Paul Roberts | |
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 Paul Roberts on stage with The Stranglers at Nottingham in 2005 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Paul Roberts |
| Born | 31 December 1959 |
| Origin | Chiswick, London England |
| Genres | Punk, pop punk, new wave |
| Occupation(s) | Musician and actor |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Labels | None |
Paul Roberts (born 31 December 1959 in Chiswick, London) is an English singer who was the lead singer of The Stranglers between 1990 and 2006.
Roberts replaced Hugh Cornwell in The Stranglers in 1990 and appeared on and co-wrote their studio albums Stranglers In the Night , About Time , Written in Red , Coup de Grace and Norfolk Coast . [1]
Roberts performed live as a non-playing frontman as The Stranglers recruited guitarist John Ellis and later Baz Warne to co-replace Cornwell, who sang vocals and played guitar. [2]
Roberts left The Stranglers after almost 16 years (believed to be longer than his predecessor, according to press quotes from his former colleagues) in May 2006. The split was officially described as "amicable." [3] The band reverted to a four-piece, with Warne taking over lead vocals and Jean-Jacques Burnel returning to singing songs on which he had originally provided lead vocals.
As a side project to The Stranglers, Roberts also played and recorded as Paul Roberts, Paul Roberts and The Faith Band and The Faith Band, who post Stranglers changed to Soulsec. Releases included the albums Faith? (Paul Roberts, 1999], Self Discovery (Paul Roberts and The Faithband, 2001), The Pressure Sensitive (The Faithband, 2003) and End Games (Soulsec, 2007). Also the singles "God", "When Reason Sleeps", "8 Days" and "Swim". There have also been several acoustic/electric live and compilation CDs.
In 1994 Roberts sang on The Listening Pool's (ex-OMD members Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes) album Still Life on the track "Somebody Somewhere". Roberts played the role of Pop Larkin in the world premiere of Perfick: The Darling Buds of May Musical. [4] This was a musical based on H. E. Bates' novel The Darling Buds of May , written by David Burton. The show ran for a week in April 2008 at The Kings Theatre, Southsea as a trial to see whether the company could raise enough interest to finance a West End production. The show did not open on the West End.
In 2008, Roberts played the Roman poet Ovid in the play The Art of Love alongside Adèle Anderson of Fascinating Aïda in London, the lead role in Richard O'Brien's Mephistopheles Smith: the Evangelist from Hell at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007, 16 characters in a two-hour workshop of The Unimportant History of Britain in London in 2008. Also in 2008, Roberts was asked by Paul Nicholas to play John Barsad in a new musical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities at the Gatehouse Theatre, London, and was offered the lead in Gold, a fringe musical based on old school friends getting their school band back together after twenty-five years apart.
Roberts has appeared in the television series Cranford as a featured character alongside Dame Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins and has collaborated with actor Stephen Donald ( Blood Brothers , Brookside ) in the north of England. [5] Paul appears at the beginning of the first Harry Potter movie.
In 2010, Roberts performed as Frank Sinatra alongside Laura Nixon's Marilyn Monroe and Suspiciously Elvis at sell-out shows at Alive & Swinging in Brighton, United Kingdom.
In 2016, after the initial filming of a 'joke' Bowie stage show [after a lifetime of constant comparison] Roberts was subsequently asked to co-create the show Let's Dance with Worldwide Entertainment, paying tribute to David Bowie. The show has played dates across the United Kingdom, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in Singapore, presented by the British Theatre Playhouse. [6]
He continues to write, record and perform and will release his 6th studio album '20 – 22' in the autumn of 2023. The lead track 'Freedom' being released in June 2023.
In December 2005, he was involved in a car crash in which his car was thrown into the air and landed upside down. He escaped without injury.
Roberts is an avid fundraiser for a prostate cancer charity. His frequent support of the illness is due to his father and closest friend dying of the cancer.
The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the UK punk scene.
The Raven is the fourth studio album by English new wave band the Stranglers, released on 15 September 1979, through record label United Artists.
Low is the eleventh studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 14 January 1977 through RCA Records. The first of three collaborations with the producer Tony Visconti and the musician Brian Eno that became known as the Berlin Trilogy, the project originated following Bowie's move to France in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop to rid themselves of their drug addictions. There, Bowie produced and co-wrote Pop's debut studio album, The Idiot, featuring sounds the former would explore on his next record. After completing The Idiot, sessions for Low began at Hérouville's Château d'Hérouville in September 1976 and ended in October at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where Bowie and Pop had relocated.
Norfolk Coast is the fifteenth studio album by the Stranglers, and was released on 16 February 2004 by EMI's Liberty Records label, making it their first new album recorded for the company in 23 years. It was released six years after their last studio album Coup de Grace and was their first official studio album with new guitarist Baz Warne, and also the last album to feature Paul Roberts on lead vocals. Norfolk Coast peaked at No. 70 in the UK Albums Chart in February, for one week's duration in that listing.
Live (X Cert) is the first live album by the Stranglers, released in February 1979 by United Artists. It contains tracks recorded at The Roundhouse in June and November 1977 and at Battersea Park in September 1978.
The Gospel According to the Meninblack is the fifth album by English rock band the Stranglers, an esoteric concept album released 9 February 1981 on the Liberty label. The album deals with conspiratorial ideas surrounding alien visitations to Earth, the sinister governmental men in black, and the involvement of these elements in well-known biblical narratives. This was not the first time the Stranglers had used this concept; "Meninblack" on the earlier The Raven album and subsequent 1980 single-release "Who Wants the World?" had also explored it.
La folie is the sixth studio album by English new wave band the Stranglers. It was released on 9 November 1981, through the EMI record label Liberty.
Nosferatu is an album by Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers and Robert Williams, drummer in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. It was released on 16 November 1979 by United Artists.
Hugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990. Since leaving the Stranglers, Cornwell has recorded a further ten solo studio albums and continues to record and perform live.
10 is the tenth studio album by English rock band the Stranglers, released in March 1990 by Epic Records. It was the last to feature guitarist/lead singer Hugh Cornwell. 10 peaked at No. 15 and spent four weeks in the UK Albums Chart.
Aural Sculpture is the eighth studio album by the Stranglers, released in November 1984 by Epic Records. It was also the name given to a one-sided 7-inch single given free with a limited number of copies of their Feline album in 1983. The "Aural Sculpture Manifesto" on the 7" single was played before the Stranglers appeared on stage during concerts during both the 1983 "Feline" tour and the 1985 "Aural Sculpture" tour.
The British band Soulsec is the solo project of the ex Stranglers frontman Paul Roberts.
David Paul Greenfield was an English keyboardist, singer and songwriter who was a member of rock band the Stranglers. He joined the band in 1975, within a year of its formation, and played with them for 45 years until his death.
Barry "Baz" Warne is the current guitarist and vocalist of The Stranglers.
The Darling Buds are an alternative rock band from Newport, Wales. The band formed in 1986 and were named after the H. E. Bates novel The Darling Buds of May – a title taken in turn, from the third line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May".
Suite XVI is the sixteenth studio album by the Stranglers, released on 18 September 2006 by Liberty EMI Records. It saw the band return as a four-piece after the departure of singer Paul Roberts, with lead vocals shared between guitarist Baz Warne and bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel. The album continues, but also builds on, the shift to a more recognisable sound seen in the previous album, Norfolk Coast, with a sound much more akin to the band's earlier sound during the 1970s and early 1980s. The album was supported by an extensive UK tour by the band and peaked at number 89 in the UK Albums Chart.
Daniel Boys is an English actor. He starred in the West End productions of the musicals Rent and Grease before being a 2007 contestant on the BBC talent series Any Dream Will Do. Boys went on to star in many more musicals including Avenue Q, Spamalot, Falsettos and Hamilton.
The following is a comprehensive discography of the Stranglers, an English rock band.
Giants is the seventeenth studio album by English rock band the Stranglers and continues the band's return as a four-piece after the departure of singer Paul Roberts. Lead vocals are shared between guitarist Baz Warne and bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel. The album was released on 5 March 2012 and was supported by an extensive UK tour by the band. It was their last album to feature original drummer Jet Black and the last to be released in keyboard player Dave Greenfield's lifetime.
The British Theatre Playhouse (BTP) is a professional theatrical and musical production company incorporated in Singapore in 2004. With the motto Bringing to the World the Best in British Entertainment, the BTP is internationally focused with a British connection, as well as it is a long-standing member of the Singaporean British Chamber of Commerce and the European Chamber of Commerce. In 2012, the BTP also established a UK branch office, in order to work more closely with British playwrights, writers, actors, directors, musical directors, and set and costume designers.
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