Biography

o*Paul studied piano at the age of 7 and continued his musical education at Hornsea Secondary School, studying the Euphonium, French horn, Trumpet and Percussion, he finally ended up playing drums in the school orchestra at the age of 13. Joined the local drama society and performed in various plays and musicals until the age of 14. Paul formed his first pop group at 14 with local friends and played in the local area.


o*In 1980 Paul Joined "New Wave" band "The Posers" on drums and the band played various gig's in Hull and surrounding areas, the bass player and singer of the band was Paul Denman currently Sade`s bass player. The ‘Posers' supported acts locally like "Holly and the Italians" and Roland Gift's band the Acryliks…In 1980 Paul moved to London and the Posers very shortly split thereafter, Paul then auditioned and joined the band Pride with Stuart Mathewman also from the Hull band "The Mods". Paul Denman joined Pride at a later date at the invitation of Paul Cooke

o* Pride split in1982 and Sade was formed with the remaining members Paul Cooke, Paul Denman, Stuart Mathewman and Helen Folasade Adu.

o* Paul left the band Sade in 1984 and formed his own group Esposito an 11-piece Jazz/Latin outfit... Paul co-wrote the music with singer Dino Houtas and subsequently managed the band and sang back-up vocals live…Esposito featured in various music media publications and played the London and South of England dance/jazz club circuit, Esposito's final show was at the Albert Hall, supporting Curiosity Killed the Cat at the Smirnoff Fashion Awards, the event was broadcast on SKY TV in 1986 an interesting anecdote was the fact that the backing band all walked out on the eve of a warm up show at the Fridge in Brixton. As Paul & Dino where close friends with Mark Bedford from Madness, Mark arranged for his session musicians to rehearse and play the show so Esposito had somewhat of a ska lilt to the songs. Mark Bedford on bass ta boot?


o* Esposito recorded one single on the Madness label, Zarjazz (VIRGIN) based in Camden; London…The single recorded was "Message in The Melody".... The single featured "Jimmy", one of Earth Wind & Fires original backing vocalists… Paul Cooke and Mark Bedford the bass player from Madness co-produced the single at the bands recording studios…Further to this Paul & Dino provided backing vocals for the Madness hit "Uncle Sam". After Producing and collaborating with various artists in London throughout the late 80`s. Paul formed Papa "Divine", fronted the band and wrote and produced the music, gig`s at Moles Club and Ronnie Scotts ensued and various sessions for Sony, Zomba Publishing and various other labels ensued.

o* Paul returned to Hull in 1990 and formed his own record label IVI Records, Paul wrote, produced and released two singles "Love" and "No Promotion". Paul also went onto direct one promo video for the company..


Paul continued to produce music throughout the 90's and was signed to T:ME Recordings, based in Nottingham, after winning a competition in Future Music magazine. P Eye Eye was formed in 1995 with Andrew Smith from Leeds and they co-produced and wrote experimental tracks like "Lost At Sea" featured and released worldwide on Time's EM:T 2295 CD Collection as well as Instinct Records (Moby's label) via the album EM:T 2000. Paul also spent some time in the late 90`s working with the Coptic label in the Bronx, Paul worked with underground urban hip hop artists, and co-produced artists such as "Mr Magic (Rapper) & Jenni Fujita (Backing Vocalist from the band The Fugee`s)...Jenni featured on the album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill".


o* Paul started experimenting with computers and music in the late 1980's and has evolved into a Multi-Media/Producer of some quality he completed a BA Hon's degree in Interactive Multimedia Design at Hull University in 2000. and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in 2005..Paul's degree dissertation "New Media in Cyberspace" an exploration of emerging music codec`s and the affect on the present day music industry i.e.: Mp3 was published via Tagit Media in NYC, USA in 2000. Paul contributed as a writer for Musicdish.com and provided Music Industry Insider comment and reviewed various publications and music software packages. At this time Paul started working as Associate Music Producer for the short US film "Bye Bye Havana"...Paul composed some of the original music content for the film and dealt with most of the music production aspects on the project....Other new media work includes the Digital Storytelling project "Telling Lives", Paul,s story “Reflections” was produced and developed by Paul and the BBC team based in Hull and is now archived and available as a stream on the BBC website as well as permanently archived at the Bradford museum of photography and moving image.


o*Further to being nominated as a Director for PAMRA Ltd, (Performing Arts Media Rights Association) Paul was subsequently elected in 2003 and served on the board of PAMRA Ltd based in London. At this time Paul was working as Executive Producer on Rolan Bolans (Marc Bolan's son) first album in 2003 and helped negotiated the recording contract in-conjunction with Native Records & DAS Communications (Black Eyed Peas management company) in NYC, USA....


o*Paul has worked for various music companies in the past and was European Director for EX Media a company based in NYC involved in a revolutionary concept in financing and promoting music artists worldwide. As well as UK A&R Manager for Fiberlineaudio.com based in Las Vegas, USA. Paul has worked closely with Roadrunner Records in the past as a scout to identify future bands for the company's portfolio..as well as lecturing on Music Performance and Music Industry at the SIPA (School of Intermedia and Performing Arts)


o*Paul currently manages his own label Diamond Life Records and manages his latest musical projects, e.g.: P Eye Eye (www.peyeeye.com), (www.paulcookemusic.com). Paul is currently a Regional Adisor for the UK governments New Deal For Musicians program and looks after the Hull region with colleague BBC DJ Alan Raw. Paul is also somewhat of an Educationalist and runs a company called PCM2U that engages with creative young people teaching them about, performance, music business and multimedia. Paul works a lot with Schools, Colleges, Universities and passes on as much as he can about the world of entertainment, media and music business via seminars and workshops in the USA and Europe....