Paul James Berry


Location: Leeds

Challenge: Crushed leg - it kind of hangs there

Website: www.pauljamesberry.com

"A paradoxical mix of a Yorkshire man's Northern bluntness that tells it like it is and a “continental poetic tongue which educates and stirs…!" - Bubblegum Slut/ UK.

"Paul James Berry is an English singer-songwriter who writes and performs with an emotionally charged sincerity - he's the real thing; blood, guts and honesty!" - Rock/Folk-France

With the aid of an acoustic guitar or piano he sits center-stage and recounts with his powerful seducing voice the tales of his life on the back streets of Leeds/ England, all the years of touring clubs and bars of Europe and finally to his crippling road accident in Brighton/ England which still leaves him limping around with a stick like Dr House.

In the 80s he was the guitarist & founding member to the successful Rock/Goth band, The Rose of Avalanche, which produced many great albums and singles. Eventually enough was enough and he broke up the band in the 90s and embarked on a solo career under his own name. he played in every possible venue in the UK and Europe performing anywhere and everywhere his own songs (strip clubs in Hamburg, flee markets in Paris, techno discos, prisons, etc).

3 solo albums later (PJB, Ginnel and Nations) which saw him support giants of the songwriting genre such as Frank Black, Vic Chestnutt, Kevin Coyne, David Bowie, Howe Gelb, Townes Van Zandt and many many more.

He's back after rehabilitating from his accident with a new album 'Spitfire Jukebox 1' is mainly one instrument and voice that gives a beautiful raw insight to the human soul. It reveals a personal account of the last few years. touches on a cathartic necessity to get through the nightmare of his road accident to the celebration of life itself.

"When I arrived at the studio in Berlin, there was this colossal old hall that just had 'something' that moved me. So, I said to the man, get me a chair, put it in the middle of the hall and record me bleeding... the whole point of this album was to be in control and do everything myself - for good or bad - where there is no machine behind me, there's no deadlines, no rules and no bull shit! Just me and my demons". Paul James Berry - 2016


Paul James Berry