Chart-topping pop icon to bring tour to Torquay

A pop star who reached number one in the charts “can’t wait” for his forthcoming show in Torquay.

Paul Young will visit the Babbacombe Theatre on Saturday, May 10 for an intimate evening of acoustic music and conversation about his career.

Fans will be able to ask questions and meet him before the show. 

Young achieved fame with his 1983 debut album, No Parlez, which topped the UK albums chart for five non-consecutive weeks and sold over 1.2 million copies.

His most popular songs include Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) and Every Time You Go Away.

He also performed at Live Aid in 1985, the iconic fundraising concert at Wembley supporting Ethiopia during its famine crisis.

Having already embarked on a similar style tour, Paul is excited to do it all again.

He said: “I didn’t realise how much fun it would be. I had the best time. It was great to meet so many people, talk about my career, and play stripped-down versions of some of the hits.”

Young’s career has taken him across America and made him a member of the Tex-Mex band Los Pacaminos. He has also mixed with some of the world’s most famous musicians, including David Bowie, Bryan Adams and Phil Collins.

Paul said: “I met David Bowie and Bryan Adams a few times — I met David at Live Aid, that incredible occasion at Wembley in 1985, when the atmosphere had to be experienced to be believed. 

“It’s amazing to meet people like that who have a certain stature — he was a real icon and yet was always such a lovely man. Anyone who met him always said the same.

“Someone once said about us: Paul Young, David Bowie and Bryan Adams — three great musicians, one haircut between them.”

He continued: “It was at Live Aid that I met Phil for the first time too, and then a few years later I did a world tour with Genesis.”

He added: “I always wanted to record in LA, and there are a couple of very famous places there — Ocean Way Studios was one of them. Famous faces passed through all the time.

“One of them was Bond girl Kim Basinger. She just popped in to say hi. Roy Orbison’s wife was there too because they were doing a Roy Orbison collection in the next room.”

Two other memorable interactions were with Annie Lennox and George Michael.

“The Eurythmics were doing a gig in Germany and I was on tour there at the same time, so Annie and I went along to see the show. We were both on the same label when I was in Streetband and she was in a band called The Tourists. I went to see them live at The Lyceum and always thought she had a great voice. They’d had one hit at that point, and it was quite nice to catch up with Annie. We’d both had success and had been through a lot, so we could relate to each other’s journeys.

“Quite famously, I got up at the first Prince’s Trust show to duet with George Michael. The only thing he knew the words to was Every Time You Go Away, because he really liked that song. We didn’t socialise but I loved George as a person. I bumped into him in The Ivy restaurant in London and when the lunch was over, the restaurant let us stay and hang out. Great memories.”

Paul worked hard for his career despite the press describing him as an overnight success. 

He was signed by Muff Winwood and didn’t break into the charts until his third single, Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home).

Paul explained: “We eventually released Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) in May 1983. I was apprehensive for a while because it seemed that it wasn’t going to set the world on fire. It moved at a snail’s pace up the charts, literally shifting by two or three places a week. It was agonising. Each Sunday, we’d listen to the charts to see where we were —a nd we never knew when our progress was going to end. The last few weeks we were certain it would falter and stop short of the top spot.

“But then — when it happened — I had to pinch myself on a regular basis. The three of us, myself, my manager Ged, and musical director Ian, were in shock. This is something we realised we’d worked towards all our lives but weren’t sure it would ever happen. And at that moment, when it did, it was all hands on deck, back into the studio to finish the album.

“Getting to number one is the thing every kid dreams of. You want to be a musician, you want to make a living at it, and you want to be in the charts. It wasn’t really until that point that I realised I could do it — I could be a singer for a living. When it happened, everything started going crazy. There was press, there were interviews, and it went mad.”

Paul was hugely in demand but always focused on music as the thing he loved most.

“For me, being at number one was vindication. It was affirmation that my ideas were sound and my gut feelings about music were good. There was a real sense of adventure.

“We released the No Parlez album a few months after the single had gotten to number one, and everything went crazy. It was everywhere — and still is. I think it’s the most seen record in second-hand stores. It even had its own Twitter page for that reason! It was quite an achievement, though I realised later it was tough to have a big first album because that would set challenges for the second. The sheer scale of the success took us all by surprise. It was bigger than anything any of us had ever hoped for. First it did well in the UK, but then it started to happen all across Europe.”

Fans can expect more stories and nostalgia on Paul’s tour.