Paul Stephenson Biography

Paul began playing music on his guitar at the tender age of 5 , growing up learning to play from a Beatles songbook his father had bought him.

Being an aficcionado of Gypsy Flamenco Music and having seen a little promise in Paul's playing, his father passed on what he had learned.

Soon Paul was ploughing through gypsy classics like 'Farruca', 'Suegariya' and 'Solea', all tunes that were familiar as they been played in the Stephenson household since he was born. His picking talents even took him to the finals of T.V's 'Opportunity Knocks' !

At 14 years he was bought a Farfisa organ and began entertaining local working men's clubs on Saturday nights in between the main artist's set and the bingo! Later Paul joined a 6-piece band on guitar and backing vocals playing covers of Atlantic Stax records with a number of future members of cult 80's band the 'Housemartins' .

Coincidentally, a little later down the line Paul was asked to play guitar on Dave Hemingway's solo album. Dave had been a member of The Housemartins and later The Beautiful South and had decided that he would like to do an album of his own. Although Paul didn't know Dave well, the two soon hit it off and began writing from scratch.

Since then Paul has been developing the Dave Hemingway project and, as ever, trying to write songs from his studio 'Nautilus' (named after tales of the building flooding in the incessant Hull rain! ). He is proving to be an excellent and versatile topline writer and instrumentalist who is having success with rock, pop and dance tracks alike.

During this time Andy still managed jaunts away from the studio to join Simple Minds on percussive duty for several World Tours.

Subsequently Andy was recruited by Stephen Hague for Tom Jones' 'Reload' album as well as New Order's 'Republic' album and Madchester's finest, The Happy Mondays.

Now it seems that Andy is set to work with some equally influential acts, only this time in the driving seat as a fully-fledged producer.