Ray Cooper

Name	Ray Cooper
Landscape	Yes
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Born	September 19, 1945 Watford, Hertfordshire United Kingdom
Instrument	Drums, percussion
Genre	Rock and roll, Classical
Occupation	Musician, Actor
Years active	1960s - present
Associated acts	Elton John, The Who, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Pink Floyd, Weezer, The Offspring, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Phil Collins, AC/DC,

Ray Cooper (born 19 September 1945) is an English musician. He is a session and road-tour percussionist, and occasional actor, who has worked with many heavy metal, alternative, rock and roll bands and artists- some of them include Eric Clapton, AC/DC, Weezer, The Offspring, and most of all, Elton John. He is known all over the drum world, and the United States. He is known for the 10 minute percussion and drum solo he performed during every tour in 1990 for Eric Clapton, and for the 40 minute percussion and drum solo during all the Face to Face Tours with Billy Joel, and Elton John, and the tours with the Elton John band during the years of 1994-1995. He is ranked as the #1 percussionist in the Music Business's top 10 percussionist category, and the #3 Drummer in the Music Business's Top 10 drummer category.

Life and career

Cooper was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. His recording career started in the 1960s, playing for and recording with The Who, among others, and is still going strong. Most notable is his work with Elton John, with whom he played on every album.

Cooper had a short stint with The Rolling Stones playing percussion for their 1974 It's Only Rock'n Roll album. Later in that decade he recorded with George Harrison, Wings and Art Garfunkel among others. Since then he has recorded with Paul McCartney and Elton John again, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Mark Knopfler, Roger Waters, The Traveling Wilburys, Maynard Ferguson and Ravi Shankar among others.

In the late 1970s Cooper toured with Elton John as a duo in which Elton would play a solo set and then be joined by Cooper on percussion for the second half of the concerts. The tour included concerts in Russia (1979), and in the course of the tour Cooper became a massive favorite with Elton John fans for his expressive energy and his incredible solo's that he does. Fans always show up with signs for Cooper at every concerts. The success of the "Solo" tour with Elton John was repeated in 1993-1994 when he and Elton John brought their two man show to a new generation in the United States. During that time, Cooper was also featured as part of a Disney Channel concert telecast, A Special Evening With Elton John, recorded September 1994 at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Most recently, Cooper reunited with Elton John in the autumn of 2009, with a series of shows in France and Italy. Some of the earliest dates were as follows: September 24: Nantes Zenith de Paris, September 26: Amneville Le Galaxie, September 27: Grenoble Palais Des Sports, September 29: Milan Mediolanum Forum, September 30: Toulouse Zenith and October 2: Palais des congrès de Paris. (Note: this is an incomplete list).

Ray Cooper's relationship with the Rolling Stones continued into the 1980s. In 1981, Cooper contributed to Bill Wyman's third solo album. In 1983, he participated in a short tour for the Ronnie Lane ARMS Charity Concert along with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and other stars (including Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts). Cooper showed up on Christine McVie's self-titled solo album in 1984. In 1985, Cooper appeared on both Mick Jagger's She's the Boss album and Bill Wyman's Willie & The Poor Boys. In 1997, he guested this time, with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings for Struttin' Our Stuff.

He is notable for his intense, hard-working, and incredible percussion and drum solos for Eric Clapton (1990), Elton John (1994–1995), in the 1992 Eric Clapton Unplugged performance as well as playing in the 2002 Concert for George, a tribute to deceased former Beatle George Harrison (he also served as a producer of the film). In 1997 he performed at the Music for Montserrat concert and can be seen in the DVD of the event. He also contributed to the tribute concert for Jim Capaldi in January 2007.

Acting roles

He has also worked in films, playing small roles such as the preacher in Robert Altman's feature film Popeye (1980) starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. He has also produced and performed music in several of Terry Gilliam's productions, appearing on-screen in quirky roles like the technician who swats the beetle at the beginning of Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil and as the functionary whispering in the ear of Jonathan Pryce's Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson character in 1989's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

He also worked on Katie Melua's album Pictures(2007).

The role of Albert Arthur Moxey in the hit television series Auf Wiedersehen Pet was written for Cooper by friends Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, with the character originally being conceived as an Irishman, after Cooper expressed an interest in becoming an actor. The role was however given to Christopher Fairbank, who opted to play him as a scouser, due to Cooper being unable to make it to the audition. The character of Moxey was given only limited lines and screentime in the first series of "Pet" due to Cooper's acting inexperience.

Recent work

Cooper is also serving as Elton John's percussionist in his band, and also for a small exclusive series of shows out of the US. It will be a solo show by Elton John but with Ray Cooper on percussion also. This will be the first time since 1995 that Cooper and John have played together. This is a repeat of the show in the late 1970s that toured extensively across Europe and most notably in Russia.

During 1994 and 1995 Face to Face tours with Billy Joel, and during Elton John's tours in 1995, Elton John would play "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", which would then flow clearly into a solo done by Cooper on the drums and percussion. After about a 40-minute percussion/drum solo, including the ending of the solo where he would complete 8 "360's" on the drums, and break three drum sets by repetitive, extremely fast movements, he would lead the audience in a chant, then hit the giant gong nine times while John closed his segment with "Pinball Wizard". In the 1995 "Evening With Elton John and Ray Cooper" tours the two men performed in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Costa Rica, where Elton would perform a setlist of songs by himself and his piano, then would be joined by Cooper on percussion and drums for the second half setlist of the show.

In every tour during 1990, Eric Clapton and the band would play "Sunshine of your Love", which would then flow clearly into a short one-minute drum solo by Steve Farrone (drummer for Clapton's band currently), then into a 10-minute percussion solo by Ray Cooper on the tambourine, congas, and gong. In the middle of the solo he would lead the audience into a chant lasting about a minute, then finish the solo by shredding the conga drums with his hands, and breaking the giant gong after hitting it 10 times. Then the band finished the song, ending the shows.

References

External links

Special interviews with George Martin, the Beatles, and other musicians including Ray Cooper

Category:1942 births Category:English session musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Watford Category:Percussionists