You know how this rock 'n' roll thing goes. The idea, at this stage , is to convince you that The Artist went straight from nappies to their rockin' vocation, pausing only to kill their parents, drop out of an art degree, and spend a stint on The Reeperbahn providing oral services for a cross-dressing insurance salesman from Bavaria. Thankfully, Paul The Girl is way past convincing you of anything except her talent, which already speaks for itself through the unique mysteries contained within Electro-Magnetic Blues.
So some truth is necessary here. And Paul The Girl's story begins where every good true story should begin - Macclesfield Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra.
Yep, Paul The Girl was a proper musical prodigy, studying classical guitar and theatre in the frozen north in her teens, before running away to the Middle-East with a cabaret band, and returning to bag a prestigious audition with budding organist Gary Barlow at the Mecca of northern light entertainment, Frodsham Labour Club.
By 1993, she'd left struggling musicians like Gary far behind and signed to Arista records as a proper artiste.
Which, of course, is where it all went wrong.
How? I'm sure you can guess. A mixture of manipulation of and lack of commitment to a young singer-songwriter who hadn't really decided who or what she was just yet. People thought she'd hit the big time She was actually on the dole. It was over two years before the 'Paul' album appeared and, with zero budget promotion, it sank without trace. A second album was made, but never released. Paul and Arista waved an inevitable and relieved goodbye in1996.
But, while all this had been going on, Paul had been absorbing herself into a network of musicians who were allowing her to find her own muse. The likes of John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Davey Graham, Roy Harper and John Renbourn regularly played the acoustic circuit in Chester and Paul joined the folk faithfull in taking inspiration, understanding that there were other ways to find musical job satisfaction than major label pop stardom. Nevertheless, she still got banned from Liverpool folk club for wait for it..playing her own songs. See - wasn't the rock 'n' roll rebellion worth waiting for?
So Paul moved to South London and began a process of reinvention She found a new network of creatives hangin out in the hip South London Jazz clubs. She formed a band of equal talents and like minds, including Seb Rochford (drums - also of Menlo Park), Tom Herbert (bass), Pete Wareham (sax), Roger Goslyn (horns).
She collaborated with fellow pursuers of the darkly comedic truth in America's Johnny Dowd and London's Michael J Sheehy.She played a string of dates at London's Borderline in 2000/2001 that brought intriguing reviews from The Guardian and Time Out. She began her first novel and provided music for movies called 'Crawl Space' and 'Death Leap'. She built her own studio, taught herself all the pro tools-type malarkey, started her own website, formed her own Inconvenient Label, got an entire Notting Hill crowd to provide backing vocals for her wonderful and frightening masterpiece 'The Phony On The Jury', designed her own artwork, wrote the classic couplet 'His face was a cheap cheese pizza/But she was already wondering what she'd do with his dick' (from the genuinely terrifying and hilarious 'Tea in Autumn') and set about making the album she'd always wanted to make. The record shows she did it her way.
Garry Mulholland
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.paulthegirl.com
Track List:
1. It's not usual
2. V signs
3. Don't you know yet who I am?
4. Electro-magnetic blues
5. Too drunk
6. Thinking song
7. Hermit
8. Spaceship
9. The phony on the jury
10. Tea in Autumn
11. Gods and goddesses
Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
So some truth is necessary here. And Paul The Girl's story begins where every good true story should begin - Macclesfield Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra.
Yep, Paul The Girl was a proper musical prodigy, studying classical guitar and theatre in the frozen north in her teens, before running away to the Middle-East with a cabaret band, and returning to bag a prestigious audition with budding organist Gary Barlow at the Mecca of northern light entertainment, Frodsham Labour Club.
By 1993, she'd left struggling musicians like Gary far behind and signed to Arista records as a proper artiste.
Which, of course, is where it all went wrong.
How? I'm sure you can guess. A mixture of manipulation of and lack of commitment to a young singer-songwriter who hadn't really decided who or what she was just yet. People thought she'd hit the big time She was actually on the dole. It was over two years before the 'Paul' album appeared and, with zero budget promotion, it sank without trace. A second album was made, but never released. Paul and Arista waved an inevitable and relieved goodbye in1996.
But, while all this had been going on, Paul had been absorbing herself into a network of musicians who were allowing her to find her own muse. The likes of John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Davey Graham, Roy Harper and John Renbourn regularly played the acoustic circuit in Chester and Paul joined the folk faithfull in taking inspiration, understanding that there were other ways to find musical job satisfaction than major label pop stardom. Nevertheless, she still got banned from Liverpool folk club for wait for it..playing her own songs. See - wasn't the rock 'n' roll rebellion worth waiting for?
So Paul moved to South London and began a process of reinvention She found a new network of creatives hangin out in the hip South London Jazz clubs. She formed a band of equal talents and like minds, including Seb Rochford (drums - also of Menlo Park), Tom Herbert (bass), Pete Wareham (sax), Roger Goslyn (horns).
She collaborated with fellow pursuers of the darkly comedic truth in America's Johnny Dowd and London's Michael J Sheehy.She played a string of dates at London's Borderline in 2000/2001 that brought intriguing reviews from The Guardian and Time Out. She began her first novel and provided music for movies called 'Crawl Space' and 'Death Leap'. She built her own studio, taught herself all the pro tools-type malarkey, started her own website, formed her own Inconvenient Label, got an entire Notting Hill crowd to provide backing vocals for her wonderful and frightening masterpiece 'The Phony On The Jury', designed her own artwork, wrote the classic couplet 'His face was a cheap cheese pizza/But she was already wondering what she'd do with his dick' (from the genuinely terrifying and hilarious 'Tea in Autumn') and set about making the album she'd always wanted to make. The record shows she did it her way.
Garry Mulholland
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.paulthegirl.com
Track List:
1. It's not usual
2. V signs
3. Don't you know yet who I am?
4. Electro-magnetic blues
5. Too drunk
6. Thinking song
7. Hermit
8. Spaceship
9. The phony on the jury
10. Tea in Autumn
11. Gods and goddesses
Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
- BLUES: English Style
- ROCK: Americana
- SOLO FEMALE ARTIST