graham coxon.

Graham Leslie Coxon was born on March the 12th, 1969 in Germany (his dad Bob was in the army). He has a sister called Hayley who's a nurse and his mum's name is Pauline. Apparently his parents sometimes come to the band's gigs. He used to play the saxophone in local bands and met Damon in 1980 as they went to the same school. He studied music at Goldsmith's college in London where he met Alex in 1988. Early bands were Real lives with Damon, Idle Vice with Dave and Nichtkunst with Alex, followed of course by Circus and Seymour.

role in blur.

Graham Coxon was asked to leave the band in mid-2002, and only played on one track on the 2003 release "Think tank". He played the guitar, the saxophone, the tambourine, the Moog, the triangle, the banjo, did backing vocals and percussion (for example on "Miss America", "Song 2" and "Tender") and fiddled about with Black & Deckers. He has also written and sung three songs that Blur have recorded: "Red Necks" on the b-side of "End of a century", "You're so great" on "Blur" which is allegedly about Damon, and of course "Coffee and TV" (although Damon sings the chorus). In the early days (when Alex wasn't very good...) he also played bass guitar.

solo projects.

Art.

Transcopic records:
In 1998 Graham started his own record company, which has since released not only his own three solo albums but also records by artists such as Ooberman and Mower. The website features lots of info, Graham artwork, merchandise and all sorts of other fun stuff + great design too!

The sky is too high

On the 10th of August 1998 Graham released a solo album entitled "The sky is too high" on his own label Transcopic Records. It entered the British album charts at #31. A promo video was released to accompany "I wish". Håkan Engström gave the album 1 out of 5. Read his review!

That's All I Wanna Do
Where'd You Go?
In A Salty Sea
A Day Is Far Too Long
R U Lonely
I Wish
Hard + Slow
Me You / We Too
Waiting
Who The Fuck...?
Morning Blues

The Golden D

The follow-up to "The sky is too high", "The golden D" (another name for a D5 chord), was released on the 12th of June 2000. The track-listing is:

Jamie Thomas
The fear
Satan I Gatan
Fame and fortune (a cover of a song by "Mission of Burma")
My idea of hell
Lake
Fags and failure
Leave me alone
Keep hope alive
Oochy Woochy
That's when I reach for my revolver (a cover of a song by "Mission of Burma")
Don't think about always

The album was given 3 out of 5 by Select and Q magazine, and reached number 38 (?) in the UK album charts. See here for reviews.

Alex had this to say about the album: "Graham's record is great. The bastard's done it all himself, he's played everything on it, and he's done it really quickly. One of the songs, 'Oochy Woochy' sounds like a hit and he's touring too. It's quite heavy metal in places. Graham's record collection is the reason I got an aeroplane. No, seriously, his taste is impeccable. Admittedly, the Slint years were a little hard to bear, but I think he's over that now."

Graham went on a short UK tour to promote the album with a backing band consisting of Rod from Idlewild on guitar, Toby from 13/13 on bass and Dave Rowntree on drums, and a Swedish band called Fungus as support.

Crow sit in blood tree 2001

Empty word
I'm goin' away
All has gone
Burn it down
Too uptight
Big bird
Tired
Hurt prone
Bonfires
Thank God for the rain
You never will be
Place for grief

A double A-side single was released from the album, featuring Thank God for the rain/You never will be.

The kiss of morning 2002

Bitter Tears
Escape Song
Locked Doors
Baby, You're Out of Your Mind
It Ain't No Lie
Live Line
Just Be Mine
Do What You're Told To
Mountain of Regret
Latte
Walking Down the Highway
Song for the Sick
Good Times

A double A-side single was released from the album, featuring Escape song/Mountain of regret.

Courtney Pine:
Graham helped saxophonist Courtney Pine in a performance for a South Bank Show focussing on Pine's work.

My vitriol:
Graham produced My vitriol's single "Terris".

Idlewild:
Graham is a bit of an Idlewild fan. He has remixed their song "Rusty" (b-side to "Roseability", frontman Roddy Woomble's comment: "pretty great, very heavy, I'm a fan"), done the artwork artwork for their single "Film for the future" and appeared in the photo on the cover of their single 'Everyone says that you're so fragile'. He also joined them onstage at the Reading festival 2000 to play saxophone on the song "Captain".

what he says about the others.

"Damon, sexy? He's about as sexy as a stuffed fish."
He once said something along the lines of "If anyone left the band we would stop. Unless it was Alex."
on the Fat les track "Vindaloo": "I think it's a successful track to do with football and all that, I just wish Alex wasn't involved in it because it's bloody horrible isn't it...? Just one of those horrible novelty songs that come out whenever there's something daft on...that's a different kind of annoying, that's really annoying."
He has also described Alex as a "massive sexist floppy brownhaired cunt" and a "stupid thick bass-playing idiot". (But they love each other really...)

trivia.

His art has been exhibited in various places, and he spent the autumn of 1999 painting in Stockholm. The Transcopic site features some of his work, and here are some bits and bobs. The booklet that goes with the 20th anniversary box set includes many of his ideas for single sleeves. Here is his cover for the "Fags and failure" promo.
His girlfriend Anna Norlander is from Sweden and he's started learning Swedish (good idea Graham!). Their daughter is called Pepper Bäck Troy Coxon.
He recently described his influences as hip-hop, hardcore and jazz.
"Select" magazine once called him "The revered Blur guitar man".
He's a vegetarian.
Some of the bands he likes (or used to) are Slint, Tortoise, Nick Drake, Sonic Youth, Pavement. He also likes a Swedish band called bob hund (they're really good actually, especially live).
His preferred name anagram is "Morgan C. Hoax".
He once had a cat called Bastard, whom he was supposed to look after for Food boss Andy Ross, but who managed to run away... ;)
"Smash Hits" once described his favourite girls as "dark-haired maidens who look thoughtful".
His idol is Francoise Hardy, a French sixties singer ("Tous les garcons et les filles" was her first song).
He has been run over twice while drunk.
Early bands included The Aftermath, Real Lives and Hazel Dean and the Carp Enters From Hell.

graham coxon.

role in blur.

solo projects.

what he says about the others.

trivia.

web-sites devoted to the man