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Hoopshank

About Me

Paul Turrell is a multi-instrumental songwriter/ composer who used to be the keyboard and string arrangement bloke out of Boa , with whom he wrote and performed the 'Race Of A Thousand Camels' / 'Twilight' albums.

Paul has been playing instruments for many years but he has never played a D sharp as he is afraid of its sound. He has had all of the D sharps removed from his Steinway concert grand piano.
Paul has a 6-figure income from a mysterious benefactor but he spends every penny on promoting the Fosbury Flop.
Paul is currently editing the classic BBC comedy 'Dad's Army' to remove all references to Lance Corporal Jack Jones, played by Clive Dunn. This will enable the series to be broadcast in Norway, where Dunn is considered to be the anti-christ.
Whilst perusing the secret correspondence of Led Zeppelin, Paul discovered that their classic 'Stairway To Heaven' was co-written by erstwhile UK kids-TV-presenter Timmy Mallett.
Paul is co-authoring a hilarious sitcom 'Guantanamo Bay' which takes a light hearted look inside the horrific detainment and interrogation camp.
Paul works part time at Tolworth Dry Ski Slope in Surrey. He also runs The Hoopshank Chemical Shop in Portobello Road, London, which specialises in ZINC . It is rumoured that a second branch has opened in the USA but the address is undisclosed.
Paul has been struck by lightning twice. The first time, he lost his sight. The second time (three minutes later), he regained his sight but lost his sense of smell and fashion-sense.
Paul's favourite fruit and favourite colour are lemons and lemon respectively.
Paul doesn't like lines. And he's not entirely keen on nitrogen.
Paul's favourite note in the Standard Western Musical Spectrum is E flat.

Paul is a miserable bastard.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 04/10/2006
Band Website: www.paulturrell.com
Band Members: Paul Turrell:
Drums and percussion, guitars and bass, piano and keyboards, vocals, songwriting and production.
Influences: Genesis - the Peter Gabriel era, especially 'Selling England By The Pound', 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' and 'Foxtrot' albums. If you've only heard their later pop stuff with Phil Collins singing, check out one of those albums - it's completely, utterly different and amazing. Well I think it's amazing but no-one could deny how different it is.
Henry Cow and Slapp Happy who I just discovered, at least 20 years after I should have! (Slapp Happy asked Henry Cow to be their backing band for the AMAZING album 'Desperate Straights' and the bands merged.)
The Beatles - esp. 'Magical Mystery Tour', 'White Album', 'Sergeant Pepper' albums.
Frank Zappa - esp. 'We're Only In It For The Money', 'Hot Rats' and 'Yellow Shark' albums.
Caravan - esp. 'In The Land Of Grey And Pink' album.
Syd Barrett - esp. 'Bike', 'See Emily Play', 'Arnold Layne' songs.
Gong - esp. 'Flying Teapot', 'Angel's Egg' albums.
Jane's Addiction - given that they were a guitar band, it is perhaps unusual that their greatest influences on me were the strings and piano in their superb song 'Then She Did' on the 'Ritual de lo Habitual' album. You can hear that influence in some of my work with Boa.
Bill Oddie - an unusual influence I admit. He was one third of 70's British comedy heroes The Goodies and is now a popular wildlife TV presenter. He was also a seriously under-rated singer / songwriter.
Adam And The Ants - mainly the 'Dirk Wears White Sox' album before they made it big.
Also King Crimson, early Queen, Madness, Marillion, The Jam, Pink Floyd, etc, etc, etc.And let's not forget Maurice Ravel, Pyotr Tchaikowsky, Bohuslav Martinu, Igor Stravinsky, Hector Berlioz, Ludwig Van Beethoven, George Gershwin and our other friends in the classical world.
Sounds Like: Having-fun-style music.
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

Zinc And Lemons - revisited

As you probably know, if you're reading this, way back in February, I took part in FAWM ('February Album Writing Month') at www.fawm.org. It was basically a community of songwriters who challenge...
Posted by on Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:56:00 GMT

50-song challenge 2007

Funny, I could have sworn I'd already blogged this.... apparently not. Having successfully completed FAWM i.e. February Album Writing Month, I decided to embark upon the marathon that is The 50-song c...
Posted by on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:04:00 GMT

Questionaire I enjoyed filling in

I found that Xenosabi had answered these 101 (minus a lot of missing -) questions and it seemed like fun to do. These things are always more fun to do than to read. I did enjoy many of your answers, X...
Posted by on Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:19:00 GMT

Co-write with me......

Co- (as the title above suggests) -write with me! First set of lyrics posted below (as a comment) gets made into a song. Further lyrics maybe too, at my discretion. But first set I hereby commit ...
Posted by on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:37:00 GMT

Maldive Waltz

Well I just finished my third song inspired by the Hoopshank-Wille songwriting challenge generator. The challenge was 29-34-42-50-60. Or, in other words: 29: The song must include handclaps34: Include...
Posted by on Thu, 17 May 2007 09:55:00 GMT

Hoopshank-Wille songwriting challenge creator / Arnold

Regular readers of this 'column' (hi Xenosabi, Ben and Elizabeth) know that, in February, I took part in February Album Writing Month (FAWM.org) where the aim was to write, and ideally record, a minim...
Posted by on Tue, 15 May 2007 13:17:00 GMT

Nobody Told Me

Well I uploaded a new recording. I just renamed it 'Nobody Told Me' as that's a fairly sensible title for it (that phrase appears 8 times in the song). The original title in my song book was 'May...
Posted by on Fri, 11 May 2007 19:02:00 GMT

Shinpads and Spoons - and a ludicrously intelligent Belgian chap

It's all about how the Hoopshank Corporation started. Ben Henderson was the first to associate me with a huge evil unstoppable corporation way back in the early 90s (the Plastic Marmalade corps.) And ...
Posted by on Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:31:00 GMT

What happens when the paedophiles start selling own-brand metal detectors?

It's already happened. Bill Wyman wishes to use his name - famous as a paedophile, third-rate bass player who happened to be in an incredibly successful band (The Rolling Stones), and all-round a...
Posted by on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:42:00 GMT

Worst Case Of Trying Too Hard.... EVER

Please allow me to point out in advance that this is a genuinely affectionate deconstruction of another musical 'combo' and their marketing methods. I genuinely don't mean to be 'bitchy' or ...
Posted by on Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:15:00 GMT