who died from ovarian cancer just a few months later. Solo Coppin formed his own band in 1977 with Phil Beer (guitar, fiddle, vocals), Steve Hutt (bass, vocals), Candler (drums) and Tony Bennett (guitar, vocals). With these musicians he collaborated with Nigel Mazlyn Jones on his 1976 Ship To Shore and 1979 Sentinel albums. Coppin's first album was a solo effort, Roll On Dreamer (1978). In December 1978 and between December 1979 and January 1980, Coppin was the musical director for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. Anthony Head played Joseph and also made contributions to Coppin's second album, No Going Back, which was a band effort. After three albums of original songs, Coppin found a rich vein of material when he decided to set poems written by famous Gloucestershire authors to music. His first effort, The Roads Go Down, had been included on his first solo album. Coppin's first full album of Gloucestershire poems set to music, Forest and Vale and High Blue Hill, was premiered at the 1983 Cheltenham Literary Festival. Coppin has chosen poems from writers such as Ivor Gurney, F. W. Harvey, Eva Dobell, and Frank Mansell. Perhaps the most famous poet whose work Coppin has set to music is Laurie Lee, and they collaborated on the album, Edge of Day. Coppin's subsequent work has included completely original work as well as further albums based on the Gloucestershire theme. Most albums have at least one song where Coppin has taken lyrical content and added his musical interpretation. His television appearances include his own programme Song of Gloucestershire for the BBC, Stars in a Dark Night for Channel 4, and Music Writers on TV for HTV, while his radio work includes Kaleidoscope for Radio 4, West Country Christmas, the Arts Programme and Folk on Two for Radio 2, as well as many appearances on British local radio shows. His music for theatre includes Songs on Lonely Roads (the story of composer/poet Ivor Gurney) with David Goodland, The Shrewsbury Theatre Guild's production of Arthur's Plough, as well as writing and directing the music for the Festival Players Theatre Company, and their touring productions of William Shakespeare's works, which culminated in the Three Choirs Festival. He has edited two poetry anthologies: Forest & Vale & High Blue Hill and Between the Severn and the Wye – poems from the border counties of England