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In November 2003, London blues singer, guitarist and songwriter Grey Cooper relocated from London to Sheffield in traditional bluesman style. Freewheeling fresh into the Steel City with no contacts or resources whatsoever, apart from his cat, his guitar, The Stick, £120 in cash, a bag of blues and a suitcase full of dreams, he had a vision to reinvent his life in Sheffield, the new 'city of opportunity'. The vision was clear. Create a funk band to write, record, perform and tour a suite of original, fresh roots funk music Made In Sheffield and built for The World.
The same day he arrived in town, he placed an advert for a funky bassist in Red Tape Studios on Shoreham Street. 48 hours later destiny called in the shape of Lucian ‘The Colonel' O'Neil, a popular Sheffield funk DJ, spinning vinyl and digging grooves at venues across town. They quickly became friends and established a mutual summit of roots styles, which they named 'funk control' and 'blues control'. They met regularly at cafes, bars and venues across the city to build and develop their musical vision of fresh roots funk music and a structured stage show. Using the motto 'Don't just dream it - Let's do it!' together they set about helping to rebuild the Sheffield bohemian frontline and forging from the Sheffield cultural furnace what is now Grey Cooper Love Party. The amazing progress of this band is mirrored by the amazing transformation that is now taking place in the city and environment that surrounds them.
The band has a mission to create a ‘Barcelona Effect’ in Sheffield their home town, by looking good, feeling good and laying down James Brown, JB's, Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley influenced roots funk grooves. The primal power of vocal chant and musical response is woven through body shaking beats and grooves, with extensive vamping and soul/gospel influences, all driven by classic horn section riffing. Live, the band stir a powerful melting pot of funk and voodoo blues magic, with a contoured and structured stage show setting the scene for a spectrum of funk rhythm, texture, attitude, music and movement.
With The Colonel pumping out nailed on bass lines straight from the hip, classically trained percussion and beat specialist John ‘Soulman’ Watterson on drums and Grey Cooper firing out his raw heat vocal and guitar chops, the band had a rhythm engine so hot it could power a Formula One car!
The world class 4 piece horn section was fronted by Sheffield trumpet and valve trombone master Simon ‘Too Funky’ James, with Doctor Sax on tenor saxophone, virtuoso female alto sax player Lindsey O’Malley and baritone sax player Jon ‘The Power’ Dyson. An additional highlight of the band that needs to be seen and heard are the visionary rhythmic, hypnotic and 'deep groove' chops of Rotherham musician JRT on keyboards. Also not forgetting The delicious female vocalist Ali ‘Lucky Legs’ Heath Cook, known as ‘The Funk Goddess’. She provides an awesome vocal and visual counterpoint to Grey, who wields his Voodoo Guardian ‘The Stick’ to maximum effect both on stage and off.
Like Grey Cooper says ‘Brothers and sisters this is for real, this ain’t toytown, this is religion’ |
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