Michael Cook, DJ, sound engineer, sound designer, all round good guy, 61.
I'm going to talk about Michael, Cookie to his mates and Count Cookula on forums. A brother of Manchester, DJ, sound engineer and all round good guy. Michael started DJing straight out of school, playing clubs in Manchester and Huddersfield, eventually moving to LA in the early 90s, to become the studio engineer for Lol Cream's (10CC) recording studio in LA, learning how to engineer a proper studio in under 6 months. In his non-studio time he quickly brought what he had been doing in Manchester to LA and was a pioneer in starting LA's "rave scene" whilst doing what he loved, skateboarding and making sound for indie movies and adverts, like Polaroid. Folklore followed him to LA, he was a big name on the scene over there, as did the afterparty stories. He'd introduced Tracy Thorn to Massive Attack. He'd been a cook for Lady Diana, hence the name. Who knew what was true and what was a piss-take once he got out there. Eventually he set up his own sound designing company, M62, and moved back to London to handle the UK office. DJ gigs continued with the Lowlife crew, as well as Electric Chair and he was a stalwart on the Croatia scenes from the beginning, so mid 00's. A funnier guy you'd be hard pressed to meet, he would have fitted right in here at OMJ. He sorted me out a number of times on his guestlist when I was back to the UK for parties that were already sold out and all because I knew him on an online music forum, Bill Brewster's DJ History. I was thankful to have met him, even if it meant getting ribbed for being "Dirty Leeds," with him being a diehard United fan. Later on he'd had some health issues, so his passing whilst sad, does book-end this part of his life, where he'd gone off grid and hung up his headphones. Rest in peace daft lad!
When you get a sound engineer to DJ it's a wonderful thing, Cookie was the real deal. Dip in and enjoy him mixing across genres and dropping in snippets of films and sound effects, lad:
His day job: