Nick Cope Q&A

Describe your show for us; what can we expect?

I write and perform songs for young children and their families. There is a lot of moving about as we discuss things, like what happens if dogs eat soap and what sort of noise an octopus makes.

What age group does your show suit? 

I run regular shows at home with ages ranging from small babies up to six and seven year olds. Parents of the small babies raise them in the air and there is a sea of slightly confused smiley babies looking at me, which is always quite amusing. Whereas the older children get involved with serious stuff like checking the colour of their socks and digging big mole holes.

We hear this is your first Edinburgh visit. What are you looking forward to?  

I am thoroughly enjoying myself so far. It can be hard to drum up new audiences as I don’t blow up balloons or run around screaming and shouting. But once people hear my songs they love what I do. Some become die-hard fans and buy my CDs, T-shirts and sit outside my house.

So how did you start making music for small people?

When my band came to an end I sort of hung up my guitar, which left a bit of a hole. A few years later friends of mine asked me to run a music session at their Montessori nursery. Instead of learning standard nursery rhymes I decided to write my own. I really enjoyed it and—luckily enough—so did the teachers and the children. Now my CDs sell all over the world, I get invited to play at festivals all over the country and I am even heading off to Hong Kong this winter.

What did you want to be when you were little?

I think I always wanted to be a singer. In a primary school production of Star Trek and the Seven Dwarves—set to the tunes of Gilbert and Sullivan—I was Scotty. It was the Seventies.