Chris Copping (born 29 August 1945 in

Middleton, Lancashire Middleton is a village and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, between Heysham and Overton. It had a population of 705 in 2011. Middleton was the location of Middleton Tower Holiday Camp A holiday camp is a type ...

, England) is a musician and singer-songwriter who was a member of

Procol Harum Procol Harum () were an English rock music, rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have List of best-selling singles, sold over ...

in the 1970s, and has also composed for TV and film. He predominantly plays organ, piano and bass guitar.

Career

In 1960 he joined a group called The Paramounts as a guitarist but left in December 1962 to go to study

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

Leicester University , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

. Diz Derrick replaced him in the group until they split up in October 1966. From 1963 until 1966 he studied at

, receiving an honours degree in

. From 1966 to 1969, he worked for the government and studied for a PhD. During this time his first marriage had broken up and he had returned to playing music, initially playing the organ in a pub, then playing traditional German music. In 1969, he was invited by

Robin Trower Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945) is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum throughout 1967–1971, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio known as the Robin Trower Band. Biography Robin Trowe ...

to replace Matthew Fisher on organ and

David Knights David Knights (born David John Knights, 28 June 1945, Islington, North London) is a British musician who was the original bass guitarist in the band Procol Harum. He played bass on the hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale". He was in the band lo ...

on bass in Procol Harum (at which point that band consisted entirely of ex-The Paramounts musicians). Between December 1969 and March 1977 Copping recorded seven albums with the group and toured extensively. During this time Copping alternated between bass guitar and Hammond organ as other musicians joined the group. After recording the album, ''

Something Magic ''Something Magic'' is the ninth studio album by Procol Harum, and was released in 1977. Electing to work with producers Ron and Howie Albert when Leiber and Stoller (who had produced the band's preceding album) were not available, Procol Har ...

'', he left the group and was replaced by

Dee Murray Dee Murray (born David Murray Oates; 3 April 1946 – 15 January 1992) was an English bass guitarist. He was best known for his long-time collaboration with Elton John as a member of the Elton John Band. Biography Murray was born in Gillingham ...

for the accompanying tour, after which the group broke up. In 1978 he moved to Australia where he continues to play and

compose Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

. In recent years Copping has worked with artists such as Mark Hilton, JoJo Leslie and Astrid Munday, as well as composing music for a number of short films (''Miss Fortune'', ''The Web'' and ''Slim Pickings'').

Notes

External links

Procol Harum.com biography of Chris CoppingChris Copping's home page
1945 births Living people Procol Harum members People from Middleton, Greater Manchester English keyboardists English bass guitarists English male guitarists Male bass guitarists Alumni of the University of Leicester Progressive rock bass guitarists The Paramounts members {{England-musician-stub