Nick Cope on playing gigs in the 90s and writing songs for kids

The star of children’s television program Nick Cope’s Popcast performed at the Eastwood Theatre as part of a set of Scottish dates to coincide with the school holidays.
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Based on the five minute programs that kids watch each morning on Cbeebies, Nick Cope has cracked the creative process. Taking inspiration from ideas provided by his real-life grandchildren who appear on the show, Nick collaborates with his pet, a whippet named Norman, who provides concise dog feedback before pressing a button on a popcast machine as Nick launches into a new song that he has just written.

“It’s amazing, it’s almost like I know what key I’m going to play in already because the capo is on the guitar in the right place. I don’t know how we do it so quickly, it’s just TV magic I suppose. Norman does tell me if he doesn’t like a song. We do have arguments, we’re like that couple from Father Ted sometimes” Nick says.

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In the 1990s, Nick was playing a different kind of gig as the lead singer of rock band The Candyskins with his brother Mark and childhood friends Nick Burton and John Halliday. The group emerged from the Oxfordshire indie scene that produced bands like Radiohead and Supergrass.

“We played King Tut’s and all those regular smaller venues around Scotland. I remember we drove to Glasgow and we played the SECC as support for Wet Wet Wet. That was great. We were on the same label in America as Teenage Fanclub and I loved their music. It felt at that time like everything was sort of exploding around music with the Britpop thing and we were caught up in the wave in a way.”

For the last decade his musical output has been fun, family-friendly compositions like Ralph the Rusty Robot, The Pirate’s Breakfast Why Is the Sky Blue? and A Round of Applause for the Dinosaurs, a song that drew one of the biggest reactions from the audience of wee ones assembled in the Eastwood Theatre, close to Rouken Glen Park.

Nick draws influences from his own childhood and genres of music in his record collection. “I like a lot of the seventies singer-songwriter stuff like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. A lot of my production harks back to that era. When I was in the band we had a very loud drummer and that set the tone, the pitch was always quite high so I could shout. I always had this dream of just sitting down to sing these songs on an acoustic guitar. The seventies was also a time when there were a lot of melodies from children’s shows that stayed with me, things like Mr Benn and Bagpuss, in a way that’s what I’m trying to do with my songs.

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“I try to come up with songs that are easy listening, that parents can listen to without getting annoyed and that are lyrically interesting. I want to write the best possible song I can about whatever subject, whether it’s about babies doing a poo or a dragon in the forest or a deer that thinks it’s a unicorn.”

Before the television show and performing took over, he would teach children how to play guitar: “I found it was really good for the kids lacking in a bit of confidence or that weren’t doing so well academically at school. They’d grab hold of the guitar and it would be a really positive influence.”

Nick’s not the only indie musician to tackle the songs for children genre. Glasgow bands Belle and Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand recorded tracks for the Colours are Brighter charity record in 2006 alongside The Kooks, Snow Patrol and The Flaming Lips. “I think it’s quite challenging and fulfilling if you take it seriously”, Nick says.

On stage, with minimal set, Nick relies on upbeat songs, occasional animation and one or two theatrical flourishes to hold the young audience’s attention. He’s playing the role of himself, as seen on television.

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Both his parents were actors – Kenneth Cope played Marty Hopkirk in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) before appearing in Coronation Street as Jed Stone, Renny Lister also had a role in the soap and acted in Hammer Horror film The Curse of the Werewolf. His sister is Eastenders actress Martha Cope.

Nick explains he had no acting experience before the television show began in 2020 but he sees some echoes of the family tradition in what he does now. “Acting was the one thing that terrified me. When we were touring with the band, my brother and the other Nick that was in the band would do funny little sketches with an old video camera and they would always try to get me involve but I couldn’t do it.

“I marveled at how funny they were and how they didn’t care what people would think. I had a small part in a primary school production, it was a musical version of Star Trek but with the songs of Gilbert and Sullivan, but that was because I wanted to sing.

“In the show, I’m talking to Norman and the children and thinking up ideas for songs. There’s not much acting but I think in the next series they have branched out in the script writing and there might be more for me to do. I see some of my dad in me every now and then when I’m doing some of the bits for television, in a very nice way.”

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After a rousing chorus of I’m a Little Lizard to close the perfomance, families queue outside the theatre auditorium for pictures with Nick Cope. From the understated but retro fashion and haircuts on display, this is a crowd that would have been familiar with the indie venues of Glasgow in the nineties. These days they are raising the next generation of local music fans.

Nick completes his visit to Scotland today, playing the Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh. You can find future dates here.

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