Graham Leslie Coxon (b. 12 March 1969) is an English guitarist, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter. He initially came to prominence has been the guitarist in the rock band Blur. His artistic and musical contribution is prominently featured on the band's first six albums, from 1991's Leisure to 1999's 13. The latter's cover was also designed by Coxon.
In 2002, he left Blur, following a bitter dispute with the other members. He only featured in the final track for the following year's Think Tank. In September 2007, Graham Coxon reunited with the band, but Blur stated that they have no plans for recording in the immediate future.
He is also a critically acclaimed solo artist, having recorded six solo albums, with a seventh in the works. Half of them were recorded while still a member of the band. Coxon is capable of playing several other instruments, besides guitar, and is famous for recording his albums single-handedly, without much help from session musicians.
Solo work (1998-present)
Coxon had already released three solo albums while as a member of Blur before his 2002 departure. His first, released on his own Transcopic label was The Sky is Too High in 1998, a ramshackle mixture of English folk music and 1960s-style garage rock, influenced by Billy Childish. This was followed by the more extreme The Golden D in 2000 and the thoughtful Dylan-Drakesque Crow Sit on Blood Tree (2001). After going solo full time, he released The Kiss of Morning in 2002. The album proved to be his most accessible to date and was promoted with the single "Escape Song" which proved to be an interesting hybrid of Syd Barrett's "Octopus" and progressive rock trail-blazers The Nice. In 2004, Coxon released his fifth solo album Happiness in Magazines, produced by ex-Blur and The Smiths producer Stephen Street. This proved to be his most successful album to date, and he received the NME Award for 'Best Solo Artist' in 2005.
In March 2006 he released his sixth solo album, called Love Travels at Illegal Speeds, again produced by Stephen Street. It marks Coxon's first album away from his now-defunct indie label 'Transcopic'. The LP was preceded by the singles "Standing On My Own Again" on February 27 and "You & I". Coxon embarked on a tour of the UK, starting at Newcastle University. He also got involved in a single supporting the England national football team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The song was a re-working of the Sham 69 hit "Hurry Up Harry", and was released as "Sham 69 and The Special Assembly" (as well as Coxon and Sham 69, Virgin Radio DJ Christian O'Connell, who had run a competition on his show to find a band to record a song in support of the team, was involved in the recording of the song). "Hurry Up England" entered the UK Singles Chart at #10.
In October 2006, Coxon released a double live album Burnt to Bitz: At the Astoria immediately after his sold-out London Astoria show. The album features 27 songs, with at least one song from each of his albums. In July 2007 Coxon released a single with Paul Weller, called "This Old Town". The single peaked at #39 in the UK Singles Chart.
In February 2008, Coxon announced that he was in the studio for a forthcoming 7th album due to be released mid 2008 Speaking to NME, Coxon said that the new album will be a concept record: "It's about a man who is born in, um, possibly the '50s. Grows up, meets a girl, gets married, then has to go to war and gets really knackered up and then has a divorce and then goes mad and then...er...dies and goes to heaven."
On 3 July, 2008 Coxon announced on his forum "EMI are not releasing my next LP. they have said that they are only going to release big artists....i am kind of angry but i am glad too...but...i have been dropped." Future plans are cloudly, but it is likely the 7th album will be self or independently released.
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