Brian Cookman

Brian Cookman (22 November 1946 – 18 February 2005)[1] was an English musician and composer, magazine designer and artist, and tai chi practitioner.

As one of the country's leading magazine designers, he was a pioneer of desktop publishing and also helped to launch Rolling Stone in the UK.

After studying graphic design at Harrow School of Art, he went to work for the record company EMI, where he became promotions manager.

On 14 October 1972, Cookman married Lesley Penn, now the author of the Libby Sarjeant mystery series published by Headline, with whom he went on to have four children, Louise, now a professional singer; Miles, a singer-songwriter, rhythm guitarist and stand-in Jug Trust member; Phillipa, also a singer and occasional guitarist and Leo, the only pianist in the family.

After many years of playing all around UK and Europe, Cookman's songwriting began to demand a more commercial sound, so the band became Bronx Cheer and added keyboards, bass and drums.

Sharing the same management as Chicken Shack, Mungo Jerry and Savoy Brown, more years on the road followed, with one album, Bronx Cheer's Greatest Hits, Volume Three, a single and an EP.

His music connections and design skills helped him get a job as advertisement director on Rolling Stone magazine when it was launched in the UK in 1970.

It was traditionally performed by ploughboys; the black-faced dancers, carrying brooms and wearing tattered coats bestrewn with ribbons, would dance at farms and in every village.

In 2011 Riverman-Bella Terra Music issued two of Brian's albums on 24-bit digitally remastered CDs, Grinnin' and Jack's Return Home.