Paul Norton profile picture

Paul Norton

Under A Southern Sky...

About Me

Paul started playing bass in various bands in his teens, which led to the formation of Melbourne band The Runners. After a couple of years of constant live work The Runners were signed to Mushroom records in 1981 and released their first single Sure Fire Thing in 1982 followed by The album Hitting the Wall and the single Endlessly. The Runners toured constantly throughout the early eighties and went through many line up changes before disbanding in 1985.
Paul spent the next couple of years playing with various bands (Wendy and the Rocketts, Steve Hoy and the Hoy Boys) before launching a solo career in 1988. Again signed to Mushroom Records Paul released his first single Stuck On You which received immediate airplay and got to number two on the Australian charts. Paul then went to London to work with producers Paul Muggleton and Mike Paxman on the next single I Got You and the album Under a Southern Sky (the song Southern Sky was later chosen for Australia Day Celebrations at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney).
Paul worked live with his band for the next couple of years before teaming up with American musician/producer T-Bone Wolk (Hall and Oates Carly Simon) to work on his second album Let It Fly which was recorded at Metropolis studios in Melbourne and mixed in New York at Electric Lady and Bearsville studios. Let It Fly was released in 1992 with the singles When We Were Young and Lil Red Riding Hood. Paul worked live with his band over the next couple of years touring extensively throughout Australia including many aboriginal communities and Arnhem Land.
In 1994 Paul met Peter Wells RIP (Rose Tattoo) and Cletis Carr and together they formed Hillbilly Moon and later that year released the album Hillbilly Moon Volume One with the song She Left Me receiving solid airplay on Country Music Television.
Paul was Musical Director and wrote the score for The Australian Shakespeare’s production of Much Ado About Nothing and the finale for the critically acclaimed comedy Certified Male.
Paul has written for and with some of Australia’s finest performers including Debra Byrne, Gerry Hale, Wendy Stapleton, Donna Fisk and Michael Cristian, Dobe Newton and Colleen Hewitt.
In the last few years Paul has divided his time between writing producing and working live and is currently working on a new album. In September 2006 paul was part of the Countdown spectacular which featured 27 of Australia's top rock acts performing to over 100,000 people nationwide

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/25/2006
Band Website: paulnorton.com.au
Band Members:
Influences: bob dylan. tom petty. steve earl. bruce springsteen. lucinda williams. world party. bap kennedy. neil young. john prine. paul kelly. the band. elvis costello. david bridie. daniel lanois. emmylou harris. john hiatt. lyle lovett.
Type of Label: None