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CHRIS COOMBS part of Holyground from 1965 |
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pre 1965 Classically trained, Chris was singing with the London Opera Group, and in demand as a soloist by other companies, when he also started performing in clubs around London as part of the folk-music revival, even finding himself on the same bill as Paul Simon. ("I wish I'd not argued with him . . . Look where he is today!") Singing with folk Trio Los Mumblos, they were talent-spotted by the actress Carole Mowlam who dragged them into rehearsal-rooms, sharpened their act, and got them an audition with ITV, leading to their first TV offer, which they never took up preferring to go off to college!
1965 - 1975 At Bretton Hall College in Yorkshire he met Holyground's Mike Levon. Although Chris had recorded previously with the legendary Glyn Johns (Eagles, Stones etc.) it was this collaboration with Mike that freed him creatively to write and perform his own material, drawing on his varied musical influences combined with rock, psych and progressive rock. On Mike's Holyground label, the first independent label in England, he worked with others, including gigging with Bill Nelson (Be Bop De Luxe; Red Noise, etc.), to produce highly unusual albums such as A-AUSTR (the first entry in the Penguin Price Guide for Record and CD Collectors), ASTRAL NAVIGATIONS, etc., which have featured on BBC Radio 1 and independent stations both here and worldwide. Original copies command three-figure sums, but global demand is such that most of the albums have been through successive re-releases. 1976 - 2021 Chris continued to write, record and release, still in a variety of cross-influential styles, including commercial material. Working with Mike and Pete Taylor in the 1990s 'And Strangeness & Charm' was issued, and a solo album 'Up to McGill's'. Chris's song 'Christmas is a Feeling in your Heart' was produced as a single following a concert that he promoted in aid of UNICEF. His final collaboration with Mike and Pete was the 2007 concert at Bretton, which featured many Holyground musicians, and a CD and DVD was later issued. His death in 2021 was a great loss to all his Holyground friends. His passion for music, his creativity and skills as a songwriter and singer and his collaboration with Mike on production contributed greatly to Holyground's distinctive sound. DISCOGRAPHY (SONGWRITING)
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