Peter Ball

To all those who knew and loved Cozy, words cannot express my deep sorrow at the loss of a dear old friend. My brother Denny in London has already expressed his thoughts on behalf of the family more than adequately. He mentioned that Cozy was found by The Sorcerors in Germany, well that was my band, and we stole him from a Bristol band (sorry guys) as we were a Hollies type band, and saw in Cozy a Bobby Elliott type drummer who would suit us down to the ground. How good a decision that was, we got better and better for his incredibly tight style, and great time keeping. Socially anyone who knew him will vouch that he was a loon at all times. He scared the s**t out of me on more than one occasion with his very quick and safe driving. (Too fast for me obviously). We toured Germany and turkey doing the US bases for a couple of years having a whale of a time, and our stage shows were improved tremendously by his crazy sense of humour. Imagine Cozy aged about 30, (a pretty boy in those days) dressed up as a tart drumming with a smirk on his face! Oh what memories! We brought him back to the family home in Sutton Coldfield and took him in, and hit the road as Young Blood, making a few Pye records. He was always going to be too good to go unnoticed, and after we formed Big Bertha with Denny, Dave Ball (ex Procul) and others, he got snaffled by Jeff Beck, and that was the end of us! But, that was the start of Cozy’s meteoric rise to fame and the rest as they say is history! I’ve been in South Africa for 24 odd years, (after a 1 year musical contract that we kept extending!) and i’ve only got home a couple of times, but managed to see Cozy at his farmhouse near London, where we talked about the old days in Brum, doing the Swan in Yardley for 20 quid! I’m coming over in May for a UK visit, and he was on my list of calls. How sad it is that his untimely death came too soon. Cozy, I’ll always remember you and our early, formative years, I never envied your success, you earned it fair and square. God Bless

Peter Ball
Johannesburg, South Africa

Peter played with Cozy in his pre-Bedlam days