Johnny Coppin
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John "Johnny" Coppin (born 5 April 1946) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, poetry
anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...
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 BBC Radio Gloucestershire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Gloucestershire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, AM, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Portland Court in Gloucester. According to RAJAR, the station has ...
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. He attended Churchfields Junior School. 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 The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...
Hall in
Woodford Green Woodford Green is an area of Woodford, London, Woodford in East London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It adjoins Buckhurst Hill to the north, Woodford Bridge to the east, South Woodford to the south, and Chingford to the we ...
. 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 Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...
, 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 Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Comedy'' "''Divine''"), is a collection of ...
. 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 Robert Norman Davis (born 14 March 1945), known by his stage name, Jasper Carrott, is an English comedian, writer, actor, singer and television presenter. His credits include '' An Audience With Jasper Carrott'' (1978), '' The Secret Policeman ...
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 The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...
and
Jan and Dean Jan and Dean were an American rock music, rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf m ...
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 Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea began as a f ...
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 Phil Beer (born 12 May 1953) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and one half of English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. Biography Beer first began to play fiddle, guitar, and mandolin whilst still at school in Teignmout ...
(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 Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...
'' 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 ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' is a sung-through musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice ...
'' at the Everyman Theatre in
Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...
.
Anthony Head Anthony Stewart Head (born 20 February 1954) is an English actor and singer. Primarily a performer in musical theatre, he rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s following his role in the Gold Blend couple television advertisements for Nescafé, ...
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 Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
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 ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature held every year in October in the English spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for th ...
. Coppin has chosen poems from writers such as
Ivor Gurney Ivor Bertie Gurney (28 August 1890 – 26 December 1937) was an English poet and composer, particularly of songs. He was born and raised in Gloucester. He suffered from bipolar disorder through much of his life and spent his last 15 years in psy ...
, F. W. Harvey, Eva Dobell, and Frank Mansell. Perhaps the most famous poet whose work Coppin has set to music is
Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan Lee, (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilogy '' Cider w ...
, 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
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, ''Stars in a Dark Night'' for
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, and ''Music Writers on TV'' for HTV, while his radio work includes ''Kaleidoscope'' for Radio 4, ''West Country Christmas'', the Arts Programme and ''Folk on Two'' for Radio 2, as well as many appearances on British local radio shows. His music for theatre includes ''Songs on Lonely Roads'' (the story of composer/poet
Ivor Gurney Ivor Bertie Gurney (28 August 1890 – 26 December 1937) was an English poet and composer, particularly of songs. He was born and raised in Gloucester. He suffered from bipolar disorder through much of his life and spent his last 15 years in psy ...
) with David Goodland, The Shrewsbury Theatre Guild's production of ''Arthur's Plough'', as well as writing and directing the music for the Festival Players Theatre Company, and their touring productions of
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's works, which culminated in the Three Choirs Festival. He has edited two poetry anthologies: ''Forest & Vale & High Blue Hill'' and ''Between the Severn and the Wye'' – poems from the border counties of England and Wales. His third book was ''A Country Christmas,'' a collections of prose, poetry, carols, songs and folklore. Coppin's
BBC Radio Gloucestershire BBC Radio Gloucestershire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Gloucestershire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, AM, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Portland Court in Gloucester. According to RAJAR, the station has ...
show, ''Folk Roots'', was the fifth most listened to BBC Local Radio programme broadcast through the internet, with over 5,000 people listening per week. In 2008, he was elected as Honorary President of Glosfolk, the organisation that promotes traditional music in the county, for his services to folk music over many years.


Albums


Decameron

*''Say Hello to the Band'' (1973) *''Mammoth Special'' (1974) *''Third Light'' (1975) *''Tomorrow's Pantomime'' (1976) *''Afterwords'' (2001)


Solo

*'' Roll On Dreamer'' (1978) *'' No Going Back'' (1979) *'' Get Lucky'' (1982) *''Forest and Vale and High Blue Hill'' (1983) *''Line of Blue'' (1985) *''English Morning'' (1987) *''Edge of Day'' with
Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan Lee, (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilogy '' Cider w ...
(1989) *''The Glorious Glosters'' (1990) *''Songs on Lonely Roads'' (1990) *''Songs and Carols for a West Country Christmas'' (1991) *''Force of the River'' (1993) *''The Gloucestershire Collection'' (1994) *''A Country Christmas'' (1995) *''The Shakespeare Songs'' (1997) *''A Journey'' – compilation (2001) *''Keep the Flame EP'' with Paul Burgess and Mick Dolan (2004) *''The Winding Stair'' (2005) *''Breaking the Silence'' with Mike Silver (2007) *''Borderland'' (2014) *''All on a Winter's Night'' (2017) *''30 Songs'' – 2 CD compilation (2019) *''Midwinter'' – live album (2020) *''River of Dreams'' (2022)


Singles


The Magnificent Mercury Brothers

*"The New Girl in School" / " Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" / "What About Us?" (1975)


Solo

*"Believe in You" b/w "Run to Her" (1980) *"We Shall Not Pass" (1980) *"Everybody Knows" (1982) *"Keep the Flame" (digital download, 2011)


Books

*''Forest and Vale and High Blue Hill'' (1991) *''Between the Severn and the Wye'' (1993) *''A Country Christmas'' (1997)


Festival Players Productions

Coppin was musical director and wrote the songs and music for these summer touring productions *''Merry Wives of Windsor'' (1992) *''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1994) *''A Winter's Tale'' (1995) *''The Merchant of Venice'' (1996) *''As You Like It'' (1997) *''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1998) *''Romeo and Juliet'' (2002) *''Comedy of Errors'' (2003) *''Twelfth Night'' (2004) *''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (2005) *''Hamlet'' (2006) *''As You Like It'' (2007) *''Much Ado About Nothing'' (2008) *''The Merchant of Venice'' (2009) *''The Taming of the Shrew'' (2011) *''Twelfth Night'' (2012) *''Romeo and Juliet'' (2013) *''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (2013) *''A Comedy of Errors'' (2014) *''Macbeth'' (2014) *''As You Like It'' (2015) *''Hamlet'' (2016) *''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (2017) *''The Winter's Tale'' (2018) *''Much Ado About Nothing'' (2019)


References


External links


Johnny Coppin websiteJohnny Coppin on BBC Gloucestershire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coppin, Johnny 1946 births Living people English folk guitarists English male guitarists English pianists English male singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters British male pianists 21st-century British pianists 21st-century British male musicians