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07 Nov 21 - 10:57 AM (#4125439) Subject: Obit: Barry Coope 06/11/2021 From: Vic Smith I have just had a really upsetting short message from Roger Watson : - Are you aware that Barry Coope died yesterday afternoon? Keith Kendrick has more information. I will return with a short tribute to this major contributor to the Folk Revial in the UK after I have had time to digest the awful news. |
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07 Nov 21 - 12:49 PM (#4125453) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: GUEST,henryp Terrible, terrible news. We were due to walk along the Caldon Canal with Barry. Now we will do it in his nemory. |
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07 Nov 21 - 01:57 PM (#4125464) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: GUEST,moira Dreadful news! |
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07 Nov 21 - 03:31 PM (#4125473) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: Steve Shaw A typo correction in the thread title would be good, mods... We saw them in the early 90s (Mrs Steve sez Wadebridge, I thought it was in Bude...). They were wonderful. |
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07 Nov 21 - 04:19 PM (#4125481) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: GUEST,Joe G What dreadfully sad news. A wonderful singer and a very nice man |
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07 Nov 21 - 04:19 PM (#4125482) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: GUEST,Joe G What dreadfully sad news. A wonderful singer and a very nice man |
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07 Nov 21 - 05:01 PM (#4125489) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: G-Force A typo correction in the thread title would be good, mods... I rather think his name was spelled correctly the first time. Anyway, a great singer and a very musical man. |
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07 Nov 21 - 05:33 PM (#4125492) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: GeoffLawes A very sad loss |
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07 Nov 21 - 06:05 PM (#4125493) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: Steve Shaw With respect, G-Force, his surname was Coope... |
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07 Nov 21 - 06:23 PM (#4125494) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: MoorleyMan Dreadful, sad news, indeed. Another good man gone. Great singer, great bloke. RIP Mr. Coope. |
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08 Nov 21 - 12:57 AM (#4125504) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: YorkshireYankee Terrible and unexpected. A real loss – to the folk world, the music world, and the world, full stop. Sincere sympathies to the family and close friends. |
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08 Nov 21 - 04:52 AM (#4125516) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: G-Force With respect, G-Force, his surname was Coope... There must have been some cross-posting going on. Vic Smith's original post had it right, of course. |
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08 Nov 21 - 06:28 AM (#4125526) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes Fi Fraser-Coope has written a moving message for the Coope Boyes & Simpson Facebook site, "What We Sing". The course of Barry's illness was brutally swift, so it is taking time to come to terms with the news. Sending all our love and heartfelt support to Fi, Katy, Rachel and Jo. |
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08 Nov 21 - 09:54 AM (#4125537) Subject: RE: 2021 Obit: Barry Coop From: Backwoodsman Very sad news indeed, Barry was one of the very best. Condolences to his family and friends. |
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21 Nov 21 - 06:46 PM (#4126919) Subject: Barry Coope Guardian obituary From: GUEST,Guest Guardian obituary |
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21 Nov 21 - 09:41 PM (#4126940) Subject: Obit: Barry Coope (1954-2021) From: Joe Offer Barry Coope obituaryThe Guardian, Sun 21 Nov 2021 By Derek Schofield Singer with the folk trio Coope, Boyes and Simpson, whose repertoire was drawn from songs of social and political comment Barry Coope, who has died from cancer aged 67, was a folk singer, instrumentalist and musical arranger who sang in an a cappella harmony trio with Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson, and played keyboard and sang in a duo with John Tams. Coope, Boyes and Simpson came together in 1992. Jim was looking for new musical partners after his trio Swan Arcade folded, and the three voices gelled immediately. Jim’s bass voice, combined with Lester’s middle-range singing and Barry’s high harmony gave a rich and tight sound that was unlike any of the established harmony groups on the folk circuit. For Jim, Barry’s considerable harmony skills were the trio’s great strength. Their repertoire was largely drawn from songs of social and political comment written by Jim and Lester, alongside similar songs from other songwriters. Their albums, starting with Funny Old World (1993), were released on the No Masters label, a co-operative established by northern songwriters. Traditional songs were featured on Hindsight (1998) and Triple Echo (2005). They recorded albums of traditional Christmas songs including A Garland of Carols and Voices at the Door, and regularly toured a seasonal show featuring local Derbyshire carols. They became popular in Belgium through regular performances at the Passchendaele peace concerts, leading to several CDs including Passchendaele Suite (1996) and In Flanders Field (2014) made in collaboration with Belgian musicians. It was through a visit to Belgium that Barry and the other band members first met the children’s author Michael Morpurgo. Already impressed by their singing, Morpurgo created Private Peaceful, a collaborative project featuring readings from his award-winning book and songs arranged by Coope, Boyes and Simpson. This was followed by On Angel Wings, a retelling of the nativity story with carols, both released on CD with Morpurgo as the storyteller. Coope, Boyes and Simpson also replaced Swan Arcade in the occasional harmony big band, Blue Murder, with the Waterson family, recording No One Stands Alone (2002). In the 1990s, Barry had been a member of Tams’ group The Questionnaires as well as the John Tams Band, and he teamed up with Tams in a much-sought-after duo, performing at festivals including Glastonbury, Cambridge and Cropredy. The two men had already duetted on Tams’ album Over the Hills and Far Away: The Music of Sharpe (1996), and Barry brought his harmonies and keyboard skills to Tams’ award-winning albums Unity (2000) and The Reckoning (2005). The two men won best duo in the 2008 BBC Radio 2 folk awards. Barry also performed with Tams in War Horse readings with Morpurgo. Barry contributed as both instrumentalist and solo and ensemble singer to the BBC Radio 2 series of Radio Ballads, also released on CD in 2006. Tams regarded Barry’s voice as “one of the greatest I’ve ever come across. He was exceptional: the best and truest singer of his and any generation.” Barry was born in Belper, Derbyshire, son of Walter Coope, a miner, and Joyce (nee Haslam), a housewife. After Heage secondary modern school, Barry worked for Johnson and Nephew wireworks and then for Lubrizol, a speciality chemicals company. He retired in 2016 and received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s industry technician of the year award. He was first inspired to sing at Belper folk club. In the 1970s and 80s, he played in the Derbyshire folk bands Ram’s Bottom and Rogues Gallery. In 1982, Barry performed in a touring show of English dance, music and song, The Everlasting Circle, produced by the English Folk Dance and Song Society. During the show he met the folk musician Fi Fraser; they married the following year. Barry was song director at Sidmouth folk festival in Devon from 1983 to 1984, then, in 1986, he joined the Old Hat Dance Band, playing on their eponymous 1992 album, where his subtle yet rock-steady keyboard playing underpinned the band’s bouncy dance rhythms. Barry also played keyboard with the duo Chris Wood and Andy Cutting when they performed at dances, and appeared on their 1992 CD, Lisa. Barry’s nationwide performances were fitted around his full-time job. He was still very rooted in his native Derbyshire, and was an inspiring leader of the Rolling Stock community folk choir, and a member of the occasional charity fundraising folk big band the Derbyshire Volunteers. Coope, Boyes and Simpson retired in 2017, and, the following year, Barry, Fi, Jo Freya and Lester (later replaced by Jim Causley) started a new band, Narthen (Derbyshire dialect for “Now then”), but Covid-19 disrupted their plans. Barry’s final performance, with the band, was at Sidmouth festival in August. Barry is survived by Fi and their daughter, Katy, and by Rachel, his daughter from a previous marriage, which ended in divorce. |
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22 Nov 21 - 06:58 AM (#4126963) Subject: RE: Obit: Barry Coope (1954-2021) From: GUEST,henryp Barry and Fi discovered the canals, hiring a narrow boat for their annual holiday. They even made a trip to the Canal du Midi in the south of France. On Midsummer Day 2017, we met Barry to walk along the canal towpath and over Harecastle Tunnel at Kidsgrove. Barry was waiting for us, looking very smart in his shorts and hat. All went smoothly as we climbed the path up Harecastle Hill, until it became overgrown with waist-high nettles. Freda was wearing shorts too. “Is there another way?” asked Barry. There wasn’t. I had to go ahead and trample the nettles down, while Freda and Barry gingerly followed behind. Once over the hill, we continued along the Macclesfield Canal for lunch at the Bleeding Wolf, an attractive, thatched country pub. And we enjoyed an excellent pint of Robinson's bitter - real ale was another of Barry’s enthusiasms. After our walk, Barry set off to rehearse the Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir in his arrangement of “Trench Raid”, a new song written by Sean Cooney of The Young 'Uns. That was for Radio 2’s Ballad of the Great War 1917 on 11th November. He returned by train through the railway tunnel, not over the top of Harecastle Hill again. Strangely, I came across the origin of the song just last night in Forgotten Voices of the Great War. Corporal Sidney Amatt 7th Battalion, Essex Regiment; They never asked for volunteers, they'd say, "You, you, you and you," and you suddenly found yourself in a raiding party. |