Matthew Cogley
3/12/1984 – 1/1/2015
The news of Matt’s death came as a shock. To all of us. I was sitting on my sofa when my hungover friend told me he’d just been texted the news. A few days on, it still doesn’t quite seem real, but then it only highlights our brief existences and the tragedy of talent being cut off in its prime.
The thing was – whilst I was as guilty of badly keeping in contact with Matt in the last few years as he was with me, anyone who toured with him will agree he was an infectious lad. Outrageously Northern, outrageously extrovert – yet as equally tortured and considered as any musician I’ve played with.
One of my previous bands, Phinius Gage, did – what seems like at least – about 17 tours in a row with Failsafe, Matt’s band. I watched the lad play the same songs more times than almost everyone in the world who has ever lived. And inbetween nights keeping warm by drinking free Jager to avoid the thought of another night in the van at Woolley Edge Services, he was a genuinely funny man. Effortlessly funny. In fact, even in those barren surroundings, if he did moan it was only amusing, rather than jaded. He loved not bathing, not sleeping well and carrying 8 x 10 Ampeg cabinets up steep stairs.
This kind of attitude is exactly why he’s been playing Open Mics, putting on shows and generally championing the un-championed in the last few years. I don’t confess to have chatted to him more than when we’ve run into each other at shows in the last 2 or 3 years – and with poor Facebook communication messages – but I don’t doubt he was still the talented and endearing guitarist he always was. He has – of course –left a decent musical legacy too.
So – go and listen to those old Failsafe recordings. And give a smile for that hairy, Northern ball of nervous energy Matt Cogley.
RIP man.