Not as Young ...but the soulful ’80s superstar is still confident in his own skin
‘When you are younger, you’re not afraid to change... as you get older you want more stability.’
The trajectory of Paul Young’s career might best be summed up by the title of one of his biggest hits: Everything Must Change. Tracks such as that one, as well as Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) and Love Of The Common People made Paul Young a solo superstar in the Eighties.
However, before that he was bass player and backing vocalist with Kat Kool & The Kool Kats before joining Streetband where he sang lead vocals on the novelty hit, Toast, in 1979.
He then joined soul revivalists the Q Tips, but the big hit eluded them and they split in 1982. Young had already signed a solo recording deal in any case, and in the summer of 1983 hit the number one slot with a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Wherever I Lay My Hat. His debut album No Parlez also went to number one.
At 62, Young reflects that though he initially struggled like any other musician, he was always confident he would be successful.
‘I was in a little band in Luton where I was the bass player,’ he says. ‘I used to sing two songs in the set. The drummer ended up saying: “I don’t know why we’ve got this lead singer, I prefer Paul’s voice.” That gave me belief in my abilities as a singer and it went from there. Even though we’d had a hit with Streetband and we had some success with the Q Tips, I was sure there was more to come from me. I didn’t intend to leave the Q Tips. But it was like what happened to Rod Stewart. He signed a solo deal when he was with the Small Faces. Then Maggie May and his first solo album made him a bigger star.’
His record company expected him to make a soul album in the style of the Q Tips. But Young had other ideas.
‘When it came to the making of No Parlez, I decided I’m still going to sing the same way as I did in the Q Tips but change how the music sounds around me,’ he says.
‘I wanted to use keyboards and have a sparse sound. We wanted to move away from that typical soul sound, if you like.’
It proved a winning formula. Love Of The Common People and Come Back And Stay also hit the top five. Still liking that group dynamic, Paul gave his backing band the name The Royal Family.
His 1985 album, The Secret Of Association also went to number one, on the back of Everything Must Change and the US number one Every Time You Go Away. His profile led Bob Geldof to ask him to be part of the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas? and the Live Aid concert.
‘They didn’t initially ask me to sing that opening line on Do They Know It’s Christmas? I only found out later they had planned on having David Bowie do it,’ he recalls.
‘I had done what was meant to be my bit, in the middle of the song. Then Bob asked would I try the opening line? If I had’ve been making that record and there was a chance I could get Bowie, I would have done all I could to try to get him.’
Paul continued to have hits until well into the Nineties, including a cover of Both Sides Now with Clannad by which time he had already formed Los Pacaminos, an ersatz Tex Mex band, with whom he still plays. We can however expect a set of his greatest solo hits in Leopardstown next week.
‘I work away at my own pace now,’ he says. ‘When you’re younger, you aren’t afraid of changing and trying new things. As you get older you want more stability and I’m not afraid to say I feel comfortable in my own skin with that now.’
Paul Young plays Bulmers Live at Leopardstown this Thursday