Neil Codling

Neil Codling
Birth name	Neil John Codling
Born	5 December 1973 (1973-12-05) (age 37)
Origin	Tiddington, Warwickshire, England
Genres	Britpop
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Keyboards and guitar
Years active	1996–present
Labels	SonyBMG/Columbia/Nude
Associated acts	Suede

Neil John Codling (born 5 December 1973, Tiddington, Warwickshire) is an English musician. He is best known as the keyboardist for the alternative rock band Suede.

Early life

Neil Codling was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon and studied English and Drama at Hull University.

He and the drummer of Suede, Simon Gilbert, are cousins.

Suede

In the autumn of 1995, Codling joined the band as a keyboardist and backing vocalist whilst recording their third album, Coming Up.

His first appearance for Suede took place in Hanover Grand, on a secret fanclub gig on 27 January 1996, while his first public performance with Suede was in September 1996.

For their 1999 album Head Music, his role became considerably larger within the band, co-writing many of the album's songs. Aside from singer Brett Anderson, Codling was the only member of Suede to receive sole writing credit on several of the group's songs, which included "Elephant Man", "Digging a Hole", "Waterloo" and "Weight of the World", and sang lead on the latter three songs, all B-sides. Codling also played some rhythm guitar during live shows while he was in the group. Together with Richard Oakes, Codling gave Suede's style a touch of pop and electricity, giving birth to two #1 albums in the UK: Coming Up and Head Music.

His last appearance with Suede was in the Iceland Airwaves Festival on 21 October 2000. On 23 March 2001, it was announced that Codling had quit Suede, due to his Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.^[1] In December 2004 ^[2] he played a show featuring his musical project Barry O'Neil, which is a duo comprising him and Harriet Cawley.

Subsequently, Codling has played keyboards on tour with the pop singer Natalie Imbruglia. In April 2007, it was announced that Codling would be playing keyboards for two Anderson solo concerts in Germany—the first time the pair would be re-united since he left Suede.

Codling joined his former bandmates for three UK Suede concerts in 2010,^[3] and the reunited band has continued playing occasional gigs around the world throughout 2010 and 2011.

References

1. ^ Cohen, Jonathan. "Billboard Bits: Fatboy Slim, Suede, Keb' Mo'". billboard.com. March 23, 2001.
2. ^ Barry O'Neil first gig. FY Neil Codling. September 24, 2010.
3. ^ Suede play first gig in seven years, NME.com, 21 March 2010 (retrieved 16 April 2010)

• Penguin Cafe facebookpage
• Penguin Cafe homepage

External links

• Neil Codling fansite
• Essential Suede
• Official Suede website

Persondata
Name	Codling, Neil
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Date of birth	5 December 1973
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