Johnny Coppin

John "Johnny" Coppin (born 5 April 1946) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, poetry anthologist and broadcaster. He plays guitar and piano and has written and recorded many albums as a solo artist. He has a weekly one-hour show on BBC Radio Gloucestershire entitled, ''Folk Roots'', which he has produced and presented every week since 1996. Coppin has been the Musical Director for the Festival Players since 1992.

Early years

He was born in Woodford, Essex, England. Coppin formed his first band, The Shifters, with cousin Martin Wright on bass, Neil Dunwoody on guitar, and Howard Jones on drums in 1959. Their first public performance was at the United Reformed Church Hall in Woodford Green. Eddie Broadbridge joined band as lead singer and they renamed themselves as Eddie and the Shifters. In 1966, while studying architecture at the Gloucestershire College of Art in Cheltenham, he formed ''Love to Mother'' with Al Fenn on guitar, Tom Bennison on bass and Mike Ketskemety on drums.

Decameron

Coppin first came to prominence as one of the founding members of Decameron. The band was originally formed as a duo with Dave Bell (vocals, guitar, bass guitar, percussion) in 1968 and Coppin and Bell wrote most of Decameron's songs throughout their existence. Decameron became a four piece in 1969 with the addition of former Love to Mother bandmate Fenn (vocals, guitar, mandoline) and Geoff March (vocals, cello, fiddle, keyboards) the following year.

When Coppin, Fenn and March graduated from university, Decameron went fully professional and were signed by the Fingimigig Agency run by Jasper Carrott and John Starkey. After much touring, the band recorded their first album ''Say Hello to the Band'' in 1973. The same year Dik Cadbury (vocals, bass guitar, 12 string guitar) joined to complete the classic line-up. They also appeared on rare occasions using their alter-egos, The Magnificent Mercury Brothers, playing mostly covers of Beach Boys and Jan and Dean songs, featuring the rich vocal harmonies that Decameron were famous for.

Over the next three years, Decameron released one album per year and toured extensively. Due to a lack of sufficient commercial success the band decided to call it a day, and their final gig was in Southsea on 4 July 1976. Since then they have reformed for occasional one-off reunion gigs, usually with Mick Candler on drums, and recorded a live album, ''Afterwords'', in 2001 in benefit of Coppin's wife, Gillian, who died from ovarian cancer just a few months later.

Solo

Coppin formed his own band in 1977 with Phil Beer (guitar, fiddle, vocals), Steve Hutt (bass, vocals), Candler (drums) and Tony Bennett (guitar, vocals). With these musicians he collaborated with Nigel Mazlyn Jones on his 1976 ''Ship To Shore'' and 1979 ''Sentinel'' albums. Coppin's first album was a solo effort, ''Roll On Dreamer'' (1978).

In December 1978 and between December 1979 and January 1980, Coppin was the musical director for ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. Anthony Head played Joseph and also made contributions to Coppin's second album, '' No Going Back'', which was a band effort.

After three albums of original songs, Coppin found a rich vein of material when he decided to set poems written by famous Gloucestershire authors to music. His first effort, ''The Roads Go Down'', had been included on his first solo album. Coppin's first full album of Gloucestershire poems set to music, ''Forest and Vale and High Blue Hill'', was premiered at the 1983 Cheltenham Literary Festival. Coppin has chosen poems from writers such as Ivor Gurney, F. W. Harvey, Eva Dobell, and Frank Mansell. Perhaps the most famous poet whose work Coppin has set to music is Laurie Lee, and they collaborated on the album, ''Edge of Day''.

Coppin's subsequent work has included completely original work as well as further albums based on the Gloucestershire theme. Most albums have at least one song where Coppin has taken lyrical content and added his musical interpretation.

His television appearances include his own programme ''Song of Gloucestershire'' for the BBC
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