Once upon a time in the eighties and nineties, there was a tv music program called Top Of The Pops. In those days it had a regular time-slot on national television before tv bigwigs decided to move it from pillar to post so that viewers had no idea when it was screened (then they wondered why nobody watched it and ended a national institution).

As regular viewers, we often saw a new song being performed on a Friday night and were so influenced by it, we went into town the following day to buy the 7”, or, the 12” if you were really cool.

In 1984, Depeche Mode released their album ‘Some Great Reward’. They were already my favourite act (and still are), but, one track in particular changed my life. As a 16 year old in the midst of teenage angst, wanting love, feelings of suicide, along came ‘Somebody’. The lyrics seemed to echo my situation. Not just one line, or two, or maybe three, but, every single word, every breath, every sound.

“I want somebody to share, share the rest of my life, share my innermost thoughts, know my intimate details……….’ It was, to me, perfection.

It could be an I’m-so-in-love-staring-at-the-stars song, equally it could be interpreted as a what-have-I-done-with-my-life-crying-in-my-whisky song.

Even now, the song is my favourite, untouchable, on another plane. I can’t recall in the 20+ years since its release, another song having the same effect. Such is the power of the lyric, I have been writing a third verse of my own, in my head, for over twenty years – it will come eventually, but it has to be perfect for my perfect song.

Paul Anthony Scott was born in Burnley Lancashire on the 18th June 1968 (sharing with Paul McCartney, Alison Moyet and The Battle Of Waterloo!) to parents Janice and David. A sister, Pamela Jane, followed in 1972. After the regular boyhood ambitions of footballer, policeman and Accountant (like Daddy), had subsided, a dream of popstar emerged in his early teens. Musically inept and tone deaf (according to Mummy), the words were the only thing that kept the hope alive. Through time, and advancing years, the popstar dream has all but died and the lyrics have turned to poetry. Influenced initially by his teenage angst heroes – namely Martin Gore, Marc Almond and Matt Johnson – and followed in more recent years by Rob Dougan, Louise Hart and Florian ‘Dido’ Armstrong, his work has taken on new and varied styles and subject matter. Now married with two incomparable Sons he has a more realistic ambition of having a collection of his work published in book format (closely followed by hearing his art set to music, and, driving along Route 66!). To read a selection of Paul’s poetry on the showcase section of this site, click here or to visit Paul’s own website, click here

© 2007 Laura Hird All rights reserved.