BIOGRAPHY
Paul Whitton started his musical apprenticeship at the age of 13 when
he found work helping a local milkman in the sub-zero wasteland of a
West Yorkshire early 1970s winter, in order to save up his hard earned
pennies to buy a much coveted red semi-acoustic Jedson electric guitar from Charlie Wilsons pawn shop on Aire Street in Castleford for the princely sum of £13.By the end of that winter the treasure was his and a lifelong love affair with guitars had begun.
By the age of 16 young Paul was almost ready for his first concert
appearance with local 30-something band “Backbone”which included local guitar legend Steve Drake who took the young Paul under his wing and introduced him to such luminaries as Carlos Santana, Al Di Meola, Focus and other proggers and jazzers.
The first gig however, ended in tears as the bands cretinous lead
singer took it upon himself to detune the guitars and bass, and reset
the PA system resulting in the band being literally laughed off the
stage, then as if that wasn’t enough he went on to blame and
consequently chin young Maurice Lucas the stand- in drummer.
These wounds soon healed though with the realisation that being in a
band meant a short cut to meeting women, also playing songs by T.Rex, and Slade were more fun and less work and so began 5 years of working around the Yorkshire social club circuit before disappearing to explore Australia and the far east for some years.
By the second half of the 80’s Paul was to be found slogging around
Londons night scene with various incarnations of new romantic rockers
but not lookers ” The Boum Strip” and the 90’s with the mentally
deranged ”Sawney Bean” which eventually crumbled and the basic core of Paul, Glenn Morton on drums and Kevin Wild on bass becoming Glam Trash rockers “Lipstick Torpedo” under the respective pseudonyms of “Interstellar Alan Meteor-Storm, Alan Galaxy and Alan Stardust”
Lipstick Torpedo are still working to this day though Paul records
and does solo gigs in a more chilled and sedate manner (due to shell
shock and battle fatigue!) .. with assorted characters and outfits from
around the south-east of England, the Poitou-Charente region of France and Holland, most notably the assorted members of the “Kill Buljo acoustic fist “ project-Brice Bugna on guitar, Chris Elbourn on
percussion, the aforementioned Kevin Wild on bass and Dave Chappell-the greatest musician in Cambridgeshire on guitar, banjo, piano, harmonica, marimbas, saxophone and kazoo…. at the same time
Pauls attitude is definitely becoming more relaxed with age but his
love of all things guitar only gets stronger, though in typically self
depreciating fashion he claims not to be so much of a fretboard burner
stating instead that one is only as good as the pleasure one gets from
the instrument … Amen.
Paul writes and records alone on a small 8 track affectionately
known as “Planet Bimbo”.
