3. Owen Paul - My Favourite Waste Of Time

Owen Paul
My Favourite Waste Of Time

Epic A 7125
Released: 31 May 1986
Reached: #3

The 1980s saw its fair share of “one hit wonders” - defined as those artists who had one single chart success. Indeed, the Eighties saw a number of Number One wonders – chart-topping songs which were a particular artist's sole chart success. From the likes of Fern Kinney (Together We Are Beautiful) through Steve “Silk” Hurley (Jack Your Body) to The Timelords (Doctorin’ The Tardis) the decade was littered with acts who appeared, had one smash hit and then disappeared down the Dumper (as Smash Hits would have said) as quickly as they arrived.

One such one-hit wonder, although largely by choice, was Scottish singer-songwriter Owen Paul McGee. Born in Glasgow in May 1962, McGee was actually a promising footballer in his teenage years and was an apprentice with Celtic when he decided to pursue a career in music. He was “roped in” to a band at the height of the punk boom (even though he couldn’t play an instrument) and inspired by the punk movement McGee decided that he wanted to be a singer and musician rather than a footballer.

McGee’s elder brother Brian was also a guitarist who, in the same year Owen left Celtic, formed the band Johnny and the Self Abusers alongside school friends Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill and Tony Donald. They later became the hugely successful rock band Simple Minds and Brian remained a member of Simple Minds for four albums before leaving in 1981.

Changing his name to Owen Paul, the singer moved to London becoming involved with a number of lesser known punk and New Romantic bands before his big break came on the BBC’s Oxford Roadshow in the mid 1980s. Although his first single Pleased To Meet You failed to chart, it was his follow-up release that would become Paul’s one chart success.

My Favourite Waste Of Time was not an original song but a cover of a track written by the American singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw. Crenshaw first shot to fame after playing John Lennon in the off-Broadway musical Beatlemania and whilst perhaps not a commercially successful international artist he has a strong reputation as a talented songwriter. He has released a number of critically acclaimed albums since his self-titled debut in 1982 as well as appearing as Buddy Holly in the 1987 film La Bamba and co-writing the title track to the 2008 film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story for which he was nominated for both a Grammy and a Golden Globe.

Paul’s version of My Favourite Waste Of Time (featuring future Thunder bassist Mark Luckhurst) was a summer hit in 1986 spending fourteen weeks on the chart on its way to peaking at number Three in July. As well as Paul’s version the song has also been covered by artists as diverse as Bette Midler and New York singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston.

During the song’s climb up the UK top Forty, Paul was invited to appear on the BBC’s popular lunchtime magazine show Pebble Mill. The resulting "performance" was one of the most embarrassing television appearances of the decade as after the presenter introduced Paul and his band neither the musicians nor the singer realised the nacking track had begun. Whilst the music played happily for the viewing public Paul leant nonchalantly on a railing failing to mime along to the song for a full minute before the programme cut back to the studio.

Although My Favourite Waste Of Time was a huge success for Paul it became obvious that everything was not well with the singer. Feeling he was being taken in a musical direction that he wasn’t comfortable with, Paul engaged in an increasingly bitter fight with Sony Records and argued they were “killing” what he had to offer. His follow-up singles all failed to chart, and, disillusioned with the industry Paul turned his back on music at the end of 1986.

Paul’s second unfortunate TV appearance occurred over a decasde and a half later in 2002 during the first season of the reality sitcom The Osbournes. Upset with the noise being made by their next door neighbours the dysfunctional family protested by throwing food into the adjoining garden. Sharon Osbourne even lobbed a leg of ham in an attempt to persuade the neighbour – later revealed as Owen Paul – to quieten down.

Paul did return with the album About Time in 2002 although it is likely he will just be remembered for his one UK hit which resurfaced in 2009 on a Kellogg's television advertisement. My Favourite Waste Of Time is a superb, chirpy pop song although ironically its highly commercial sound ended up turning Paul away from the music business and the chance of further success.