From fourth division to premier league is how Phil likes to describe his breakthrough onto the mid 90’s house music scene. Plucked from relative obscurity, DJing at Chester’s “Sweet” House music night in the North West of England to warm up DJ to the underground stars at Cream, Liverpool by Darren Hughes, promoter and visionary extraordinaire! All this happened in 1995 and the summer of 1996 saw Phil land the first of his many years’ residencies for Cream at Amnesia, Ibiza. Here Phil was allowed to flex his broad musical styles ranging from hip hop to deep house in his marathon 8 hour sets. Many people think Jade Jagger bought hip hop to Ibiza but DJ magazine recognised Phat Phil’s hip hop credentials in ’96 and awarded him Best Hip Hop set of the Year – Phat Phil Cooper, Cream, Amnesia, Ibiza – FACT!

The mid-nineties blurred into the mid-naughties and Phil rode the tidal wave of rave with Super Club residencies at Cream, Liverpool and the Ministry of Sound, London and guested worldwide from Brighton to Brazil to Singapore to Sydney bringing his deep, jackin’, intelligent blend of house music to the masses. All the time Phil was travelling and playing he was collecting music from every corner of the world and from all corners of the dance floors. Picking up Northern Soul collections in Ibiza and obscure afro-rock 7”s in South Africa allowed Phil to expand his already over active and over flowing mind of music. However, Phil’s freestyle outlook on DJing needed an escape, not content with playing these weird and wonderful finds in his bedroom or laying down the odd and occasional mix tape, Phil came up with the NuNorthern Soul concept, a Sunday session of music presented in comfortable surroundings with great food and wine, City Bar in Chester was the landing pad for the Sunday slouchdown and Jim Baron from Crazy P was one of the many NuNorthern Soul All-stars! The pair would spin for eight hours, playing records from front to back, full length, blended and melded together to create an audio soundscape to lazy, hazy Sunday afternoons!
As Phil moved from the UK to Ibiza to set up a record promo pool, NuNorthern Soul went with him, transferring it from an English style bar to the legendry Ibiza Base Bar was easy as people wanted to hear different beats and NuNorthern Soul provided them with exactly that. Quickly it was obvious that this idea would work well anywhere with sun, so as The Base Bar extended their business and opened Es Vive Hotel, Phil was asked to host the pool side session every Wednesday and Sunday. The Sunday sessions soon turned into pre Space sessions with the cooler, music-loving crowd rocking up for Sunday sustenance in the form of a full Sunday roast before heading down to We Love at Space. Quick to spot the synergy that NuNorthern Soul had, in stepped Mr Darren Hughes (again) and his music director, and business partner, Mark Broadbent and took the NuNorthern Soul vibe to the new roof terrace at Space every Sunday, kicking up a fuss with African and Latin beats, funk, disco, soul, hip hop and broken beat.

Phil eventually moved back to Liverpool, UK and set up the Sick Trumpet label, several 7” and 12” and a full artist album projects under his belt he set about also setting up KAT records, an edits based 12” label, releasing re-edits of classic, hard to find disco and boogie tracks with a view to keeping history alive and providing modern diggers with a new source of material. Greg Wilson, Rahaan and Al Kent are some of the contributors so far.

Also while in Liverpool, Phil hooked up with Brother’s Paddy and Kwinzola (Friends and Family) who had been running the No Fakin’ / Dusty session for 10+ years, when these meeting of minds and vinyl collections came about so did the Common Ground Collective, spawning more boundary breaking parties in Liverpool and beyond. Sick Trumpet also teamed up with Chibuku Shake Shake to throw several key parties including an event with Balearic pioneers, A Man Called Adam in a Cheshire farm and a Hip Hop / Funk fuelled party on a working Steam Train through North Wales!