for the book One Hit Wonders in
2003. "Instead, we put together 'Couldn't Get It Right',
which proved to be unbelievably catchy." It reached No 10 in
the UK in the autumn of 1976, but proved even more popular
in the US. "In America, it rocketed up the charts and got to
number three in 1977," Cooper said. "It was played on the
radio around the clock." The track has proved an enduring
oldie and was revived by Fun Lovin' Criminals in 1999.
Born in Stafford in 1939, Cooper began playing the harmonica
in the early Fifties but soon added the clarinet, the
guitar, the flute and the saxophone. He made his recording
début in 1965 on saxophone and vocals with the mod group the
Hipster Image, whose sole Decca single - "Can't Let Her Go"
/ "Make Her Mine" - produced by Alan Price of the Animals,
has become very collectable, especially in Japan, where the
B-side became the soundtrack to a Levi's ad in 1999. The
band also had a residency at the Place in Stoke-on-Trent and
occasionally backed or supported visiting US artists.
Originally formed in 1968, Cooper's next group were blues
purists, following in the footsteps of Alexis Korner and
John Mayall, influenced by Chicago blues and calling
themselves the Chicago Climax Blues Band, though they soon
dropped the Chicago bit to avoid confusion with the American
group of the same name. "Now people think our name is kind
of rude. Climax is not what we meant," Cooper said.
In 1969, they signed to EMI's Parlophone label before moving
to Harvest, the major's progressive rock imprint, the
following year. Copeland eventually took over management of
their most successful line-up, which comprised Peter Haycock
(on gold-plated guitar), Richard Jones (keyboards) and John
Cuffley (drums) alongside Cooper and the guitarist Derek
Holt. I still have vivid memories of seeing the group at a
three-day festival held in a Roman amphitheatre in Orange in
the south of France in 1975, on a bill featuring Caravan and
Wishbone Ash, also managed by Copeland.
By then, the Climax Blues Band had become an early example
of what is today known as the jam-band genre, often
featuring Cooper's saxophone or harmonica in unison with
Haycock's guitar. They signed to Warner Brothers in the
United States in 1977, but, Cooper admitted, "In the quest
for follow-up hits, we kind of lost the plot."
Constant changes in the band's line-up left Cooper the only
original member of the group, although the Climax Blues Band
soldiered on. When I met him and the band around that time,
he was philosophical about having to play student unions
once again. "When you reach my age, playing the pop star
would be a bit undignified," he said.
Pierre Perrone
Colin Francis Richard Cooper, singer, instrumentalist and
songwriter: born Stafford 7 October 1939; married (one
daughter, one son); died Stafford 3 July 2008.