"He is the most gifted guitarist of his generation" Damon on Graham.
Graham Leslie Coxon was born on March 12 1969 in a military hospital in
Rintein, near Hanover in the old West Germany.
His dad Bob, was an Army Bandsman, who taught jazz at Saturday morning classes. His
mum Pauline, worked for Nestle and his sister Hayley, who is 6 years older than him is
now a nurse.
After staying at the German Military base for 5 years, Graham moved to Derby in
England to live with his grandad. In 1979 Graham then moved to Colchester.
Graham then went to Stanway Comprehensive School and this is where Graham
started to immerse himself with the joy of music. At 12 he taught himself
to play the guitar and saxophone and very easily too. He even played drums
for a few local bands. When Graham was 14 he meet Damon Albarn who was a year
ahead of him. Also at this time Graham became a protest vegetarian and ended
up in a mental hospital in Colchester for about 7 days due to malnutrition.
Graham has worked at quite allot of different places, including at Sainsbury
and as a pea picker. But lost this job as a reult of going to hospital.
After Stanway, Graham went to the North Essex School of Arts and joined a
group called The Curious band.
After graduating the North Essex School of Arts, Graham went to Goldsmiths
College and this is where he studied fine arts. Damon also went to Goldsmiths
and at the time was in a group called Circus. Damon asked Graham to join him
and Graham was relieved to see that Dave Rowntree was on drums. Graham
and Dave were in the band Hazel Dean together. Dave had also been given weekend
jazz classes by Grahams dad. Afer Circus completed a demo the other band members
left and that left Dave, Graham and Damon. Graham was friends with Alex James
and got him to join as bass player. The group then changed there name to Seymour.
After doing a couple shows as Seymour, they were aproached by Food Records,
but were asked to change there name. They were given a few choices and they
decided on BLUR.
In August 1991 Blur released there first album Leisure. When there second
single "There's No Other Way" reached Number One they made there first
appearance on Top Of The Pops. Graham couldn't get into the BBC studios and
had a fight with the doorman. During the USA tour for Leisure, Graham became
very ill with ulcers and was bleeding. By the end of the tour Graham was told he could
not have any alcohol for 6 months and was sent home to rest and recover.
Grahams drinking has gotten him into lots of trouble. Once he was at a fancy party but was
asked to leave because he got sick all over a guest. Also Graham once got
run down by a car whilst being severely drunk. Since then Graham has taken control over his drinking habits and early last year gave up drinking altogether. The song Youre So Great from the album blur is said to be written about Grahams decision to give up drinking. It is rumoured though that Graham has started drinking again, I do not know if this is true or not.....
If you have any Graham info that you'd like me to include on this page then
email me and i'll add it on.
