Paul Cook | |
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 Cook performing with Generation Sex in 2023 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Paul Thomas Cook |
| Born | 20 July 1956 [1] Shepherd's Bush, London, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Drummer |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Member of |
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| Formerly of | |
| Website | |
Paul Thomas Cook (born 20 July 1956) [1] is an English musician, best known as the drummer and a founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is nicknamed "Cookie" by friends in the punk music scene. [2]
Cook was raised in Hammersmith and attended the Christopher Wren School, now Phoenix High School, London in White City Estate, Shepherd's Bush, where he met Steve Jones. The pair became best friends and while skipping school, in 1972–1973, Cook and Jones, along with their school friend Wally Nightingale, formed a band, The Strand. [3] Within the next three years The Strand evolved into the Sex Pistols.
Cook's early influences included Motown, ska and glam rock acts like David Bowie, [4] T. Rex, Roxy Music and Slade, in addition to drummers Kenney Jones of the Faces, Paul Thompson of Roxy Music, Al Jackson Jr. and Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. [5]
Cook is portrayed by Jacob Slater in the 2022 Craig Pearce – Danny Boyle FX biographical drama miniseries Pistol .
After the Sex Pistols suddenly broke up after their final concert in San Francisco on 14 January 1978, Cook and Jones initially worked on the soundtrack to Julien Temple's film, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. The two also recorded a few songs using the Sex Pistols name, Cook singing lead on the album version of the song "Silly Thing". The pair then started a new band, The Professionals, with Andy Allan. Allan caused some legal problems; he played bass on "Silly Thing" and the first few Professionals recordings, but had no recording contract and had been neither credited nor paid. Consequently, the Virgin Records compilation album Cash Cows, which featured The Professionals' track "Kick Down the Doors", was withdrawn. Cook and Jones played together on Johnny Thunders' solo album, So Alone . [6]
They released four singles, recorded a self-titled LP that was shelved until 1990, and released I Didn't See It Coming in November 1981. [7] The band's American tour to promote the album was cut short when band members Cook, Paul Myers, and Ray McVeigh were injured in a car crash. [8] [9] While The Professionals did return to America in the Spring of 1982 after recovery, Jones and Myers' drug problems further hampered the band's prospects. [10] They declined an opening spot offer on tour for The Clash, and broke up.
In the early 1980s, Cook, along with Jones, discovered the English new wave girl-group Bananarama. Cook helped the trio record their debut single, "Aie a Mwana", and acted as a producer on their 1982 debut album Deep Sea Skiving . [11]
In the late 1980s, Cook surfaced with the group Chiefs of Relief with former Bow Wow Wow guitarist Matthew Ashman, and, after a period out of the music industry, played with Phil Collen in the 1990s. He also played on the Edwyn Collins song A Girl Like You, beginning a longstanding association with Collins as a session musician. [12] Cook reunited with the surviving Sex Pistols in 1996 for the Filthy Lucre world tour.
The Sex Pistols, including Paul Cook, played a gig for the 30th anniversary of Never Mind The Bollocks at the Brixton Academy on 8 November 2007. To meet demand, six further gigs were added, including two on 9 and 10 November.
In 2008, the Sex Pistols appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival as the headlining act on the Saturday night, the Peace and Love Festival in Sweden, the Live at Loch Lomond Festival in Scotland, and the Summercase Festival in Madrid.
Cook drummed with Man-Raze, [13] which also featured Phil Collen from Def Leppard and their friend Simon Laffy who used to play in Collen's pre-Leppard band, Girl. They released a debut album Surreal in 2008, and toured throughout the UK in late 2009.
In 2011, Cook joined Vic Godard and Subway Sect, [14] and renewed his collaborations with Paul Myers from The Professionals. Cook has worked with Godard, on and off, for the past two decades. They toured throughout 2012 and, in March 2012, recorded 1978 Now with Collins.
In celebration of the release of a three disc set (The Complete Professionals) by Universal Music Group for 16 October 2015, Cook, with Tom Spencer filling in for Steve Jones, reunited with The Professionals for a concert at the 100 Club. [15] [16] In January 2016, the band announced a three show tour for 17 to 19 March. [17] A joint headline show featuring Rich Kids was announced at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for 16 May, [18] then rescheduled for 23 June at the Academy Islington, due to the ongoing structural work at the venue. [19]
On 30 October 2018, Cook and Steve Jones joined Billy Idol and Tony James, formerly of Generation X, for a free entry performance at The Roxy in Hollywood, Los Angeles, under the name Generation Sex, playing a combined set of the two former bands' material. [20] [21] The band reunited in 2023 for a European tour that included several festival appearances. [22]
Cook lives in Hammersmith with his wife, Jeni Cook, formerly of Culture Club, and their daughter, Hollie Cook, a solo musician. Cook also played football for Hollywood United. [23]
Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by lead vocalist and principal songwriter Bryan Ferry and bassist Graham Simpson. By the time the band recorded their first album in 1972, Ferry and Simpson were joined by saxophonist and oboist Andy Mackay, guitarist Phil Manzanera, drummer Paul Thompson and synthesizer player Brian Eno. Other members over the years include keyboardist and violinist Eddie Jobson and bassist John Gustafson. The band split in 1976, reformed in 1978 and split again in 1983. In 2001, Ferry, Mackay, Manzanera and Thompson reunited for a concert tour and have toured together intermittently ever since, most recently in 2022 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first album. Ferry has also frequently enlisted band members as backing musicians during his solo career.
The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became one of the most culturally influential acts in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspired many later punk, post-punk and alternative rock musicians, while their clothing and hairstyles were a significant influence on the early punk image.
Glen Matlock is an English musician, best known for being the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only officially released studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, although he had left the band early in the recording process, credited as bassist and backing vocalist on only one song on the album, "Anarchy in the U.K.". However, on the bootleg album Spunk, Matlock played bass on all the songs, which included earlier studio recordings of 10 of the 12 songs that later appeared on the Bollocks album.
Christopher John Spedding is an English guitarist and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Spedding is best known for his studio session work. By the early 1970s, he had become one of the most sought-after session guitarists in England. Spedding has played on and produced many albums and singles. He has also been a member of eleven rock bands: the Battered Ornaments, Frank Ricotti Quartet, King Mob, Mike Batt and Friends, Necessaries, Nucleus, Ricky Norton, Sharks, Trigger, and the Wombles. In May 1976, Spedding also produced the first Sex Pistols recordings.
Stephen Philip Jones is an English guitarist, best known as a member of the punk band Sex Pistols. Following the split of the Sex Pistols, he formed the Professionals with former bandmate Paul Cook. He has released two solo albums, and worked with Johnny Thunders, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick, Bob Dylan and Thin Lizzy. In 1995, he formed the short-lived supergroup Neurotic Outsiders with members of Guns N' Roses and Duran Duran. He played with Suicidal Tendencies frontman Mike Muir's Cyco Miko, which is still an ongoing project. Jones was ranked #97 in Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Flogging a Dead Horse is a compilation album of singles by Sex Pistols, released after their break-up, and includes the four songs issued as singles A-sides that were included on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, three of their B-sides, and the six A-sides taken from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and one B-side, "My Way".
The Professionals were an English punk rock band active from 1979 to early 1982 and again from 2015 to 2024. They were formed by ex-Sex Pistols members Steve Jones and Paul Cook after that band's demise. The Professionals split in 1982, before reforming in 2015 under the leadership of Cook.
Girl were an English glam metal band formed in London in 1979. They split up in 1982 with band members going on to join Def Leppard and L.A. Guns, among others.
Philip Kenneth Collen is an English musician who is best known as the co-lead guitarist for the rock band Def Leppard. Collen joined the band in 1982 during the recording of the Pyromania album. Before joining Def Leppard, Collen had performed with a number of bands in the burgeoning British glam metal scene. Outside of Def Leppard, he has been involved in a number of side projects; those projects include the trio Man Raze, with which he is the lead singer and sole guitarist.
Subway Sect were one of the first British punk bands. Although their commercial success was limited by the small amount of recorded material they released, they have been credited as highly influential on the Postcard Records scene and the indie pop genre which followed.
Paul Thompson is an English drummer, who is best known as a member of the rock band Roxy Music. He is a member of Andy Mackay's project with the Metaphors and joined Lindisfarne in 2013. He was also the drummer for Oi! band Angelic Upstarts and the American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde.
Warwick Alan "Wally" Nightingale was an English guitarist. He co-founded the band that went on to become the Sex Pistols.
"Virginia Plain" is a song by English rock band Roxy Music, released as their debut single in August 1972. Written by Roxy frontman Bryan Ferry, the song was recorded by the band in July 1972 at London's Command Studios. Backed with "The Numberer", an instrumental composed by Andy Mackay, as a single the song became a Top 10 hit in the UK, peaking at number four.
The Sham Pistols were a short-lived punk rock supergroup composed of guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, with vocalist Jimmy Pursey and bass player Dave Tregunna of Sham 69. Although now referred to as The Sham Pistols, no name had been decided upon at the time. There was a possibility that they may have been called the Sex Pistols.
Chris Catalyst is a British rock guitarist, known for his work with the Sisters of Mercy, Ugly Kid Joe, Ginger Wildheart, Terrorvision, the Professionals, Mariachi El Bronx, the Scaramanga Six and his own band, Eureka Machines, as well as his more recent solo career. In 2022, he confirmed that he has been a 'Nameless Ghoul' that tours with the Swedish metal band Ghost.
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is the soundtrack album of the film of the same name by the Sex Pistols.
The Fallen Leaves are a British garage rock group that formed in Richmond, London in 2004. The group was formed by Rob Symmons and Rob Green (vocals) with Paul Myers (bass). The current line-up features drummer Ian O'Sullivan, formerly of The Aardvarks.
"Silly Thing" is a song by the Sex Pistols that was released in 1979. It was the 3rd single released in promotion of the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. It was written by drummer Paul Cook and guitarist Steve Jones, and recorded after the band's original lead singer, Johnny Rotten, left the band. Typically, Jones also played bass in the studio, rather than suffer the ineptitude of the band's official bassist, Sid Vicious.
I, Superbiker is a 2011 British film documentary directed by film maker and biker Mark Sloper. Inspired by the David Essex film Silver Dream Racer, the film focuses on four contenders for the 2010 British Superbike Championship: Tommy Hill, James Ellison, Josh Brookes and Gary Mason. The film score was written and recorded by David Vanian David Vanian, the frontman of the punk and alternative rock band The Damned. The title track 'I, Superbiker' was written by Phil Collen of Def Leppard with his band Manraze which also features drummer Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols.
Tom Spencer is an English singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is the current frontman for the punk rock band The Professionals.
I remember I was in the back seat and I thought our American driver.... for the last week prior to that there were a few near misses, and I remember it was about 2am in the morning and suddenly I saw these head-on lights coming towards us, and I shouted at the driver "you're on the wrong side of the road!" and then the impact. He wasn't on the wrong side of the road, the car crashed into us and the guy killed himself. But I was conscious all the way through it. My leg was really badly fractured. I remember a Police motorcyclist turning up saying "Don't worry about that guy, he just needs a hearse." What really angered me was there seemed to be a massive delay in cutting the car in half
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