Mick Paul for Crossover - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Biography adapted from Formentera Lady's other PA link in her original post, plus a couple of other sources. This has been checked to be plagiarism-free, apart from the quote that I've included by Mick Paul himself near the end, where he gives his personal thoughts about the album.

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Mick Paul is an established bass player with a career going back to the 1970s who has played both session and live bass with many high-profile acts over the years. Although he originally trained as a classical guitarist, he switched over to bass at the age of fifteen.

His first professional band was 'The David Reece Band' alongside Mick Wayne from David Bowie's 1969 backing band 'Junior's Eyes', with whom he played several shows at the Marquee Club in London, along with some college dates. Next came the country rock band 'Coast Road Drive' with drummer Steve Chapman, who subsequently went on to join the band 'Poco'.

In 1973 Mick became part of 'The Hotshots', a ska band which had a hit single in the UK with a cover of "Snoopy vs The Red Baron" that year. He then joined 'Union Express', a UK pop band formed in 1970 by songwriter and producer Paul Curtis, with whom he did several European tours in the mid seventies. In 1978 Mick teamed up with Mick Wayne again for a long residency, during which time he also did BBC and studio sessions which led to him becoming an in-house bassist for a 16-track studio in London.

Mick then joined the band 'Killer Whales', who were produced by Mike Ratledge and Carl Jenkins from the band 'Soft Machine'. During this time he co-wrote a Labour Party campaign song for Neil Kinnock which was called 'Meet the Challenge, Make the Change', whilst also doing recording sessions for Yello Records, and contributing to a single by David Hasselhof for the Arista/BMG label.

Between 2008 and 2010 Mick played bass on a number of dance remixes of music by bands such as 'Little Boots', 'Aviv Geffen' and 'Snap', and he also took part in a European tour by Eric Martin, the vocalist and frontman of the hard rock band 'Mr Big'.

Although he had been writing his own material since around 1984 with some commercial success, it wasn't until he joined the David Cross Band in 1995 that he really found his feet as a writer - along with the realisation that his leanings lay further towards prog than the mainstream side of the music industry - since his first major influences were Yes, King Crimson, Frank Zappa and Chick Corea. During the recording of his first album with David, called 'Exiles', Mick worked alongside Robert Fripp, Peter Hammill, John Wetton and Pete Sinfield, which was a hugely influential experience for him.

Mick has worked with David Cross ever since as a member of several different line-ups, during which time he has written, produced and also performed with the band, having toured both in Japan and also several times in Europe with them. In 2019 the band were invited to perform as part of the two 'Cruise To The Edge' events which were held in Florida and Mexico that year.

In 2015, whilst he was working alongside Craig Blundell during the recording of the Cross/Jackson album 'Another Day', he found that a significant amount of the material that he had written was rather personal to him, and since it was decidedly bass-led, he felt it would be more suitable for use in a project of his own rather than as part of a band-based one, and this material ultimately resulted in the creation of his debut solo album 'Parallel Lives'.

Mick liaised closely with Paul Clark and Craig Blundell in the early stages of writing the album, with Craig being sent the first couple of tracks to start working on while he was on tour with Steven Wilson. This meant that Craig recorded the tracks in his own studio before sending the audio files back to Mick for further development. As the album began to take shape, he allowed Sheila Maloney, the original David Cross Band keyboardist, to have more of an influence in the production and the setting of the ambience of the later tracks, as well as being instrumental in creating the piano and synth parts.

Most of Jim Wilde's vocals were recorded in the early stages of the album's creation, but he also contributed further ideas as new songs became ready. With the basic basses, keyboards and some drum parts completed, Mick then worked with Tangent drummer Steve Roberts to complete the rest of the drum parts, plus some gongs. These were recorded at the Mill Hill recording complex in London, with the help of the highly respected engineer Fil Ross, and all were completed in just two days.

David Jackson (formerly of Van der Graaf Generator), David Cross and Paul Clark were then sent copies of the files so that the flutes, whistles and violin recordings - plus some additional guitar parts - could be added. Mick was sent at least three different versions of each guitar solo, and was allowed to choose the ones that he liked the best, thus enabling him to edit the parts together so that each of the guitarist's best ideas were retained in the finished songs.

The last guest contributor to be recorded was southern Californian singer/musician Dennis Mahon. Mick first met him during the 'Cruise to the Edge' event, where he was impressed with his singing on covers of some John Wetton songs, and wanted to see what he would do with an original song. Dennis's vocals were recorded by Fernando Perdomo at Reseda Ranch Studios, CA, USA. The completed 'Parallel Lives' album was then mastered by 360 Mastering in East Sussex, UK, and was released in the summer of 2021 (June 9th), with David Cross and David Jackson appearing on one track each.

Mick says about the new album: "I'm interested in the way our lives tend to mirror each other without us realising it, hence the title 'Parallel Lives'. Two of the songs relate to my children who are now grown up, I can see how their lives echo mine and of course how my life has parallels with my parents and the way they saw things and reacted to events - and how it goes on through the generations. It is not a concept album in the traditional sense of having a story as such but I think there is cohesiveness to the overall content of the lyrics that tell some of my story. I also feel that the moods and general feel of the album very much reflect how I felt when I was writing it."

Mick also features alongside Sheila Maloney, Jinian Wilde and Steve Roberts in another recently formed band called 'The Fae'.

Parallel Lives (2021):

1. Your Days (6:14)

2. Light Of Silence (4:55)

3. No Horizon (4:03)

4. Parallel Lives (5:25)

5. Beneath The Gate (4:27)

6. Uncharted Course (4:18)

7. One Way Conversation (5:02)

8. Cypher (2:35)

9. Swallows (3:23)

10. Comfort Zone (5:39)

11. Frozen Perspective (4:00)

12. Name On You (4:28)

13. Consigned To Reality (4:42)

14. Morning Skyline (4:32)

Total Time 63:43

- Mick Paul / bass guitars, guitars, vocals (4)

With:

- Sheila Maloney / piano, keyboards, ondes Martenot, synthesized sound design

- Craig Blundell / drums (2,4)

- Steve Roberts / drums, gongs

- Jinian Wilde / vocals

- Dennis Mahon / vocals

- Paul Clark / guitar (loud) (12,14)

- Geoff Winkworth / guitar (6)

- David Cross / violin (4)

- David Jackson / flutes & whistles (9)

All tracks written by Mick Paul except tracks 4, 9 & 10 by Mick Paul & Sheila Maloney

Recorded at Froosound Studios, Sussex, England

Produced by Mick Paul and Sheila Maloney

Mastered by Dave Turner at 360 Mastering, Hastings, East Sussex, UK

Dennis Mahon vocals recorded by Fernando Perdomo at Reseda Ranch Studios, CA, USA

Steve Roberts drums recorded by Fil Ross at Mill Hill Music Complex, London, UK

Artwork and photography by Chris Elliot at Tapiochre Ltd, Wellingborough, Northants, UK

CD Self-released PARA001 (2021, UK)

Digital album, June 9th 2021

Edited by yam yam - December 08 2024 at 21:30

yam yam wrote:

^ Yeah, I realise it can be a pain at times when folks don't follow the procedure to the letter, but she has at least given us the details of the album, a listening link and the source of sufficient info to create a biography from. That's better than a good many suggestions which get posted here lol!

I'm grateful for the album info Thumbs Up

, but we still need a bio to start the addition when an artist gets cleared.

yam yam wrote:

^ I'll take care of that. There's plenty of info available about him. Smile

Listening now, and it seems like a pretty decent shout for Crossover to me. Added to our chart: https://awesomeprog.com/artists/18631.

That's fine, thanks, but people that suggest artists need to know there's a suggestion procedure, if they really want to help out, they need to follow it. That's all.

Edited by Cristi - 6 hours 21 minutes ago at 01:20

We still need a biography.