Graham Coxon

Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Coxon is featured on all eight of Blur's studio albums, from 1991's Leisure to The Magic Whip (2015), despite being absent from the group from 2002 to 2008 owing to a dispute with the other members. He has also led a solo career since 1998. As well as being a musician, Coxon is a visual artist: he designed the cover art for all his solo albums as well as Blur's 13.

## Info

Graham Leslie Coxon was born in Germany because his dad worked as an army bandsman there. They lived in the country for five years before moving to Derbyshire to live with his grandfather. Three years later the family moved to Colchester. It wasn't until attending Stanway Comprehensive School when Graham developed his great interest for music. After discovering 2 Tone and The Jam, he taught himself to play the guitar and saxophone, both with ease. Drums and clarinet were also one of his instruments.
At Stanway Graham be-friended with an unusual character called Damon Albarn. They had the same taste when it came to fashion and their fascination with music was mutual. While the other boys ran over the football pitch, Damon and Graham went behind the music block and talked about bands. They were clearly aware of the fact that they were the school weirdos, but it didn't bother them. Soon after, they both went on holiday with Graham's parents, cementing an already close friendship which would go on to form the foundation for the success of Blur. After Stanway, Graham headed for Colchester Art College, but since Damon had left for London, he moved to Goldsmiths College to study Fine Arts.

At Goldsmiths he became friends with Alex James. They shared interests in art and had their own art group called Nichtkunst. Once again Graham met Damon who then took a part-time course at Goldsmiths. The pair remained in daily contact and Graham often attended Damon's solo gigs and played saxophone and drums on one of his demos. Graham also knew Dave Rowntree since they had played together in bands called Hazel Dean And The Carp Enters From Hell, The Curious Band and Idle Vice.

Soon he was asked to play guitar in Circus (Damon, Dave, Eddie Deedigan and Dave Brolan). When the band had lost Eddie Deedigan and Dave Brolan, Graham introduced Alex as a potential bass player and they changed their name to Seymour. The rest is history...

Graham split-up with his Swedish girlfriend Anna Norlander in 2001. Their child, called Pepper Bäck Troy, was born on March 7, 2000. Currently, he is living with photographer Essy Sued, with whom he has two daughters, Dorelia (20 October 2012) and Oriana (12 April 2016).

Due to personal reasons, he left Blur in 2002, but reunited for a quick meeting in 2007. The official Blur reunion was confirmed in late 2008, when the band announced they would play gigs next summer.

## Besides Blur

### Solo Albums

Graham has released eight solo studio albums to date. The first five albums were released on his own (now de-funct) record label Transcopic.

His debut solo album, folk-esque The Sky Is Too High was released in 1998. The Golden D followed two years later and introduced the heavy metal and experimental side of Graham.

The third album Crow Sit On Blood Tree was out in 2001. Like on previous albums, Graham played all the instruments and produced it himself. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered only in two weeks, making it feel very raw and honest.

Autumn 2002 saw the release of The Kiss Of Morning that featured guest musicians for the first time and introduced a range of new styles from Graham.

The following three albums were produced by the Blur producer Stephen Street: 2004's Happiness In Magazines has been his most successful so far - fuelled by the rocking hit single "Freakin' Out", the album entered the Top 20 in the UK; 2006's Love Travels At Illegal Speeds continued with the same musical recipe, but sold less; 2009's The Spinning Top was a return to acoustic form with its influences from English folk music.

In the summer of 2010, Graham finished the work on around 20 new songs, which he initially planned to put out as two albums. The first ten songs were out as a critically acclaimed album called A+E in 2012. The rest of the songs remain unreleased.

## Miscellaneous

In the 1990s, Graham played saxophone on Sleeper's single "Vegas" and guitar on Liz Horsman's "This Is Blue". \* He possibly appeared on Menswear's debut album Nuisance as he's credited in the album's 'thank you' notes as Morgan C Hoax (anagram).

* He produced Transcopic bands Assembly Line People Program's and Mower's debut albums.
* He joined Idlewild on stage during their appearance at the Reading Festival 2000 and played saxophone on the track "Captain". He has also played drums on a live gig with Elastica.
* Remixed the Idlewild track "Rusty", Lowgold's "Beauty Dies Young" and Beastie Boys' "Triple Trouble".
* Graham wrote and recorded the soundtrack for the UK thriller Curio (2010).