The Sensitive Sound of Paul McCloud

BIOGRAPHY / PRESS RELEASE July 2007

In August 1982, at age forty, Paul McCloud finally realised a long held dream which had been with him since childhood, when he released his first record album. Paul had returned to his roots in the country (the family farm at Tambar Springs) after some twenty odd years of living in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. This debut album titled ‘The Sensitive Sound Of Paul McCloud’ no doubt reflects some of the poignancy of that time and was recorded at the very popular Hadley Studios in Tamworth. The producer was Chris Jones and the engineer was the studio owner and radio broadcaster, Eric Scott. Paul subsequently went on to record a further four albums at Hadley Studios three of which were produced under the watchful eye of Tamworth legend, Lindsay Butler.

In 1984 Paul, accompanied by his wife Hele, and with three albums to his name, set out on their first self-promoted concert tour of the Darling Downs in Queensland, backed by television promotion of Paul’s own design. That tour was a mixture of great success and great failure. Much of the success was thanks to John Minson and his crew at radio 2TM Tamworth who was very supportive of all touring artists in those days.

What Paul learned from that tour was that he was very definitely in a Catch 22 situation, i.e. he needed to advertise on television to get known but he had to be known first in order to be able to afford to use television. This resulted in Paul and Hele spending the next 15 years or so travelling Australia with Paul performing in shopping centres and Hele beside the stage selling his albums. Paul estimates that they sold in excess of 100,000 albums on this basis and by 1998 he was then able to return full time to his self promoted concert tours. Many of the fans and supporters who purchased Paul’s albums during those early years still wait patiently for the next album release and look forward to attending his concerts today.

In recent years Paul has had the privilege of touring with 1984 Gold Guitar winner Vic Lanyon and also the irrepressible and talented Peter Horan. Peter and Paul were most impressed to find their first concert together in Tamworth at the Town Hall in January 2006, was completely sold out with almost one thousand fans.

Today, having recorded a total of seventeen albums, plus some twenty-five years of touring experience behind him, Paul McCloud is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most successful independent recording artists.

Paul was awarded the Most Popular Artist On Tour in 1999 and again in 2001. He was also inducted into the Hands Of Fame in Tamworth during the 2003 festival.

Paul and his wife Hele also run a very successful bush camping festival known as Hartwood Festival of Campfires and Country Music, which is held each Easter at the family farm ‘Hartwood’, Tambar Springs (near Tamworth) NSW. They expect up to 2,000 campers to attend the 21st celebratory festival in March 2008.

Paul is not touring during 2008.