User:Joriah Cotton

Backbone Of England".

More About Joriah Cotton Joriah Cotton was born in 1962 on the 8th December-which the Roman Catholics call The Feast Of The Immaculate Conception. He was raised in a small, Northern English, predominantly working class town in the county of Lancashire in sight of the range of hills and moors named The Pennines, also known as "The Backbone Of England". At the age of ten, he wrote a poem for a school competition (which he didn't win) entitled "My Land", which contained the line..."I'd like to explore your backbone till my boots can stand no more..." An early, prophetic nod perhaps to the future Bohemian lifestyle he was to adopt.

School years were endured and Punk Rock music was embarrassed, along with safety pin ear rings, torn clothing and red and green hair. He excelled in English and Drama but other subjects held little or no interest. He was even banned for music lessons at aged 13 for "un-cooperative behavior...". After leaving school he managed to land a job at a local arts center and emersed himself in learning the craft of Stage Management, lighting design and sound mixing. Here, he met and worked with a diverse range of performers which included many political orientated theater companies and musicians ranging from Bert Janch, George Melley and Joy Division just prior to Ian Curtis' death.

Although still enjoying the last throws of the punk scene, it was at this time a family friend introduced him to Folk Music and gave him two albums that was literally to change his life. The first one was "The Streets Of London" by Ralph McTell, where he read on the sleeve notes that the young McTell took himself, a guitar and five pounds and headed to Paris to busk his way through the streets, bars and cafes of that great city. And a seed was planted....... The second album was Bob Dylans "The Times They Are A changing.." With it's rough, earthy feel and thought provoking songs, the seed grew....

Whist still working at The Arts Center, he bought his first guitar for the collosal sum of Seventy Nine Pounds-Joriah was earning just twenty pounds per week at this stage-He named the guitar "Horace" after an elderly gentleman he had befriended who told him tales of travel and of love lost and of his time spent fighting in the Spanish Civil War. This same gentleman gave him a classic guitar teaching book called.."Burt Weedons Play In A Day..." It took a little longer than the stated "Day" but in six months had learned, and written, enough songs to begin playing as a guest floor singer on the local folk club circuit, no payment, just a few free beers for your trouble and got to hang out at various parties with mature students and university lecturers who would encourage him to read the great authors and turn him on to the wonderful world of the traditional folk song. It was here that a life long love affair with the great welsh poet Dylan Thomas began and where he first came across the wittisismns and knowledge of the colorful Dr. Samuel Johnson and many others.

The stint at the Arts Center came to an end though funding cuts that swept through the British Arts scene in the early 1980's and after a brief adventurous two months in North Wales busking the streets and occasional bars he secured a job as an entertainer for a well known holiday camp chain and was sent to the West Coast of Scotland where he found a captive audience for his own songs, sometimes playing to over 2000 people at the end of week show. After the Summer season ended he once again donned a backpack, slung his guitar (Horace) over a shoulder and set off for Paris where a wonderfully successful three months busking in bars, cafes and subways truly cemented the idea of "A life on the road..."

Back in the uk for a few weeks, he spotted an advert in a local newspaper seeking tour crew for the summer to tour with an experimental arts/theater/performance group. He applied for the position and got the job and for the next six Summers or so, traveled the British Isles as Assistant Tour Manager, then spending the winters on and off touring Europe busking. It seemed a perfect existence.

In 1989, a small windfall came his way and he decided to travel a little further afield and purchased an air ticket to Australia and new Zealand. Leaving Horace behind he headed to Sydney, purchased a cheap guitar from a pawn shop in Kings Cross and spent the next four months busking and traveling between Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and in all that time, through the generosity of people he met on the road, he only spent Twenty Eight dollars on accommodation!

It was in New Zealand where he met his future wife to be whilst hitch-hiking in the South Island, she happened to be on a private tour bus that stopped to offer him a ride.... She went back to the U.K with him where they were married and a year or so later returned to live in Christchurch New Zealand.

Joriah and his wife had learned to juggle in England at a folk festival and loved the freedom of expression this new found skill offered, so decided to open up the first juggling shop in the southern hemisphere to spread the word and joy of juggling.It was now 1992.

With contacts they made through the juggling shop they developed first, a Street Theater style juggling show which they would perform at weekends at local markets and small festivals, then, a Stage Show which saw them booked to perform at most of the major festivals throughout New Zealand. In their spare time they sang and Joriah continued to write songs.

Whilst on an extended break to the U.K with their first born son, they were introduced to a theatrical agent who promised he could get them lots of festival work with their stage show and for the next nine years they spent 6 summer months touring the U.K and 6 Summer months in New Zealand performing. But music was still a big part of Joriah's life and when complications from an earlier eye injury began to show, Joriah found he could no longer see well enough to perform as a professional juggler and so was forced to give up the endless summer lifestyle.

For the past few years Joriah has been concentrating on music and after a friendly separation from his wife had a chance meeting with Luke....... the owner/producer at Hear No Evil Records and a collaboration began that has brought Joriah back to his first love...Music. They have been working on a collection of original music, a c.d with the tentative title of "Traveling Sideways" and are planning to tour the album with a series of concerts both in New Zealand and overseas.

Back on the road with Joriah Cotton...Just how it should be...Where he belongs.........