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Cozy Powell was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, Bri…
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Investigate this subjectCozy Powell (born Colin Trevor Flooks; 29 December 1947 – 5 April 1998) was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, Brian May, Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell, and Black Sabbath. Powell appeared on at least 66 albums, contributing to many other recordings.
Cozy Powell was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, Brian May, Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell, and Black Sabbath.
Cozy Powell (born Colin Trevor Flooks; 29 December 1947 – 5 April 1998) was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, Brian May, Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell, and Black Sabbath.
Powell appeared on at least 66 albums, contributing to many other recordings. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drummers of all time; many rock drummers have cited him as a major influence.
Colin Trevor Flooks (Cozy Powell) was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, on 29 December 1947 and was adopted. He never knowingly met his birth parents. He started playing drums aged 12 in the school orchestra, thereafter playing along in his spare time to popular singles of the day. The first band Powell was in, the Corals, played each week at the youth club in Cirencester. They also played at a youth club in Latton, seven miles (11 km) from Cirencester. During this time the band broke the world record for non-stop playing without playing the same song twice. Aged 15, Cozy had already worked out an impressive drum solo.
The stage name Cozy was borrowed from the jazz drummer Cozy Cole. His last name Powell was taken from his adoptive mother's maiden name.
The semi-professional circuit was next with The Sorcerers, a vocal-harmony pop band. The late nights and usual on-the-road exploits began to affect his education, and Powell left to take an office job to finance the purchase of his first set of Premier drums. The Sorcerers performed in the German club scene of the 1960s.
By 1968 the band had returned to England, basing themselves in the Birmingham area. Powell struck up friendships with notable local musicians, including Robert Plant, John Bonham, future Slade vocalist Noddy Holder, bassist Dave Pegg and Tony Iommi. The Sorcerers, then renamed Youngblood, released a series of singles in late 1968 and 1969. The group then linked up with The Move's bassist/singer Ace Kefford to form The Ace Kefford Stand. Five recorded tracks are available on the Ace Kefford album Ace The Face, released by Sanctuary Records in 2003. Powell also began session work and, with fellow Sorcerers Dave and Denny Ball, formed Big Bertha.
Powell also played with swamp rocker Tony Joe White at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. Powell landed the then highly prestigious drumming job with Jeff Beck's group in April 1970. Their first project was to record an album of Motown covers in the US. This was never finished and remains unreleased. During the sessions, photographs show Cozy Powell and Jeff Beck present at the recording of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition", on which Beck appears. Cozy has stated in interviews he plays on the record, but this remains to be confirmed. After the recording of two albums, Rough and Ready (October 1971) and Jeff Beck Group (July 1972), the band fell apart.
In 1972 Powell drummed for two tracks ("Hey Sandy" and "Martha") on Harvey Andrews' album Writer of Songs. By late 1972 he had joined up with the Ball brothers and singer Frank Aiello to form Bedlam, whose eponymous album was recorded for Chrysalis and released in August 1973.
With Powell's session work at RAK Rekords and subsequent solo success (including "Dance with the Devil", which reached No. 3 in the UK singles chart during January 1974), Bedlam fell apart.
"Dance with the Devil" was his only solo hit in North America, reaching No. 48 in Canada for four weeks, and No. 49 in the United States. The track featured Suzi Quatro on bass. Powell's second hit during 1974 was with "The Man in Black", which reached No. 18. Arrows front man Alan Merrill, also a RAK Records artist, played electric bass on '"The Man in Black'" and the b-side '"After Dark".
Jeff Beck's studio producer was Mickie Most and Powell soon found himself drafted into sessions for artists signed to Most's RAK label, including Julie Felix, Hot Chocolate, Donovan and Suzi Quatro. To cash in on his chart success, the drummer formed "Cozy Powell's Hammer" in April 1974. The line-up included Bernie Marsden (guitar), Clive Chaman (bass), Don Airey (keyboards) and Frank Aiello (Bedlam) on vocals. Clive Chaman was replaced on bass by Neil Murray in the band in early 1975 for the RAK Rocks Britain Tour. "Na Na Na" was a UK No. 10 hit, and another single "Le Souk" was recorded but never released.
Sharing a love of the power-trio set up (Cream), Cozy Powell formed a band with guitarist Clem Clempson and bassist Greg Ridley (Humble Pie), but when this fell apart Cozy temporarily quit the music business to take up motorcycle racing. His desire to launch a three-piece in the vein of Cream remained; recordings with Tipton, Entwistle & Powell are testament to this as much as sessions with Cream's Jack Bruce and on guitar Uli Jon Roth, briefly after recording for Cinderella: "to get him (Uli Roth) had been the idea of Larry Mazer (at the time manager of Cinderella), Jack met him, but at the time Uli was busy with a symphony. I don't think it would have worked, we had him in mind as well as some other people, like Gary Moore, ideally Jeff Beck really", followed by Clem Clempson, Pat Travers and Pat Thrall with whom they recorded, shopped for a deal - unsuccessfully—until Powell would join Black Sabbath.
In 1975, Powell joined Rainbow. Over the next five years he and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore were the only constants in the line-up. During this time, Blackmore developed the band's sound from neoclassical hard rock-heavy metal to a more commercial AOR sound. Powell grew concerned with the overtly commercial direction and decided to leave, although not before Rainbow headlined the first Monsters of Rock show at Castle Donington, England, on 16 August 1980. This was his last show with the band. Powell became the first musician to appear at Monsters of Rock with different bands, when he returned with Whitesnake in 1983.
After leaving Rainbow, Powell again worked with vocalist Graham Bonnet, their most notable single being "Night Games" from Bonnet's solo album Line-Up, which reached number 6 in the UK singles chart.
Source: Cozy Powell (CC BY-SA)
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