Graham Leslie Coxon was born in a military hospital in Rintein, near Hanover in the
old West Germany.  His dad, Bob, was an army bandsman.  He would teach jazz at
Saturday morning classes.  His mum Pauline, worked for Nestle.  He has an older
sister called Hayley who is about 6 years older than him.  “Hayley Coxon is my sister. 
She’s a 30 year old nurse, a sister in fact, and she works in close conjunction with a
lot of heart surgeons in the operating theatre.  I admire Hayley especially because she
helps save lives for a ridiculous amount of hours a week for next to no money.  Purely
for love.  Ironically, she never noticed when I got ill the other week.”

The family stayed at the military base for five years, then they moved to Derby to live
with his grandad.  Three years later they moved again to Colchester.  It was here that
he started to take notice of the music around him.  He taught himself to play the
saxophone and then the guitar.

When Graham was 14 he meet Damon Albarn who was a year ahead of him at school. 
The two had similar likes in music and soon became friends. 

After leaving Stanway Comprehensive School, Graham went to the North Essex
School of Arts and joined a group called The Curious band.  After graduating Graham
went to Goldsmiths College.  Here he studied fine arts.

Damon also went to Goldsmiths and at the time was in a group called Circus. Graham
and Damon became two parts of Circus as well as his new friend Dave.  Graham and
Dave were in a band called Hazel Dean together. Dave had also been given weekend
jazz classes by Grahams dad.  They used Damon’s access to the recording studios to
make a demo but soon after the other members left.  Graham had a friend who had a
bass guitar and asked him if he could join in.  This turned out to be Alex and low and
behold an early Blur had been formed.

The band changed their name to ‘Seymour’ and after playing a few gigs were offered
a recording contract with Food records.  The one condition was that they changed
their names.  Some of the suggestions where The Shining Path, Sub, Whirlpool and
Sensitise but eventually they chose Blur.

Graham is well known for his drinking.  It almost got him into trouble when he was
knocked over by a car while he was trying to get a taxi.  He quit alcohol altogether in
the summer of ‘96.  He has recently started again because he said he felt more
comfortable when he could drink.