Martin Cooper (musician)
Martin Cooper is a painter and a musician. He was born in Liverpool in 1958. He is married to Alexandra Bibby, a classical pianist, and they have two sons.
Musical career
From 1980 until 1989 Martin was a member of the pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Prior to joining OMD, Martin would play saxophone live at some of their performances or they used a taped appearance of his saxophone. In 1981 he briefly left OMD to join Dave Hughes for a project called "Godot".
Cooper also made some writing contributions to their songs. His biggest success was Souvenir, co-written with Paul Humphreys, which reached number 3 in the UK charts.
Besides playing in OMD, Cooper and Hughes wrote film scores for "C.H.U.D." and "Knights and Armour" amongst others. After OMD split in 1989, Martin formed The Listening Pool with ex-OMD members Paul Humphreys and Mal Holmes. They also founded their own record label Telegraph Records. The Listening Pool only released one album Still Life, which had one of Martins paintings at the cover. The band fell apart in 1996.
In 2007 Martin joined OMD for a reunion tour.
Painting career
Martin studied art at the Laird School of Art in Birkenhead. He obtained a first class honours degree in Fine Arts at the Sheffield College of Art in 1980. Since leaving OMD, Cooper has devoted most of his time and energy to his painting. Many of his works are still life pictures.