Paul Simpson is an English musician, vocalist, lyricist and writer from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, England, best known for his work with

the Wild Swans The Wild Swans (Danish: ''De vilde svaner'') is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a princess who rescues her 11 brothers from a spell cast by an evil queen. The tale was first published on 2 October 1838 in Andersen's '' ...

and Care. Musically, his contributions have crossed the genres of

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

neo-psychedelia Neo-psychedelia is a diverse genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the sounds of 1960s psychedelia, either updating or copying the approaches from that era. Originating in the 1970s, it has occasionally seen mainstream pop su ...

, new wave and ambient.

Career

Born in

Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Belle Vale, and the neighbouring village of Roby, with which it f ...

, Simpson studied at

Hugh Baird College Hugh Baird College is a college and University Centre situated in Merseyside, England. It is one of the largest providers of education and training in the area, delivering over 300 courses to more than 5,000 students. The college offers courses fr ...

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. Histo ...

, and later shared a flat (vacated by

Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...

and his first wife after they broke up) on Devonshire Road with

Pete de Freitas Peter Louis Vincent de Freitas (2 August 1961 – 14 June 1989) was an English musician and producer. He was the drummer in Echo & the Bunnymen, and performed on their first five albums. De Freitas was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Toba ...

(and later

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as t ...

).Anderson, Vicky (2009)
Lost band ready to take flight twenty years on
, ''

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...

'', 16 March 2009. Retrieved 23 July 2017du Noyer, Paul (2007) ''Liverpool – Wondrous Place'', Ebury Press, , p. 141 His music career began in the mid-1970s punk rock band Psycho Mesh, after which he joined up with his school friend

Will Sergeant William Alfred Sergeant (born 12 April 1958) is an English guitarist, best known for being a member of Echo & the Bunnymen. Born in Walton Hospital, he grew up in the village of Melling and attended nearby Deyes Lane Secondary Modern. He is th ...

as Industrial Domestic, and then the bedsit collaboration with Cope, Ian McCulloch and others under the name 'A Shallow Madness'. This later transformed into the Cope-led

Teardrop Explodes The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Best known for their Top Ten UK single " Reward", the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s. ...

, while McCulloch went on to form Echo & the Bunnymen. He left the Teardrops in 1979 to form his own band

in 1980.Sutton, Michael
Paul Simpson Biography
,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. Retrieved 23 July 2017 Between the two incarnations of the band, he was also co-founder of the duo Care with

Ian Broudie Ian Zachary Broudie (born 4 August 1958) is an English musician and singer-songwriter from Liverpool. After emerging from the post-punk scene in Liverpool in the late 1970s as a member of Big in Japan, Broudie went on to produce albums (somet ...

, later of the

Lightning Seeds The Lightning Seeds (also known as Lightning Seeds) are an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1989 by Ian Broudie (vocals, guitar, producer), formerly of the bands Big in Japan, Care, and Original Mirrors. Originally a studio-based so ...

. Care broke up around 1984 and after a while, he and a Mark II version of the Wild Swans reformed to record 1988's ''Bringing Home the Ashes'' and 1989's ''Space Flower''. After the Wild Swans split in 1990, Simpson embarked on a variety of more-or-less solo projects, including 'The White Capsule', the ambient instrumental 'Skyray', and the spoken work project The Dream Diaries, which came out of his fellowship at

John Moores University Liverpool John Moores University (abbreviated LJMU) is a public university, public research university in the city of Liverpool, England. The university can trace its origins to the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, established in 1823. This lat ...

. Simpson re-formed the Wild Swans in 2009 with original member Ged Quinn, releasing a third studio album in 2011. After a virus contracted in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

damaged his lungs, he stopped singing and has focused on instrumental pieces and writing.Incandescent
, unbound.com. Retrieved 23 July 2017 For several years, he worked on his crowdfunded autobiography, ''Incandescent''.

Discography

Albums

*''The Dream Diaries'' (2005), Astral Girl *''Man in a Burning Anorak – Vol 1'' (2010), Astral Girl *''Man in a Burning Anorak – Vol 2'' (2010), Astral Girl ;as Skyray: *"Invisible" (1996), Ochre *''Tranquilliser'' (1996), Ochre *"Neptune Variations" (1997), Ochre *"Womb" (1999), Space Age *''Mind Lagoons'' (1999), Ochre *''Slow Dissolve'' (2000), Magnetic *''Ice Rink Music'' (2004), Astral Girl *''Liquid Crystal Display'' (2005), Astral Girl

with The Teardrop Explodes

*"When I Dream" single (1979), Zoo

with The Wild Swans

''see The Wild Swans (band)#Discography''

with Care

''see Care (band)#Discography''

with The Serpents

*''You Have Just Been Poisoned'' (1998), Ochre

References

External links

*
Interview 1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Paul (Musician) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Huyton English new wave musicians Musicians from Liverpool English male singer-songwriters The Wild Swans members The Teardrop Explodes members Male new wave singers British post-punk musicians