{"id":6461,"date":"2023-07-14T11:17:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T11:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=6461"},"modified":"2023-07-14T11:18:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T11:18:32","slug":"grub-cooper-leaves-fab-five-after-over-fifty-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=6461","title":{"rendered":"Grub Cooper Leaves Fab Five After Over Fifty Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 52 years with the Fabulous Five, Grub Cooper is leaving the band for which he has been drummer, vocalist, and artistic director since inception.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He told the Jamaica Observer that his last gig with them was Red Rose for Gregory at Hope Gardens in June.\u00a0 Cooper said that he has long wanted to pursue solo projects, but assignments with \u2018Fab Five\u2019 prevented him from doing so. He stressed that there is \u201cno animosity\u201d with his bandmates.\u00a0 \u201cThere wasn\u2019t much of an argument when I told them because wanting to move on is a personal issue,\u201d said Cooper.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His immediate plans include a song saluting roots-reggae group, The Mighty Diamonds, as well as working in theatre and with younger artistes.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve always re-invented me to remain relevant. The kind of workload I had (with Fab Five) kept me from achieving a lot of the things I wanted to,\u201d Cooper explained.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Linstead-born Cooper was a founding member of Fab Five which formed in Kingston in 1971. He and his older brother, keyboardist Conroy Cooper, were musically inclined since their days at the Salvation Army School for The Blind.\u00a0 Along with bassist Frankie Campbell, guitarists Junior Bailey and Stephen Golding, and vocalist Peter Scarlett, they were the band\u2019s original members.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The band formed during the band craze of that period, but also established themselves with early hits like <\/span>\u2018Come Back and Stay\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>. They played several songs on <\/span>\u2018I Can See Clearly Now\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, Johnny\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cream\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> and the ballad, <\/span>\u2018Asking for Love\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, they enjoyed Nash\u2019s 1972 hit album.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

pics by Jamaica Observer<\/p><\/div>\n

While Fab Five had other hit singles in the 1970s such as <\/span>\u2018Shaving <\/span><\/i><\/b>their most fruitful time in the 1980s. With Cooper calling the shots, the band transformed into a Soca powerhouse through chart-topping songs like <\/span>\u2018Ring Road Jam\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018Yu Safe\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>, <\/span>\u2018Jamaican Woman\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> and <\/span>\u2018All Night Party\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cooper considers that era among the highlights of his time with Fab Five, as well as producing their 1990 <\/span>\u2018Christmas in The Sun\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b> album, and working with Rita Marley on her 1981 album, <\/span>\u2018Who Feels It Knows It\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 52 years with the Fabulous Five, Grub Cooper is leaving the band for which he has been drummer, vocalist, and artistic director since inception.\u00a0 He told the Jamaica Observer that his last gig with them was Red Rose for Gregory at Hope Gardens in June.\u00a0 Cooper said that he has long wanted to pursue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-6461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-breakingnews"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6462,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6461\/revisions\/6462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}