The natural link between Woody Guthrie and rapper Jay-Z, Cosmo is a folksinger of our times with a veritable hive of bees in his bonnet.

 

Edinburgh Fringe review


Cosmo is a man-with-guitar. The son of a lapsed Hungarian aristocrat and a disinherited Scottish noblewoman allegedly descended from William the Conqueror, a thirst for social justice has been with him from an early age. "If I can't live in a castle," he once said, "no-one's living in a f*cking castle."


He has a unique style that brings together punk, folk, hip-hop, human beatboxing, bluegrass and cowpunk. Throw in a bit of stand-up comedy, tragedy and mayhem and you've got it. Somehow, it all works. Last year's tour featured a live version of his tune F@ck the BNP being sung by the audience and recorded on Nick Griffin's answerphone, and ended in a show at London's Leicester Square Theatre.

 

He's released five albums on his own Perverse Pop label, and two singles on Tantrum Records. The first single, George Bush RIP was the most downloaded track on the label in 2009. The second single, Oi Mush – The Mosh Song, got to number two in the Amazon folk charts in September 2009, outselling five songs by Neil Young.

 

Oi Mush involved massive viral marketing on Facebook and other social networking sites, and included a highly memorable video which was part Crass, part Benny Hill!

 

Over the past two years, he has taken a one man show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He won a Sweet Entertainments award for one entitled Freedom for Tooting!!!!, and he won the Golden Comb Award at the Hay Fringe Festival.


Cosmo has shared stages with acts as diverse as Manic Street Preachers, the cast of Torchwood, Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds, Howard Marks, Mark Thomas, Pete Doherty, Frank Turner, Chris TT, Altern-8, Dreadzone and Eat Static. He's also appeared at venues, protests and festivals all over the UK - including Glastonbury, the Camp for Climate Action and the Big Green Gathering (RIP!). His touring schedule has included Ireland, Europe, the US and South America, and he's appeared on various media outlets all over the world.

 

Cosmo has also contributed widely to underground blogs and other media outlets, and more widely to grassroots campaigns through his music, via benefit gigs, songwriting workshops and compilation CDs.

 

Revolutionary...beautifully life affirming.....a smorgsmaboard of musical styles

OutSideLeft.com

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