Paul Young

Paul Anthony Young was born January 17th 1956. He was the middle child of three, has an elder brother Mark and a younger sister Joanne. His interest in music dates back to when he was very young, when he learnt to play piano and then the guitar. On leaving school he worked with his father for Vauxhall Motors and played in various bands at night. He played Bass guitar in his first band but eventually lack of demand for bass players led him back to his first passion, singing. These were lean times musically because his preferred style of music – Soul, was not particularly popular. However he managed to sing in various bands such as Kat Kool & The Kool Kats and later in the better known Street Band.

In December of 79’ the Street band broke up and Paul went on to form the Q-­‐Tips. During the next two years Paul introduced himself to more and more of the British public through the Q-­‐Tips extensive touring playing 700 shows all over the UK. This period of intense activity gave Paul the chance to develop his unique voice and stage persona. The Q-­‐Tips went there separate ways at the end of 82’ and Paul signed as a solo artist with CBS/SONY Records.

Paul really came into his own with a formidably accomplished solo debut album, “NO PARLEZ” released in 83’ and including the number one single “Wherever I Lay My Hat” which maintained the number 1 spot for most of that summer followed by “Come Back And Stay” which maintained Paul’s presence at the top of the charts.

With the release of his second album “The Secret Of Association” and the success of “Every Time You Go Away” his status as a world star was confirmed. In 1987 Paul recorded his third album “Between Two Fires” in Milan where he met the Italian singer Zucchero. They became good friends and were later to collaborate very successfully.

One of the highlights of the 1989 “Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert” was Paul’s performance of the Crowded House song “Don’t Dream It’s Over” which he later recorded for his best of album.

There followed a period of time out to be with his growing family followed by time spent in America where he was to record in Los Angeles and New York the material for his fourth album “Other Voices”.

In 1991 Paul recorded a duet with his friend Zuchero on the soon to be worldwide popular “ Sensa Una Donna” which along with the fore mentioned “Don’t Dream It’s Over” were featured on his best of album “From Time To Time”.

1992 was spent touring the world, which culminated in Paul’s wonderful appearance at the “Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert” singing “Radio Gaga” and the release of what turned out to be his final album for Sony “The Crossing”. Working with the Producer Don Was on the material for “The Crossing” Paul was exploring new style’s of music, the gulf between the musical past and the future hadbegun to seem impossible to bridge. The single “Otis Blue” from this album would be the last hit single with Sony.

Once freed from his contract Paul took time out to take a breath and to reflect, “Every artist wants to change, every record company, wants them to stay the same”.

Too in love with performing to simply sit around and wait until he had new material to perform, Paul responded to the hiatus in his career by calling up friends and suggesting the get together in an informal group, simply for fun!. The result has been Los Pacaminos, surely one of the most accomplished bar bands the London area has ever seen. For the past 24 years, the seven-­‐strong line-­‐up has been playing publicly two or three times a month, transforming favoured pubs into Tex-­‐Mex haunts for the night purely by their musical presence. “It’s total escapism”, says Paul, we feature an accordion player, pedal steel, lot’s of harmonies – which I get to join in on, “cos I’m just one of five other guys that can all sing lead. It’s drinking music really, which suits me fine”.

During 1996 Paul prepared new material with long time collaborator, singer-­‐songwriter Drew Barfield, he set about assembling a collection of songs which became the self-­‐titled album “Paul Young”. This was full of introspective, storyline songs inspired by Paul’s trips to the Southwest of America.

The “Paul Young” album was released on the East-­‐West label in May of 97’. Although the single “I Wish You Love” received tremendous support from radio Paul was unhappy with the overall promotion of the album. I’m older, I’m less inclined to compromise and I have been determined to evolve as an artist, he says. Now, I’m no longer content to be just the singer. I need to be in control of the whole package.

To further this aim and to develop his songwriting Paul spent time in Nashville working with various songwriters along with his continuing working relationship with Drew Barfield have produced various cover versions of there songs among them being “Then There’s You” by The Wilkinsons and “Tularosa” by Ray Vega.

Early in 1999 saw Paul getting together again with his friends in “Los Pacaminos” they recorded a four track CD-­‐EP that found it’s way into London’s only Country music station and their self-­‐penned song “Shadows On The Rise” was played on heavy rotation for three months. Paul, “Obviously, we’re now planning an album!.

During the summer of 99’ Paul undertook a tour of smaller intimate venues across the UK. Performing new and old material with stripped down arrangements buile around his voice and acoustic guitar with piano, accordion and backing vocals provided by long time musical collaborator Matt Irving.

“Los Pacaminos” album, entitled “In All Their Glory” was released April 2002.

In 2006, with the help of producer Dieter Falk and uber-­‐arrangers Steve Sidwell and Simon Clark, Paul released a Swing album for the German, Austrian and Swiss markets entitled “Rock Swings – On The Wild Side Of Swing”.

Paul continues to write, record and play live. He is breaking new ground each year. In 2009 he toured Israel, New Zealand and Croatia for the first time, amongst the many other countries he regularly visits. These dates were in support of the “No Parlez 25th Anniversary Edition” re-­‐release of his first solo album.

During the last couple of years also saw around this time Paul enter another field of endeavor, the world of cooking. The opportunity to appear with his friend Marco Pierre White on his television show “Hells Kitchen” could not be turned down!

This appearance led to Paul appearing on various TV Cook shows such as “Saturday Kitchen” hosted by James Martin who accompanied Paul along with the “Hairy Bikers” on a Charity Fun Ride on their respective assortment of motorcycles. Paul has also appeared at several food trade shows, hosted and cooked for 80 people for a pre show dinner at the O2 Arena prior to a Rod Stewart show.

Paul continues to perform with various friends and configurations of musicians.

During 2011 Paul was invited to participate in a series of shows in Denmark organized by Jesper Mortensen (drummer extraordinaire) which went very well and Paul has continued to work with Jesper and his group of musicians on various dates throughout Europe.

2012 was a very busy year for Paul with the release and promotion of his first published Cookbook, featuring his favourite recipes gathered from the many places his career has taken him to. Also Paul performed various shows throughout the year with visits to Russia, Italy, Israel and Germany on the schedule.

2013/14 Whilst touring throughout the last two years Paul found the time to release a new record by his ongoing side venture “Los Pacaminos” the album entitled “A Fist Full Of Statins”, released thru Cherry Red Records.

The latter part of 2014 found Paul in discussions with Producer Arthur Baker, which led to the idea of making an album of their favourite & neglected Soul tunes. In the early part of 2015 Arthur brought on to the project as co-­‐producer James Hallawell, and work on the record continued throughout the year subject to Paul’s live diary.

Towards the end of 2015, Paul was contacted by Gary Barlow (Take That) and asked to consider recording a song for a soundtrack that Gary was producing for a movie based around the story of Eddie The Eagle. (Due for release end of March 2016) The song in question “People Like Us” was a perfect fit for Paul.

The end of 2015 saw the final recording on the Paul / Arthur project, working title “Good Times” with a release date scheduled on the NewState label for March/April 2016.