Kenton Cool [SEP] educated at
Slough, Berkshire in 1973. His family surname was originally Kuhle and was changed during the Second World War by his half-German grandfather. His father was a photographer and his mother a florist, and the family home was near to Uxbridge, in Middlesex. He was schooled at John Hampden Grammar School in High Wycombe, and later obtained a place at the University of Leeds. Kenton Cool graduated from the University of Leeds in 1994 after studying BSc Geological Sciences. 
Cool was first introduced to mountaineering at Scouts. An
to work occasionally with Kenton in the 1950s, he spent more time creating arrangements for pop and jazz vocalists, most extensively with former Kenton singer June Christy on such albums as "Something Cool", "The Misty Miss Christy", "Fair and Warmer!", "Gone for the Day" and "The Song Is June!" 
During this period, he worked for a while on film musicals at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and served as an A&R director for Mercury Records in the late 1950s.