All hail the man they call Haig.

Ok here goes…..whilst I am no authority on the life and times of Paul Haig I do appear to own too many of his releases for it to be a coincidence so it must be fate.  As such I am delighted to add my tuppence worth to the first (un)Official Paul Haig day and salute his support of the music blogging world.

 

Paul came to prominence at the tail end of the 70’s fronting Edinburgh new wave outfit Josef K. In keeping with a band named after a character from a Kafka novel they produced a string of intelligent guitar pop classics for the coolest label in town, Glasgow’s very own Postcard. As with all things Postcard around the beginning of the 80’s this ensured they were feted by the music press but ultimately failed to translate this adulation into commercial success. Whilst label mates Orange Juice & Aztec Camera moved on to major label success (of varying degrees) Josef K. departed the scene in 1982 after one album. Who said punk rock was dead?

 

Switching from guitar led tracks to all out embracing of the synth records were released throughout the 80s on a variety of labels without the elusive “hit”. He didn’t really come to my attention until 1988 when the majestic Heaven Help You Now single was re-released and found its way into my collection.

 

This prompted me to spend more time than was healthy browsing second hand record stalls for other Haig releases and resulted in a copy of the 1983 Rhythm Of Life album being filed away in the Davenelli collection. In addition to working backwards through his catalogue I also looked forward and snapped up Flight X and the album Coincidence v. Fate in the early nineties.

 

The 90s closed for Paul with the album Memory Palace finally seeing the light of day. This was a dramatic collection of songs recorded with another Scottish maverick, the late great Billy MacKenzie.

 

Paul Haig continues to write, record and release music to this day and is undoubtedly something of a national treasure and the coolest man ever to hail from Edinburgh. 

Paul Haig - Born Innocence