As a youngster, Paul was taken on as an apprentice with the football club
Celtic, but after hearing the
Sex Pistols he decided to pursue a career in music. In the early 1980s he played and sang with Glasgow band Venigmas, who released the single "Strangelove". In 1989, he produced Japanese rock band
Buck-Tick's album
Taboo. Owen Paul has made two memorable television appearances. The first was on the
BBC live programme
Pebble Mill, when introduced by
Marian Foster, he was meant to mime to "My Favourite Waste of Time", but missed his cue due to a technician's mistake. His second role was playing a neighbour in
The Osbournes. For over ten years he ran a West End theatre in London's Leicester Square (home of the Boy George musical
Taboo) as well as a successful ballroom and Latin dancing club, returning to the music scene in 2002 with the album
About Time. After touring and recording with
Mike + The Mechanics he had a spell with Scottish supergroup Four Good Men and spent time as the lead vocalist for
Ex-Simple Minds, with his brother, former
Simple Minds drummer
Brian McGee. In late 2012, Paul appeared on BBC1's
Watchdog as part of their
Rogue Traders team. In January 2014, Paul released "The One", his first official single in the UK since 1987, following this with the release of the album
About Time II in the autumn of the same year. He now tours as a solo artist, with his 1980s band and with his Acoustic Folk show. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of his 1986 hit he released two new versions, "My Favourite Waste of Time Part One" and "My Favourite Waste of Time Part Two", along with various dance remixes. The
Acoustic 80s EP was released in 2017. The dance version of "Amazing" was remixed by
Stonebridge and spent 3 weeks in the Music Week Club Charts in 2018. "Sleeping on the Same Pillow" (featuring Lynne Johnstone) – released in January 2020 – was the first release from his forthcoming Americana/country album
Overblown Superstar which is due for release in 2023 and sees a return to his Celtic/folk roots. "Beauty of the Sun" – recorded entirely during
COVID-19 lockdown reached number one in the Heritage Chart. He released a jam based on the chorus of "My Favourite Waste of Time" featuring
Glen Matlock (
Sex Pistols),
Toyah,
Carol Decker (
T'pau), comedian
Matt Lucas,
Leee John (Imagination),
Cheryl Baker (
The Fizz), Celtic folk musicians
Phil Cunningham and
John McCusker,
Mick MacNeil from
Simple Minds, Ezio, Bruce Watson from
Big Country, members of
The Alarm, and many more. Each guest improvised, recorded and filmed their parts remotely from their own lockdown situations. His first Christmas song "This Christmas" reached the Heritage Chart top ten in December 2020, and was followed by the singles "Sparkle in the Rain", the 35th anniversary version of "
My Favourite Waste of Time" and "September" which got to number two in November 2021. A brand new version of "
A Different Corner" was released in June 2022 to commemorate
George Michael's birthday and reached number one in the Heritage Chart. ==Discography==