Lynsey de Paul
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Lynsey de Paul |
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| Personal | |
| Born | June 11, 1950 Southwark UK |
| Died | October 1, 2014 (aged 64) Southwark, UK |
| Years active | 1971-2014 |
| Ethnicity | Caucasian |
| Nationality | British |
| Body | |
| Body type | Slim |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Hair | Blonde |
| Underarm hair | Shaved |
| Databases | |
| IMDb | |
Lynsey de Paul (born Lynsey Monckton Rubin, 11 June 1950, London) was an English singer-songwriter.
Life and career
Lynsey De Paul was born to Meta and Herbert Rubin, a property developer. She grew up in Cricklewood, North London[1] and attended South Hampstead High School and Hornsey College of Art.
Famous for her keyboard skills, ability to write catchy songs and sultry looks, de Paul first hit the UK charts in 1972, initially as the songwriter of the Fortunes' hit, "Storm in a Teacup". A few months later she was propelled into the limelight as the performer of her own hit song "Sugar Me", which rapidly found its way into the Top Ten, of the UK Singles Chart (at #5) as well as the top of the singles charts in Holland and Belgium. "Sugar Me" was rapidly followed by "Getting a Drag" (a #18), a quirky song in a completely different vein about finding out that her boyfriend likes to cross-dress. She was the first woman to be awarded an Ivor Novello Award for her classic ballad, "Won't Somebody Dance With Me", another UK Top 20 hit. The BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Ed Stewart spoke the words "May I Have The Pleasure Of This Dance" near the end of the record (he often played the record on his Junior Choice programme on Saturday mornings) although Tony Blackburn did it when she appeared on Top of the Pops (see List of performers on Top of the Pops). After appointing Don Arden her new manager, Lynsey released "Ooh I Do", which hit the charts in the U.K., Holland and Japan.
A second Ivor Novello award followed a year later for the Phil Spector-ish "No Honestly", which was also the theme tune to a hit ITV comedy of the same name, and provided her with another UK Top 10 hit, peaking at #7.
A prolific songwriter first and foremost, de Paul has written songs for many other recording artists as well as writing the theme music to the 70's documentary TV programmes "Pilger" (John Pilger) for ATV television. In a five year period (1972-77) she wrote a total of 14 UK Singles Chart hits, most notably "Dancin' (on a Saturday Night)" which was a hit for co-writer Barry Blue as well as Flash Cadillac and Bond. Indeed, de Paul's songs have reached the charts in most territories, including the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Canada and Australia. She also has performed producing and arranging duties on many of these recordings. In 1976 she was the recepient of the Woman Of The Year Award For Music from Variety Club of Great Britain.
"Rock Bottom", which she wrote with Mike Moran, was the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977. Although it came second in the Eurovision Song Contest, it went on to become a Top 20 hit in many European countries including France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where it reached the top of their singles chart. De Paul and Moran went on to write a number of songs, such as "Let Your Body Go Downtown", a Top 40 hit (in 1977 reached number 38 in the BBC Top 50) for the Martyn Ford Orchestra; and the follow up "Going to a Disco", as well as "Without You", and "Now and Then", which appeared on the albums Tigers and Fireflies and Just a Little Time, respectively.
After a three year period of being based in California in the late 1970s/early 1980s with her partner at the time, the actor James Coburn, de Paul returned to England. Whilst still writing songs for artists as diverse as Shirley Bassey, Sam Hui and The Real Thing, de Paul also branched out into record production, acting in musicals and plays, interviewing and TV presentation, drawing cartoons and even self defence. On the latter subject in 1992 she presented a documentary about women's self defence, called Eve Fights Back, which won a Royal Television Society award.[1]
De Paul has orchestrated, played, and produced two classical records of compositions by Handel and Bach for Deutsche Grammaphone. Her work for the Channel Tunnel Group included writing and producing an album of children's songs with accompanying song colouring book for Eurotunnel's mascot entitled "Marcus The Mole". She has written film music for and acted in the children's film Gabrielle and the Doodleman, and has composed on-air jingles for broadcast radio including Capital Radio. In 1983 she appeared at the Conservative Party conference, where she sang a song she had composed specially for the occasion - "Vote Tory, Tory, Tory/For election glory".
In the early 90's, she released a self defence video for women called "Taking Contol" and produced a BBC documentary “Eve Strikes Back” on the subject whcih resulted in a Royal Television Society Award.
Lynsey is still very active in the music industry. She received a Gold Badge Award for contribution to the music industry and, on 30 June 2006, Lynsey became a Director on the board of the Performing Rights Society.
She has also written travel articles for the Daily Mail on Mauritius (February 2008) and Australia's East Coast (16th April 2009).
In 2007 she played Sheila Larsen in the first episode of "Kingdom" the successful Stephen Fry drama series. On 10 April 2008, Lynsey participated in a celebrity version of Channel 4 show Come Dine With Me along with fellow celebrities Tamara Beckwith, MC Harvey and Jonathan Ansell. Lynsey came in fourth (last) place. She also was featured on Celebrity Cash in the Attic in March 2009.
Self-defence training programme
In autumn 2006, de Paul released a DVD entitled “Taking Control” representing her self-defence training programme. The programme shows the importance of self-defence for women and she has approached schools and universities to include the DVD in the curriculum.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Middlehurst, Lester. "Pop star Lynsey de Paul reveals the truth about her love-life", Daily Mail, 2007-04-09. Retrieved on 2007-04-24.
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