Andy Cox is one of the two founding members of the Beat. He was born in 1956 in Birmingham, UK and "grew up in an dodgy area called Winsome Green with a gambler as a father and a music-hall actress as a mother". As a youth he amused himself by sticking potatoes up exhaust pipes, setting fire to embankments, and playing "chicken run" on the motorway. His first job was in the banana-packing industry. Later on he became an auctioneer (Raw And Unrevealed). He and Dave were good friends and both worked together on the Isle of Wight in Birmingham. After having dropped out of college, the two chose to go into the business of building solar panels (along with assorted menial jobs on the side). When they weren't working, Andy and Dave spent a lot of time playing their guitars. From early on, Andy was an avid fan of punk and reggae. Eventually they joined up with a metal band called Guyano, which they promptly parted from before the band's first gig. It was at this point when a classified ad was placed in the Newport news for a bass player and the pieces of the Beat began to fall into place (Halasa). After the break up of the Beat, Andy moved on to form the critically acclaimed band the Fine Young Cannibals. He then formed his own Fidela record label, on which he took part in the band Cribabi (thebeatuk.com). Outside of his music career, Andy also devotes much time to his artwork (thebeatuk.com). Sources: |
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