SONGS AND STORIES

There are certainly some artists who are just synonymous with a certain era; in Paul Young’s case, that time period is the eighties, when he was such a prominent pop star that he was afforded the genuine honour of being the first vocalist on the original Band Aid track, singing the first two iconic lines. He’s not to be confused, of course, with Paul Young of Sad Cafe, who was less commercially successful but arguably favoured by the critics; not that it should bother the first Young too much, of course, because he had quite the career back in his heyday. He hasn’t released any new records since 2006’s Rock Swings - On the Wild Side of Swing, but that isn’t to say that he hasn’t continued to tour; that’s actually been his bread and butter more recently, with only sporadic albums being dropped during the nineties. He continues to play in the UK on a semi-frequent basis, bringing a full live band with him and performing classic hits like ‘Love of the Common People’, ‘Come On and Stay’ and ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat’; that he can still pack out intimate rooms is testament to his eighties success and his enduring popularity.