User:Pcm2u

Full name: Paul Anthony Cook aka Paul Cooke Born 	December 18th 1961 (age 53) Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK. Not to be confused with the drummer Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols from London. UK.

Incidentally Paul's band Esposito supported Paul Cook's former (Sex Pistols) new band in London in the 1980's at the Fridge Club, Brixton.

Paul Anthony Cook aka Paul Cooke (born December 18th 1961 in East Hull) is an author and musician. He initially formed the band Sade with two other former Hull musicians Stewart Mathewman from the band (the Odds) and Paul Denman from the band (the Posers), Hull in January 1982 whilst living in London. Paul was responsible for the creative collaborations on all of the music on the first released album from the band 'Diamond Life' in 1984 by CBS Records. As well as collaborating on the music with the band Paul also provided the original drums for the album on songs such as 'Smooth Operator' and 'Your Love is King' the groups two biggest hits to date. Paul is a multi-instrumental musician and has worked in various bands as a musician and singer and provided backing vocals for the Uncle Sam hit by Madness released in the 1980's. Paul fronted two bands in London as the singer Jazz-Funk-Latin band 'Esposito' similar to 'The Meters' and Soul group 'Papa Divine'. Paul also wrote and produced all the music for the groups. Esposito produced a single with Jarjazz records in the late 1980's and was produced by Paul Cooke and Mark Bedford from Madness. The band Esposito also featured on the first terrestrial broadcast of a fledgling broadcast in 1986 when they performed with Curiosity Killed the Cat, and Potato 5 at the Smirnoff Fashion Awards at Albert Hall, London. in 1985 Paul was awarded Triple Platinum Discs by the BPI in 1985 for his work on the Diamond Life released by CBS Records in 1984. The work has created 50 Million sales worldwide since its inception and it is the most successful album ever for a UK female singer. Paul was awarded a x4 Platinum Disc by the RIAA for sales in the USA of 4 Million units.

Music industry career

Paul turned down a major recording contract with London Records and a publishing contract with Zomba in the late eighties with his band Esposito to pursue his career in his home town of Hull managing his own independent record label IVI Records based at Middleton Street School in Hull. Paul didn't want to be a part of what he thought was a homogenized industry that diluted the worth of most artists and groups in favor of capitalism and commercialism. Essentially Paul didn't want to turn a brilliant musical group like 'Esposito' into a 'muzak' product like everything else in the music industry in the 1980's. Paul reflected this in his BBC World Service interview with Lyndsay Shapero at the time when he suggested that if it wasn't for the record companies they would be playing really great music and would be able to make a living from their own outputs and performances. This opinion Paul carried through from leaving Sade for the same reasons related to the changing of the original groups sound and style to that of a commercial product Sade produced by Robin Millar. The company IVI Records Ltd released two 7" singles, You don't have to say you love me' and 'Amazing grace' sung by Paul's father Tony Cook aka Tony Mandelle himself a singer and actor by profession. Paul continued his music career in the 90's with experimental group P Eye Eye with DJ Andrew Smith based in London. The band won a Future Music Publishing contract and recorded the cult classic 'Lost at Sea' released on Time recordings record label based in Nottingham. The bands music was featured on EMIT 2295 and on EMIT 2000 in NYC released on Moby's record label Instinct Records at the time in the USA.

Paul as an author has written various works on the music industry further to his thesis 'New Media in Cyberspace' as presented to Lincoln University in 2000. The work comments on the advent of the digital file the mp3 at the time and the decline of the music industry further to technology driven distribution. The work was further published by TAGitMedia Inc based in NYC in 2000. Paul has written further works since then including, 1999-2004 Music industry analysis, My Sade Story Part 1 & 2, and Eden 12 a short sci fi novel and a photo media book My Pride, Sade and Esposito Photo Book: A photographic journey from the 1980's club scene in London. Paul continues to write and release new material through Diamond Life Publishing his own company. Paul has managed various artists in his career including Marc Bolan's son Rolan, he worked on his first recording contract with a UK label in-conjunction with Seth Friedman in NYC aka Black Eyed Peas. Paul has also managed two Nigerian artists - Hip Hop artist Lammy based in Lagos and Ara the Queen of the drums who is herself a household name in Africa. Ara worked on Stevie Wonders homage to Africa album. Paul has worked in many music industry related positions including as a business development executive for Peter Rafelson based in Hollywood, USA> Peter wrote Madonna's hit Open your Heart. Peter's father Bob Rafelson is a famous Hollywood Film Director. Paul is currently working on Rafelsons 'DigiRamp' project and is in charge of digital rights management for the company as well as business development in Europe.