Editing Jonathan Coe (section)

==Musical collaborations==

Music is a constant thread in Coe's work. He played music for years and tried to find a record label as a performer before becoming a published novelist. He had to wait until 2001 to make his first appearance on a record with ''9th & 13th'' (Tricatel, 2001), a collection of readings of his work, set to music by jazz pianist/double bass player Danny Manners and [[indiepop]] artist [[Louis Philippe (musician)|Louis Philippe]].

Coe is a lifelong fan of [[Canterbury sound|Canterbury]] [[progressive rock]]. His novel ''The Rotters' Club'' is named after an album by [[Hatfield and the North]]. He has contributed to the liner notes for that band's archival release ''Hatwise Choice''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hatfieldandthenorth.co.uk/|title=Hatfield and the North|website=www.hatfieldandthenorth.co.uk}}</ref> He once said: "I'd love to find a pianist to collaborate with – maybe Alex Maguire, who is now playing with the reformed line-up of Hatfield and the North". In fact, this collaboration did come to fruition, at the [[Cheltenham Literature Festival]] in 2009, where Maguire performed a suite of piano pieces to accompany readings from the novel ''[[The Rain Before It Falls]]''. Coe has also performed live with [[flautist]] [[Theo Travis]].

Coe wrote the sleevenotes "Reflections on The High Llamas" for the 2003 compilation of [[The High Llamas]] ''Retrospective, Rarities and Instrumentals''. He has also written lyrics for songs on the albums ''My Favourite Part of You'' and ''The Wonder of It All'' by [[Louis Philippe (musician)|Louis Philippe]], and ''Earth to Ether'' by Theo Travis, for which the vocalist was [[Richard Sinclair]].

In 2008 Coe wrote ''Say Hi to the Rivers and the Mountains'', a 60-minute piece of what he calls "spoken musical theatre", with dialogue to be delivered continuously by three actors over a sequence of songs and instrumentals by The High Llamas. The work was premiered at the Analog Festival in Dublin that summer, and subsequently performed at various venues in the UK and Spain. The most recent performance was as part of the ''Notes and Letters'' Festival at [[Kings Place]] in London in September 2011, with [[Henry Goodman]] in the leading role of Bobby. The piece is inspired by the proposed demolition of [[Robin Hood Gardens]], an East London council estate designed by [[Alison and Peter Smithson]].

In March 2011, at the City Winery in New York, Coe took the keyboard solos on a live version of "Nigel Blows A Tune" from the [[Caravan (band)|Caravan]] album ''[[In the Land of Grey and Pink]]'', along with the musician/novelist [[Wesley Stace]] and his band The English UK.