Paul Collins (musician)

Paul Collins (born 1954, New York City) is an American singer, guitarist, drummer, writer, author and music producer.

Biography

Paul Collins began his career as the drummer (and sometime singer & songwriter) in an influential Los Angeles power pop trio The Nerves, alongside Jack Lee and future Plimsouls frontman Peter Case. The band are best remembered for "Hanging on the Telephone", a song later made famous by Blondie. After The Nerves' demise, Paul Collins formed his own group as singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter for The Beat, sometimes called The Paul Collins Beat to avoid confusion with the British ska group also called The Beat (or The English Beat in the US). The Beat also known as The English Beat, were sued by Sony/Columbia in 1979. The same year, Sony/Columbia released Paul Collins' self-titled 1979 debut is regarded as a classic of the genre, receiving very strong reviews. Unfortunately, the massive power pop hit Get The Knack may have overshadowed the album, and it failed to generate much in sales.

Renamed the Paul Collins' Beat in the early 1980s, the band was performing indie rock before The Pixies, The Stone Roses or even Morrissey and The Smiths. Paul Collins' Beat were in a constant state of touring and recording around the world. They appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand and contributed a song to the Caddyshack soundtrack, alongside Journey, Bill Murray and Kenny Loggins. The band broke up in 1989, following the release of their sixth album, One Night. Paul Collins continues to perform to this day with a new version of Paul Collins' Beat, in addition to his solo project, an all star country-rock band called the Paul Collins Band.

Since the early 1980s, Collins has been living on and off in Spain, where he has a particularly strong following, and spends most of his time performing in Europe and Japan, although he still holds citizenship in the United States. In fact, his two former wives are from Spain.

During this time, he produced a lot of Spanish pop bands, like La Granja, Los Limones and Los Protones. The relationship with the latter band proved very fruitful, since two members of Los Protones are now part of the new Paul Collins Beat.

Collins also runs two record labels, Paul Collins' Beat Music Group and Wagon Wheel Records, which specialize in punk, power pop and alt-country music.

In 2007, Collins released his first solo album of the decade, Flying High. The music received strong reviews and is reminiscent of the catchy power pop of The Beat, particularly in the opening song, Rock and Roll Shoes. Additionally, Flying High showcases Paul Collins' alt-country, roots-rock and Americana styles, with the singles Will You Be A Woman and Afton Place, which were released worldwide as music videos.

During March 2008, Paul Collins released Ribbon Of Gold as the follow-up to 2007's critically acclaimed Flying High. This album contains several songs the band performs live in concert, including Falling In Love With Her, I Still Want You, Big Pop Song and She Doesn't Want To Hang Around With You.

In 2009, Paul Collins released a fictional autobiography of his life, entitled Mi madre, mi mentor y yo, in addition to writing a humour filled fictional autobiography 8 Million Stories: Pete The Fly.

Paul Collins' Beat next release will be a split 7" with the italian powerpop band Radio Days. The split will be released by the italan label Surfin ki Records in march 2010.

In the ever-changing world of music, singer/songwriter Paul Collins has launched a new program where each homeowner becomes a virtual concert promoter. Households hire Paul Collins and agree to host his live concerts, often inviting guests and sometimes charging a fee at the door to cover expenses associated with hiring and hosting a performer. The house concert tour has found Paul Collins performing in living rooms throughout Canada, The U.S. and Europe, the same regions where Collins regularly tours with his full band. Audience numbers range from 2 to 200. Recently, Paul Collins performed a house concert at a mansion in Los Angeles to a private crowd of 200. The concert was held in a couple’s lavish “media room” in Hollywood, California. House concerts, as these events are known, have recently blossomed into a full-fledged national movement. From San Jose to Brooklyn to Miami, more than 300 homeowners have become part-time concert promoters turning their living rooms into mild-mannered clubs for a night, and scores of performers are discovering that they can make good livings simply by touring these private residences.

At a time when live performance outlets in many places are drying up because of the struggling economy and hostility from the police and community groups, house concerts are becoming the most exciting and vital alternative-performance circuit around for acoustic musicians, with some shows selling out in just an hour or two. They are luring an audience that professional concert promoters have given up on: fans in their 30’s and 40’s, many of whom now shun the impersonal, smoky, uncomfortable late-night club environment and prefer the familial intimacy of a living room concert. When people go to their first house concert, they’re amazed that people can do something like this. Paul Collins has done a lot of shows where by the end of the night, he has known every person in the audience at least by their first name. The hosts of these concerts are generally ordinary people who like music and don’t mind handprints on the wallpaper.

By day Greg Marquez, 41, works for a software company and Lisa Hampton, 38, is an instructor. But once a month, with the help of local college radio disc jockeys, they become music promoters, plastering the city with posters advertising concerts in their living room by relatively well-known singer-songwriters like Paul Collins, founder of legendary rock bands The Beat and The Nerves. And Mr. Marquez and Mrs. Hampton are not alone in this tradition. Gerard and Terri Knudsen hold a concert series in their home nearby. Last month, in an effort to give the performances more legitimacy, the Knudsens even turned their house into a nonprofit corporation, complete with a board of directors and an advisory committee. For the musicians, who range from up-and-comers who can’t get a club date to some of acoustic music’s most celebrated musicians, like Bela Fleck and David Wilcox, the cover charge at house concerts is generally higher than at clubs. Because most homeowners already have jobs and are happy just to have these performers in their living rooms, they usually give them all the door money.

In addition, the audience is generally more attentive, more enthusiastic, and more willing to buy CD’s after the show. This year, singer/songwriter Paul Collins, founder of The Nerves & The Beat joins forces with UK singer/songwriter John Wicks, the lead singer of The Records from London. In addition to playing combined acoustic storytelling sets with John Wicks, Paul Collins also plays house concerts by himself or with his lead guitar player if requested. Setup is based on the requests of each client hosting the house concert. Times are changing, that is for sure, but you can still hear great live music the way it used to be in the good old days, and now you can hear it in the comfort of your own home. John Wicks and Paul Collinshave teamed up to bring their music to you in the Living Room House Concert format.

Discography

With The Nerves

• Nerves (Nerves, 1976)
• One Way Ticket (Bomp/Alive Records, 2009)

With The Beat

• The Beat (CBS, 1979)
• The Kids Are The Same (CBS, 1981)
• To Beat Or Not To Beat (1983)
• Long Time Gone (1985)
• Live At Universal (Twins, 1986)
• One Night (Sony, 1989)

Solo albums

• Paul Collins (Sony DRO, 1992)
• From Town To Town (Caroline Records, 1993)
• Live in Spain (Not Lame, 1997)
• Let's Go (2006)
• Flying High (Lucinda, 2007)
• Live In Europe: Paul Collins' Beat In Concert (2008)
• Ribbon Of Gold (Rock Indiana, 2008)

References

• Collins, Paul: Mi madre, mi mentor y yo, Gamuza Azul, Bilbao, Spain, 2006. ISBN 84-932124-4-X.

External links

• Official site
• John Wicks and Paul Collins House Concert Living Room Tour site
• Paul Collins' MySpace page
• Paul Collins' Beat Fan Site