The Liverpool Poets, Curved Air, Linda Lewis, Bird and a Bee, Carroll Thompson, Janet Kay, Kurt Weill, Tito Puente, Byron Lee's Allstars, Zap Mama, Santana, Rotary Connection, Northern Soul, Carmel, Billy Childish, Francoise Hardy, K T Tunstall, Hazey Jane, Shirley Temple, Eartha Kitt, The Irrepressibles, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. The Slits, punk, John Donne, Wanda Jackson, Robert Wyatt, Billy Stewart,Velvet Underground, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Destiny's Child, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Nina Simone, Syd Barrett, Maddox Brothers and Rose, the Chiffons. Phoenix, Young Marble Giants, T Rex, Johnny Cash, Bjork, Doris Day, Vanessa Paradis, Mad Professor, Lover's Rock, Duane Eddy, Gene Vincent, Scotty Moore, Elvis Sun Sessions, early James Taylor, Tamla Motown, David Bowie's London Boys CD but not really anything else by him, Patsy Kline, Lily Allen, Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, Grayson Perry (oh! my hero!), The Mighty Boosh (I want to play your game too, boys!). Not forgetting Martin Stephenson and the fantastic Daintees!
HAMILTON SQUARE, an album of songs and duets with Martin Stephenson, was released on 6th July 2009 and is available from us at gigs or from the Voiceprint website.
My last solo ALBUM, POETRY AND RHYME features contributions from Martin Stephenson, Paul Davey, Gina Birch, Count Dubulah, Elle Osborne and Allan Bradbury. It is available from amazon.co.uk and from record stores (the Barbaraville label distributed by Voiceprint). You can also order one now online from www.voiceprint.co.uk
'Charming and surprising in equal measures', Charlotte Richardson Andrews,wearsthetrousers.com
'An album of fragile beauty, full of the kind of catchy, instantly hummable songs which effortlessly worm their way into your head and heart', Ian Lowey. Nude Magazine, and
'****A magnificent album', Lucy O'Brien, MOJO, February 2009
Meanwhile, if you like my music I suggest you also buy my SUBURBAN PASTORAL cd. It has 14 tracks featuring guest appearances from BJ Cole, Lester Square, the Horns, and more!
'Classy' said Bid from the Monochrome Set. 'Dreaming of You, perfect for Lovers Dub', said the Mad Professor. Best track? Songbird, I think, featuring B J Cole on pedal steel and an extraordinary tree-lined backing vocal.
Buy for £10.00 inc p & p to anywhere in the world, right here and right now:
Who am I? I was bass player for Joby and the Hooligans, the worst punk band in Brighton (but we had the best songs), then in short-lived band The Smartees, before forming The Chefs with Carl Evans and Rod Bloor. We did loads of gigs, James McCallum joined on second guitar, and we did a few Peel sessions (none of us can remember how many). Soon, we are going to bring out a compilation of Chefs songs. The I started Helen and the Horns, playing guitar, after a brief musical interlude with Lester Square, and we did even more Peel sessions and played a lot in Scotland, where we had really great audiences. Disastrously, we signed to RCA, who shelved us until I put on my scary glasses, marched down there and got us released from the deal. The kindly Horns used their savings to record an album (Rough Trade have some of the original vinyl albums too) and we spilt up.
I fell asleep for twenty years, and woke up with a head full of songs and a heart full of energy to sing them with.
I like playing unusual venues and sometimes promote gigs too mostly because of drawing the flyers (!) and I am a compulsive doodler. I used to publish my own comics and still contribute to comics when people ask me to.
Previous bands were The Chefs (see www.myspace.com/thechefs) and Helen and the Horns (see www.myspace.com/helenandthehorns)
'The Lost Women of Rock' is a book I wrote two years ago about female instrumentalists in punk bands in the late 1970s/early 1980s, featuring interviews with the Slits, Gina Birch, the Mo-Dettes, Enid Williams (Girlschool), the Dollymixture, Gaye Black (Adverts), Vi Subversa (Poison Girls), Rhoda Dakar, Lucy O'Brien, Attila the Stockbroker, Caroline Coon, Geoff Travis and the late John Peel amongst others. It is published by Ashgate Press, an academic publisher, and is very expensive but you can get your library to buy a copy for you!!! It is written under the name of Helen Reddington, which is an identity I passed through earlier in my life.
For more about the early bands I played in see www.punkbrighton.com
Look out for 'Hamilton Square', new release for 2009, a collaboration with the ace songwriter Martin Stephenson.
For up to date gig info and my regularly-updated Blog, see www.mccookerybook.com or this site!
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Watching Myself is fantastic! What else can I do but pay you the ultimate Myspace compliment- that's right- top friend status! Great songs Helen and I see you're playing The Cluny soon. I think a trip up north beckons...
Pleased to meet you in cyberland Helen...great lookin soundin gretch guitar you have ... listening to summer days took me back to the south of Kentucky where its a part of life to sit on the porch and sing first of all for the fun of it the love of music...Infinite Blessings.
Great to hear you again at Hery Boons last night i'm loving your sound i have seen you so many times this year.Always with Martin but your great support.Checked The Chefs out for the first time today can't believe i missed them before.
