IT’S 40 YEARS SINCE PAUL YOUNG’S BLUE-EYED-SOUL POP CLASSIC NO PARLEZ SAILED TO UK NO.1. IN THIS ARCHIVE INTERVIEW, HE TELLS CLASSIC POP ABOUT HIS CAREER AND HOW HE SWAPS ONE HAT FOR ANOTHER AS A MEMBER OF A TEX-MEX BAND…

IAN WADE

“I KNEW WHAT I WANTED IT TO BE IN TERMS OF THE VARIETY OF SONGS, BUT IN TERMS OF WHAT IT SOUNDED LIKE, I HAD NO IDEA UNTIL WE FINISHED.”

PAUL YOUNG

Of all the good-time bands on the circuit that fans have posted shaky footage of online, one in particular sticks out. They call themselves Los Pacaminos, and seem a definite cut above your usual Americana troubadours. Filled with crack session musicians, all dressed up in ten-gallon hats and Nudie shirts, they weave through a selection of the classics and a handful of their own compositions, to the delight of a merry crowd.

Look closer, however, and the singer may seem familiar as a man who was one of the biggest solo stars of the 80s – and an actual household name, scoring a US No.1 and three chart-topping albums in the UK. Paul Young formed Los Pacaminos in 1992 as a bit of a laugh. A way for him to get out and be part of a band again, after being dropped from his solo deal after several years of success. Now Paul is reflecting on a career spanning over 40 years, one that began inauspiciously with Kat Kool & The Kool Cats, then took in one-hit-wonders Streetband, before making a name with respected blue-eyed-soul New Wavers the Q-Tips.

For a good few years in the mid-80s, Paul enjoyed an imperial phase, where he was duking it out with members of Duran Duran or Wham! for Most Fanciable Male or Best Male Singer in Smash Hits Readers’ Polls, and built up a string of Top 10 hits. Paul is back out on the road in March of next year to celebrate 40 years since his debut solo album, No Parlez, became the biggest-selling homegrown album of 1983 in the UK, second only to something called Thriller.

2023 looks set to be a big year for Paul with the release of a brand new album and memoir, both entitled Behind The Lens, as well as a mammoth 96-date UK tour, where he promises to meet with fans, share the stories behind his hits, as well as singing the classics in celebration of No Parlez’s anniversary.

The solo career wasn’t looking initially like an immediate soaraway success, as his first two singles didn’t do the business. It would be Paul’s take on a then-largely forgotten Marvin Gaye track called Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home), slowing it down from the perky original to bring Pino Palladino’s bass to the fore, that would provide the access to pop stardom. Crawling up the lists from an inauspicious No.84, it went to No.1 in July 1983 and stayed there for three weeks.