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LEAVE A MESSAGE FOR PAUL!

If you'd like to send Paul a message about a gig or whatever please email it to paultilley@btinternet.com

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Hi Paul,

Thank you so much! I received your cds this morning but this is the first chance I've had to thank you.
I'm driving around in Kent tonight in the Royal Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks areas listening to you.
"I'll Bang My Drum Again" from "Song Review" particularly struck a chord with me, driving through Tonbridge and I hear you mention Eston Hills, ah yes... those were the days. Its all so familiar, you having a jacket under the stairs that used to be a goal post! Love it! And if the boys ran out of jackets, they used to use us girls instead and some of the girls were actually daft enough stand there for the boys too... not me, I was too busy climbing trees or better still up the top of St Matthews steeple. I think you were there one day when I was. or it could have been the old fire station watch tower actually....
The memory fades a bit, but only a bit!
Just one track evokes so many memories... what a wonderful gift music is, and how wonderful that you should be the platform for it.

Anyway, this was just supposed to be a quick email (!!!!) to let you know that I'll donate £20 to our same charity from the last bash, as soon as I get the details off Steve Todd about doing it by Paypal.

Thanks again Paul, and it was really great to see you again, hopefully it won't be the last time.

Best wishes

Sue Dowd
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Hello again Paul, great fun last night - what was the song you sang that had the similar structure to 'Goodbye look'? Nice.

Just listened to 'Coffee and Tea' again, wonderful song, chorus reminds me a lot of the Dans Dr. Wu (is that a lot of Maj 7ths sliding around?) Tried to work out 'Kissing Games' and 'Just dont need you' chords - beyond my limited comprehension (in my defence ma heids buzzin wi coffee, pain killers and antibloodybiotics), the tension you create in the middle 8 with a couple of jangling chords (the equal rights/ pay bill/tshirt/dress to kill bit) is pretty cool.

The Zawinul moog 'whistle' works for me, too. 'I'll be waiting' gets better the longer it goes on, the multi-track voices when the sax sneaks in! When The Larry Carlton guitar comes back in after the sax! When the drums skitter and play with time! Then it ends!Boo!!! Lyle Mays makes a surprise appearance in the final few bars of 'I can breathe again' too! Little magic moments abound. How did you get Victor Feldman to turn up on various percussion at different times?

Cheers for now, Eric.

It makes it all worth the effort recording this music when I get messages like this Eric. I work with some fantastic musicians when I record - Greg Palmer, who I co-write with, plays keyboards and we produce it all together. He's an incredible talent and we both love Lyle Mays and Joe Zawinul as you can tell! Paul.

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Hi Paul,

We're the Leeds lot from Crow's Nest on 9th Sept.
Just wanted to say how much we enjoyed your performance that night , my son Lewis especially enjoyed the evening and couldn’t take his eyes off you (you called him little Billy Bremner) He still has the plectrum you gave him and we have bought him a little plastic guitar to practise so watch this space!

Again Paul, thanks for such a great night , and you may hear from us in the near future as my mother in law will be turning 50 and that would be a nice party surprise for her.

All the best and take care , hope to see you again in the future.

Thanks

Donna,lee,deb,gaz,lewis
Wortley, Leeds.

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Just had to say what a great night we had at the Crow's Nest. Thank you Paul - you are more talented than you know. My family and I had a wonderful night. I don't know how you managed to go on for over 2 hours without a break.

Best act I've seen for a long time. Thanks again Paul.

Best wishes to you from,

Judy (a new fan). x

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Hi Paul,

Tilley and Townsend at the Tap and Spile -

I still haven't really got over the shock of stumbling into a Scarborough pub on a Sunday afternoon and hearing two blokes belting out 'The Goodbye Look' and 'Home at Last'. I've got the chords to 'Goodbye' somewhere in my loft and remember it all as flattened 15ths with a flippin suspended 53rd with a diminished doodah and whatever. Anyway, small beer I know, but I appreciate what you do, not least because you don't just take the easy path. Admirable in my humble opinion. Enough pontificating frae me.

‘My Favourite Moments’ CD -

Loads of different influences and references, not copied, but entwined into your own style - very impressive. I realise that this unasked for, and probably unwanted feedback, is useless anyway, as looking at the box the record is 10 years old! Didn't realise, thought it was more recent, Doh!!! Still I assume you've other albums in your 'back catalogue.'

Bye the bye, Paul Simon meets the Santana rhythm section....smashing.

Cheers Eric Mills.

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Hiya Paul.

Hope you two got home safely from Loftus last night. You and Tom are brilliant as a duo and it was a treat to see two such talented musicians on stage together. It was a terrific performance which would grace any music venue.

And Friday night at the Blues Club with the Paul Tilley Little Big Band was just sensational. It was a special atmosphere and a pleasure to be there - well worth the trip.

It was great to hear you performing much of your own stuff to such an appreciative audience and the band took your songs to another dimension. You were clearly enjoying yourself and rightly so and I know your family were really proud of you.

It was good to see the generous encouragement and praise you were giving to the younger band members on sax and trumpets.They were all given the opportunity to demonstrate their solo skills and did themselves justice. Their faces were a joy with the generous applause they were getting. My feet were tapping all night and we were buzzing all the way back home to Normanby - awesome gig.

Thanks for a weekend of brilliant entertainment. It was good to meet Tom and please pass on our best wishes. Enjoy your break and see you soon.

Dave and Nora Elrick.

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Hi Paul

Thanks for putting on a great show in O'Gradys last night.
Eileen & I thought that was the best first half that you have done for ages.You were in great form - as you were the previous week @ The Frigate.

Your versions of Mr Blue Sky , Good Vibrations , Turn it on Again + the right up to date PriceTag were top class.
Not surprisingly the 2nd half was about "playing to the crowd"

It was also good to be among family(Brian,Julie + yourself) & friends.

Looking forward to the Scarborough gig.

Thanks again & well done.

John

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Hey Paul, how are things going?

Just wanted to drop you a line. Looks like you're busy these days…me too, we have a bunch of gigs this year!

Anyway, late though it is I just wanted to let you know that Loretana and I had a fantastic time at both your shows when we were on holiday in Middlesbrough (yes, some people DO go to Middlesbrough on holiday). You absolutely wowed her with the Billy Joel tunes - she used to work for CBS Records in New York and was always a huge Billy Joel fan. And I can't remember anyone ever doing great tunes like A Town Called Malice and who plays 10CC tunes? (well, my band does Dreadlock Holiday) - I love their stuff so you really hit a home run there.

I think the best accolade I can offer, as one musician to another, is that I was jealous of what a fantastic musician you are…loved every minute of both gigs - here's wishing you all the best for your future in music and when we come back, as most certainly we will, we will definitely be out to see as many of your shows as we possibly can.

Take care
Les Bell (Canada).

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Hi Paul,

Just wanted to post a message to congratulate you on a superb performance with your Little Big Band at the Cask on Friday. It was a pleasure to be there and although I have seen you perform your own songs many times now, the rest of the musicians took them to another level entirely and made it clear just how clever and well crafted your compositions are.

The atmosphere in the room was buzzing and the addition of other talented local musicians and students made it a night to remember.

Please pass on my thanks to the rest of the band for all their hard work and to you who’s talents and effort made it all possible.

Best Wishes as always

Christine Robson.

Thanks for your support as always Chris.

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Hi Paul,

Thanks for the superb set last Saturday at Sedgefield Cricket Club. Joan & I have ran this night for over 21 years now and we've both said it's so difficult getting the "right" act for main guest at SCC, so when gems like yourselves come along, your friends Stony and maybe 4 or 5 other acts, it takes quite a lot of weight off our minds.
I took some photos but I'm sorry to say they haven't come out as good as as they usually do (I'm not the best of photographers).
Can you do SCC April 14th 2012 ?

Once again Paul, thanks to you & Tom for a wonderful night. - John Wrightson

PS:- We'll be popping down to Saltburn now and again over the summer so hope to see you at The Vic.

Cheers John. It was a brilliant gig for us and we're looking forward to coming back next year.

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Hi Paul,

Would just like to say on behalf of our crowd what an absolute brill night we all had at the Labour Club charity night for Paul's Law. (www.paulpearson.org.uk)
The gig you performed was amazing and everyone was well impressed, it's great to see you looking and doing so well.
Meant to get a CD off you of your new album but totally forgot about it.
Anyway thanks for such a great gig and we will be looking out for you for future shows.

Cheers
Kenny Webster.

Thanks a lot Kenny. We raised a lot of money that night so thanks to all concerned. Great to see so many old friends from Grangetown. I can remember nutmegging Malcolm Bower many times over the 'Boysy!' Steve Todd the 'Hide and Seek' champion? You're joking arn ya? I once hid in the bushes near the Magnet for a fortnight and he couldn't find me!

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Hi Paul,

Thanks for an excellent night at the Londesborough Arms. Your sets were as varied and confident as usual.

Ann and I haven't been able to catch up with you for some years but were not disappointed and memories of your ‘not to be missed’ Sunday afternoons at the Pavilion Vaults in Scarborough  came flooding back. Those were great days as you entertained the regulars often with their personal choices from your vast repertoire and your own Tilley Tunes. It was a privilege to be there. It was also good to catch up with another of the PV Sunday crowd in Janet.

There were many other great gigs we went to including your Paul Weller specials.  They were all over Scarborough and I never saw the same set twice as you easily gauged your audience and gave them what they wanted as well as stuff they didn't even realise they had been waiting to hear  - Vin Garbutt and Gilbert O'Sullivan to name but two. 

In chatting with you at the break last night I recalled some of the more memorable moments I had witnessed such as you soothing (or to be accurate disorienting) a sparring female couple next to the stage at the Ramshill pub with the opening riff to ‘Eye of the Tiger!’ Unfortunately I believe it kicked off later in the loo but even you can't be everywhere at once. Many folk wouldn't realise the risk you were taking at such audience involvement as these were just 2 girls falling out over some (unfortunate) bloke but hey this was the Ramshill in the late 90's - a place then where you kept yourself to your yourself and your eyes on the stage. Making eye contact with the wrong company could bring about a sudden end to your evening for us interlopers but you always managed to keep them sweet.

Another memory came back as you launched into Good Vibrations last night, this time on electric guitar, but my first hearing was at the PV Sunday gigs when you did it on acoustic (without a safety net). It took Brian Wilson and the cream of American musicians and harmony singers to reproduce it on his recent tours. Sometimes less is definitely more. You did a good Bowie song Oh You Pretty Things which was brilliant and took me back to perhaps his finest song which you used to regularly do at the PV - Life On Mars or then again perhaps that could be The Man who Sold the World.

In talking to Ann later and remembering the good crowd you used to draw at PV, as well as the sets by friends during your break, a couple of other memories came back. A group of lads stumbled in slightly worse for wear and on their way, it seemed, to the railway station to go home. You had already regaled us with a short trip through popular music including that well known floor filler A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square (well it was in the 20's), a skip through assorted 60's 70's and 90's songs with a detour through punk and had us with you every step of the way when they arrived.

We can't now recall exactly where we were on this musical journey you had made up on the day as you recognised and responded to various requests of your regular fans (as was your usual yet unusual way) when they landed but it was definitely something light and not at all current. For some reason unclear to us refined regulars our newcomers found it funny. The heckling started and turned into drunken calls for some song by a band that I had heard of but hadn't actually heard. You retained your usual bonhomie and rose to the bait and the occasion by segueing effortlessly into the opening bars to one of the songs by this particular band but said you couldn't remember the words (as if! Paul Tilley not remembering lyrics!). Having turned the tables and the mood by getting them to shout out the words you drew them in with your off the cuff rendition of this and then some other songs they called out. Us regulars could have been miffed at this apparent hijacking of what had become our special Sunday afternoons but we all sat smug as our champion first silenced and then seduced the hecklers into becoming "Tilleyettes" for the rest of the afternoon. Did they end up missing their train? I stlll hope so as a lesson to them in more ways than one.

Another time, as your set was drawing to an end, that evening's band (a Queen tribute) arrived and began bringing in their gear. Having realised what type of band they were you broke into a superb Queen medley and stopped them in their tracks drawing their appreciation and applause and no doubt their thanks that you weren't on immediately before them - how could they have followed that?

Anyway enough trawls through my memories, as the present is just as good. You have a gift for not only making people happy but also feel special and as involved as they want to be during and after your sets. As I mentioned Ann and I haven't been able to get out as much in recent years but we are hoping to rectify that and catch more of your gigs to give us that special feeling again. For now we have that new platter of yours to listen to.

Keep on rocking!

Peter and Ann Wilson.

What a brilliant piece of writing Pete. Thanks for all those memories.

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Hi Paul. Just wanted to thank you for Saturday night at O Grady's in Redcar. As well as your usual high standard of covers it was great to hear you perform a medley of tracks from your new CD at the end. If anyone who goes to see you wants to spend a fiver on it they will not be disappointed. Some Cd’s you get at gigs can sound rubbish when you play them at home as they have not been produced very well but this is definitely not the case with yours - the sound quality is excellent. My favourite tracks are He’s Calling for You, Let’s Make the World a Better Place, Alfie Boy and It Feeds Me as well as the live track from Ronnie Scott’s. It’s always a pleasure to come and see you play and to watch someone with a genuine talent and a love of music such as you.

Best Wishes
Christine Robson. x

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Hello Paul,
Just a message to say how much we are enjoying your album 'A Better Place'. We instantly took to some tracks and each soon had our own favourites, but as we listen to it again, more and more favourites are appearing! Meaningful, realistic lyrics merge perfectly with great musical composition. Well done and thanks to you and all those who contributed to the album.
We have had the pleasure of watching you perform at a variety of venues in the Scarborough area, both solo and with others. You are without a doubt a gifted musician. Your love of music is contagious and we consider you a first class all round entertainer.
At every venue you quickly build up a great rapport with the audience with good humour and an incredibly varied selection of music. Black Eyed Peas, Steely Dan, Kings of Leon, Paul Weller and Carole King to name but a few which we have enjoyed. Each performance is unique and always leaves us looking forward to the next one. On your website someone has called you 'The Human Juke-Box'. With your repertoire and confident response to any request your audience can throw at you, I think it's time to upgrade you to 'The Human iPod'!
See you perform again soon hopefully,
Pauline and Gordon Dent.

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“Paul Tilley and Tom Townsend are two guys bursting with vibrant personalities and their gigs at the Tap and Spile are a real winter treat.
The informality of the night draws you in so that the classic band/audience divide is all but forgotten. To feel included like this is priceless and it is an invigorating change from something polished and, potentially, soulless.The camaraderie between Paul and Tom is undoubtedly what makes this work so well, second only to their exceptional musical talent. Their ability to read each other comes across as telepathy, and it is thrilling to witness the sheer, raw enjoyment as they spark perfectly off one another.
With a blend of refreshing covers, superb original material and a lot of fun, it is a night no-one should miss.”
Elizabeth Round.

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Hi Paul,

Good gig at the Cricket Club the other night thanks.

Glad I bought a CD - the song "He's Calling For You" is really good. Also sounds like you had a good session at Ronnie Scott's - "The World Will Turn" sounds brilliant on the CD.

All the best for New Year,

Dave Whitfield.

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Hi Paul, I wanted to post something on your website to say we had a great time on our holidays. My dad thinks you're great as well (that says alot as he doesn't like many artists!). Can we order some more cd's please?

Thanks,

Sue Raywood and family.

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Hiya Paul. We woke up to a white-out this morning so hope you got home safely before the snow fell. Two great gigs last week at Wilton Golf Club and O'Gradys giving us a lovely run up to Christmas. You always put on a great show and we'll see you again at the Cricket Club on the 27th (does that make us groupies)? Hopefully Nora's leg will be better so she can dance again rather than hand-jiving all night. Looking forward to listening to the new CD. See you soon and have a great Christmas.

Best wishes,

Dave and Nora x

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Paul,

The new CD sounds and looks like a million dollars mate. Cracking songs and fab playing all round! You must be really chuffed to finally get it out there. It was an honour to be asked to play on it.

I've only given it one listen through so far but am looking forward to hearing it again and again.

Well done mate, have a fantastic Christmas and thank you again.

Lots of love

Daniel Lloyd.

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