The King of the West
QUESTION
I read recently that Eighties singer Paul King was born in Galway. Does he still have family there and is he still performing as part of King? ALTHOUGH Paul King was born in Galway in 1960, he didn’t stay there long as within a couple of years, he and his family emigrated to England, where they settled in Coventry.
However, it’s believed that he still has some distant relations in that part of the West. His group, King, has long since broken up but he still works as a video presenter and as a producer on television music channels.
In demeanour and style, Paul King has always been thought of as a typically English musician and his own identity has been derived from the English music scene. His Irish upbringing seems to have had little bearing on either his personal or his musical style. He was born in Galway city on November 20, 1960; both his parents were from the area.
But when Paul was aged two, they decided to emigrate and settled in Coventry, where Paul grew up a typical English teenager.
At an early age, he showed plenty of signs of his musical talent. After he graduated from the Coventry Drama School, he nearly joined the West Midlands police, but the music scene came calling and he didn’t take that path.
Instead, he joined a rock-ska band, The Reluctant Stereotypes. During his time with them in the early 1980s, he released an album and three singles.
The band didn’t last long and after it foundered, Paul formed another band, called The Raw Scream, which in 1983, he turned into King.
Paul was the lead singer, easily recognisable for his cockatoo hairstyle and his spray-painted Dr. Martens boots. The new band was reasonably successful and had two Top 10 singles, Love & Pride and Alone Without You. But King only lasted for two years, breaking up in 1987, 31 years ago.
When King broke up, Paul went solo, with an album called Joy, but his solo career didn’t work out, so he made a major change of direction. He became a video presenter on MTV in 1989, moving to VH1 in 1994. The programmes that he is mostly remembered for include MTV’s Greatest Hits, 120 Minutes and XPO, later known as First Looks. Paul still works for MTV Network Europe, although he’s now nearly 60, while he has also produced shows for VH1. Most of his career has, in fact, been not as a singer, but as a video presenter and television producer.
But despite his long career in front of and behind the television cameras, Paul still has an impressive discography, 12 singles between 1980 and 1987 and five albums between 1980 and 1998.
As it’s now over 55 years since Paul and his parents left Galway, his connections with the West of Ireland have naturally become slighter. The fact that he was born in Galway, to local parents, is something that doesn’t get too much of a public airing. Despite this long absence from Galway, it’s very likely he still has distant relations there like cousins. James McKenna, via email.
QUESTION
I’ve been told a Liverpool poet said: ‘If life is a bad movie why not leave before the end?’ Who was the poet? THE actual title of this poem is If Life’s A Lousy Picture, Why Not Leave Before The End. It was written by Liverpool poet Roger McGough and first published in 1969 in his collection of poems called Watchwords.
One of the three ‘Liverpool Poets’, the others being Brian Patten and Adrian Henri, McGough found fame when the three poets were selected for a Penguin anthology, Penguin Modern Poets Volume 10, The Mersey Sound in 1967. This volume quickly sold its initial print run and went on to become one of the bestselling anthologies of English poetry.
McGough went on to further fame as a member of pop/comedy trio The Scaffold whose biggest hits were Thank U Very Much and Lily The Pink. McGough is currently touring with a new act and continues to give poetry recitals.
Mr T Bailey, Nottingham.
QUESTION
Is there any truth to the story that Arsenal Football Club bribed their way into the English First Division in 1919? IN the 1912-13 season, Woolwich Arsenal was relegated to the Second Division after nine years in the top flight. There then followed a move to North London where a ground was set up at Highbury.
This was because the arms production factory in Woolwich, after which the club was named, was being scaled down and the owner of the club, Henry Norris, felt that the fanbase was now too small in the Woolwich area and it would be greatly increased in North London. The Woolwich appellation was dropped and the club became The Arsenal. Then World War I began, and at the end of 1914-15 season, when Arsenal finished sixth in the Second Division, national football was discontinued for the duration, to be replaced by regional leagues. In August 1919 it recommenced and it was planned to extend the First Division from 20 clubs to 22.
In previous years when the number of First Division clubs were increased, the two bottom clubs were saved from relegation and the top two from the Second Division made up the difference.
The bottom two clubs in 19141915 were Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, and it was generally assumed that there would be just two Second Division clubs added to the top flight. But Arsenal chairman Norris had other ideas.
Norris took Fulham from the Southern League to the Second Division in 1907 after a scant four years. Directors of other clubs said that the Football League had received backhanders but no evidence was found. But, as author John Spurling said: ‘He [Henry Norris] was the undisputed master of covering his tracks.’
The accusations of Norris bribing the Football League were never proved, but controversy was never far behind him. When Arsenal bought Sunderland player Charlie Buchan for a knock-down price of £2,000, the Daily Mail discovered he was paying him ‘on the side’. This went against the Football Association rules.
Norris brazenly took the matter to court where the judge ruled against him. The FA banned ‘Honest’ Henry Norris from football ‘indefinitely’ leaving a legacy for shady doings – and Arsenal will always have to bear the doubts surrounding their right to their entry to the 1919 First Division.
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