Paul Haig

Paul Haig (born 4 September 1960) is a Scottish indie musician, singer and songwriter.

He was originally a member of post-punk band Josef K, active between 1979 and 1982.

Haig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and grew up in middle class Oxgangs.

His father was an owner of a fiberglass factory and his mother a secretary for a dental practice.

His earliest memories of music were listening to Beatles records on his parents’ Stereogram.

Though not from a musical family, his father bought him his first guitar at age 12.

On his father’s advice, he first learned to play by ear, humming the melody until he could work out the parts.

After taking a few guitar lessons, he began to teach himself songs by artists like David Bowie and the Velvet Underground, recording himself on guitars and vocals playing their song The Gift.

When he played it for friends in one of his first bands, they encouraged him to be the vocalist as they were too shy.

His baritone vocal style was influenced by listening to Lou Reed and Jim Morrison at an early age.

Haig later attended nearby Firrhill High School along with future Josef K bandmates Malcolm Ross, Ronnie Torrance (his neighbor since age 8) and original bassist Gary McCormack.

He reconnected with Ross at a party a couple of years after they’d left high school.

While chatting, they discovered they shared similar tastes in music.

They began to hang out soon after, listening to music and playing guitar which led them to form TV Art, soon renamed Josef K.

Haig was the lead vocalist of Josef K, an Edinburgh band, which recorded five singles 1979 and 1981 and an album (The Only Fun in Town) signed to the Postcard record label, before splitting in August 1981; their final Scottish date was in Glasgow.

The break-up was due to a combination of excessive expectations, too little financial return, Haig's dislike of touring, and disagreements over future direction.

The following year Haig told Johnny Waller in Sounds: "I was pretty depressed for a week because it was the end of an era, but after that I was really happy that we'd split, because I could get on with everything I wanted to do. I've lost a lot of the ideals I had in Josef K. About not wanting to be commercially successful, suffering for your art and all that. I want to be signed to a major and make a great record that will get radio airplay and be a big hit, then make my own money from that. I don't mind being manipulated to a certain extent to get what I want, but in time I want to control everything."

With Postcard disintegrating in the wake of the Josef K split, Haig signed with the Belgian independent label Les Disques du Crépuscule for mainstream solo releases, and also adopted the moniker Rhythm of Life Organization (RoL) for a variety of side-projects.

These included two interim singles on Edinburgh independent Rational, run by manager Allan Campbell.

The first of these, Soon, was a collaboration with fellow Edinburgh musician Stephen Harrison (formerly of Metropak), while the second, Uncle Sam, saw Haig guesting on a record by artist Sebastian Horsley.

Exploring territory first charted by Public Image Ltd and Heaven 17 in their BEF guise, both singles appeared as Rhythm of Life, this anonymity reflecting Haig's avowed dislike of personal publicity.

Also via Rational, he released a limited edition (700 copies) cassette-only set of home-recorded electronica titled Drama, featuring Franz Kafka texts set to music, as well as a deconstruction of Josef K's Forever Drone.

In January 1982, Haig played his first solo live shows in Edinburgh and London as Rhythm of Life.

At this stage Haig's new material was not so different from late-period Josef K songs such as "Heaven Sent", "Adoration" and "Heart of Song", though with a greater emphasis on a stripped-down funk style.

Eschewing a live drummer in favour of a drum machine, RoL earned plaudits from the press, and in February 1982 took part in Crépuscule's first European package tour, Dialogue North-South, which also included the Durutti Column, the Names, Marine, Richard Jobson, Isabelle Antena and Tuxedomoon.

Haig relocated to Brussels in March 1982 where he embarked on an intensive recording schedule at Little Big One studio.

This yielded two self-produced singles, "Running Away" and "Justice", as well as "Swing In '82", an EP of big band standards.

After four months Haig tired of Belgium and returned home to Edinburgh.

in May 1982, "Running Away", a cover of the Sly and the Family Stone classic, appeared on Crépuscule and reached number 19 on the UK Independent Chart, its success unhampered by the simultaneous release of another version by the Raincoats.

The follow-up single, "Justice", was shelved after Crépuscule signed a licensing deal with major label Island Records.

7-inch test pressings (TWI 100) survive, as does a separate 12" release featuring two club mixes of the song "Blue for You".

In July 1982, almost a year after the Josef K split, and with just one proper solo single to his name, Haig was labelled "the face and sound of 1982" by Paul Morley in a lead feature for the NME.

According to Morley, Haig was the "enigmatic fourth man" in a New Pop quartet which also included Billy Mackenzie, Jim Kerr and Martin Fry, all of them deemed potential pop saviours in a parallel universe where Morley deemed Dollar "the most avant-garde group in the world".

At the close of 1982, Haig recorded his first album in New York with Alex Sadkin producing.

Featuring a host of crack session players (including Bernie Worrell, Anton Fier and Jack Waldman), his new direction – polished club pop – sounded radically different from Josef K. The first single released from the album, "Heaven Sent" (a dance remake of an earlier Josef K song) stalled at No. 74 on the UK Singles Chart, and failed to provide Haig with the hit many had confidently predicted.

The Rhythm of Life album appeared in October 1983 and was accompanied by a short seven date UK tour.

Haig's touring group included Malcolm Ross on guitar, together with bassist David McClymont (also fresh from Orange Juice), drummer James Locke and former Associate Alan Rankine.

None of the three singles released from the album proved solid hits which might have allowed Haig to cross over to a wider audience.

Even by Morley's standards the statement was hyperbolic, although the writer would later go some way towards validating it by directing ZTT signing Propaganda to cover Josef K's song "Sorry for Laughing" on their debut album A Secret Wish in 1985.

The media hype around Haig paved the way for a licensing deal with Island Records.