Every holiday, I have to watch that Band-Aid video, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” And I’m always reminded of what a killer singer Paul Young was/is. (He’s the dude who sings the main part, ‘case you forgot). Besides his Band-Aid gig, this Brit shared his fabulous blue-eyed soul on other 80s songs like “Come Back and Stay,” “Oh Girl” and “Every Time You Go Away.” Oh man…
And then…Paul Young just kinda stopped.
The reason? It was all getting to be way, waaay too much. He damaged his voice from relentless touring, so he took a big time out to heal his vocal cords and just… be. He got married and had three kids, but his crazy relationship with his model wife Stacey kept the British tabloids working overtime. She cheated on him, he welcomed her back, she cheated again and had her lover’s baby, they split. Oy. Quite the scene for a guy who hated the spotlight to begin with. [UPDATE – they’re back together. For now. No telling when she’ll pop off again….just sayin’]
These days, Paul still performs, albeit with a stripped-down Tex-Mex band called Los Pacaminos. He’s also planning to release a re-mastered version of his breakthrough 1983 album No Parlez and he occasionally appears on various ‘80s tours throughout Europe. But here’s something I betcha didn’t know: Turns out that Mr. Young is quite the cook. He’s appeared on a couple of celebrity cooking shows in the UK, written a cookbook and worked in the kitchen of swanky restaurant, just for fun.
Oh yeah, Paul also took a brief journey to the Tacky Side and competed on a celebrity diving challenge on British TV (um, what?). The bad news is… He lost. The good news? Ladies, Paul Young still has that incredible voice, he can cook the house down… and he looks pretty damn fiiiiine.
Photo Credit: Paul Young by Chris Jackson/Getty Images
PS. While we’re on the subject of great musicians, here are some other posts you might enjoy. That’s My Jam; Why Does No One Record Squeeze’s Songs? and These Guys Were REALLY Behind the Music.
[…] PS. While we’re on the subject of powerhouse female singers, check out our post Chrissie vs. Miley for more on Chrissie Hynde and her thoughts on the latest group of pop stars. And speaking of 80’s stars who’ve recently resurfaced, you may enjoy our update on Paul Young. […]
[…] REALLY Behind the Music. And we catch you up on other big names from the ’80s in our posts He Came, He Sang, He Left, He Returned: Whatever Happened to Paul Young? and The Adele of the […]
Thank you. The 80’s were my 2nd 60’s and this was a great voice of that era…
I saw Paul Young at The Greek in the summer of 85?? Great show, great music. But Young, is really a “dancer who sings “rather than a singer who dances “.!the guy was amazing. He nailed every song, but his dancing was over the top.
Sadly, Paul’s voice is shot now. He does the revival 80s tours but the current state of his singing is not good. You can find plenty of YouTube clips to this. It’s sad ’cause this is his ‘bread & butter’ but it is not a nice listening experience anymore.
We saw him at the Anvil last week (May ‘22) – I was so disappointed to hear his voice – I’m an amateur singer and I reckon I could have done a better job – a real shame as Paul was a real soul icon 😢