FM
Biography
Al Cook was born Alois Kurt Koch on February 27th 1945 in Bad Ischl, Upper Austria, but spent his entire life in Vienna. Music was no subject to him, until he came in touch with Rock And Roll Music on July 25, 1960, watching an old Elvis picture from 1957, called "Loving You", which changed his attitudes to music and life forever. Al Cook tried hard to escape a dull existence as a laborer in a mechanical factory. From then on, he wanted to live a decidedly artistic and free life, but he had to keep patient for nearly 13 Years to overcome with his music. In October 1963, Al Cook bought himself a cheap "campfire-box", as he likes to identify his first guitar and launched his rocket exactly a year later, on October 17th 1964 at an amateur-variety show.
But the era of Rock n Roll died, in Al Cook's eyes, with the clipping of Elvis sideburns at the close of the 50's. Al Cook's appearance turned out to end up in a disastrous failure, because the Beatles had killed the RnR Stars and the music and lifestyle of the fifties were no longer in style. Al Cook refused to jump the bandwagon and decided to quit the world of popular entertainment to look for something that suited his rather individualistic personality. Accidentally, he came in touch with ancient forms of afro-american folk-music, that everybody knows as "The Blues". From then on, Al Cook dedicated his life to the Blues and tried to maintain a career as an uncompromising artist, who still remains true to himself. Neither the steady changing of public tastes nor occassionally bright financial offers could make him walk off-path, or collaborate with commercialism.
