March 2023
Weds 15th - Manchester - Gorilla
Thurs 16th - Leeds - Brudenell Social Club
Fri 17th - Glasgow - King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Sat 18th - Liverpool - Camp and Furnace
Weds 22nd - Nottingham - Rescue Rooms
Thurs 23rd - Guilford - The Boiler Room
Fri 24th - London - O2 Academy Islington
Sat 25th - Bristol – Thekla
Paul Draper Announces the UK Six Tour for March 2023
To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Six, in March 2023 Paul Draper and his live band are hitting the road, playing legendary venues up and down the UK. For these very special headline shows, Draper is playing, in full, the iconic album by Mansun, the group he led and fronted until their breakup in 2003. He will be joined by his live band, capturing the unique vibe of Six while adding a fresh intensity to the songs.
25 years ago, when Mansun regrouped to write their seminal sophomore album Six, frontman Paul Draper pondered the age old question: "how will we top our #1 debut Attack of the Grey Lantern?” The answer - "A twisting maze of prog, glam and early-'80s guitar pop... No-one has done northern angst on LSD quite like this" (NME).
The resulting music is a unification of numerous ideas and inspirations, with elements of pop, electronica and progressive rock. Mansun included a Tchaikovsky sample interlaced with electronic drums and spooky synth lines, references to religious scepticism, Winnie the Pooh, Stanley Kubrick, Marxism and spoken word from the legendary fourth Doctor Who - Tom Baker. Its varied sounds result in dynamic switches mid-track to seemingly new songs, making the album a timeless record, even 25 years on. It's also not short on strong individual tracks with the hit singles "Legacy", "Being A Girl", "Negative" and “Six”.
Mansun were one of the most iconic and innovative British bands of the late 90s. Having signed to the legendary record label Parlophone (home to The Beatles, Radiohead and Sigur Ros) they released four albums – Attack of the Grey Lantern (1997), Six (1998), Little Kix (2000) and the posthumous album Kleptomania following the band’s split – as well as a popular and now rare series of EPs. Now enjoying a successful solo career, and with new album Cult Leader Tactics out now, Paul Draper and his incredible live band are playing the album in full, along with other hits from Mansun and his solo career, on tour in 2023.
Paul and his band will undertake a 21-date tour at the end of February, playing stripped back versions of songs from the new album, Spooky Action and Mansun classics and rarities:
CULT LEADER TACTICS: OUT NOW
Cult Leader Tactics is a satire on the genre of self-help manuals. It details how to get to the top of your chosen profession, or how to get on in life in general and in affairs of the heart, by acting in a Machiavellian manner and employing dirty tricks or ‘Cult Leader Tactics’ to achieve your life goals.
Lyrically the album is made up of extracts from a fictitious self-help manual ‘Cult Leader Tactics’, a parody of the self-help manual genre. After experiencing these types of human behaviour and themes, the album arrives at the conclusion the only true answer in life is love.
These and other themes are subtly referenced in each song and explored on a collection of Paul’s best songwriting since Mansun’s imperial phase. Nowhere is this exemplified more than on the instantly catchy and destined to be classic, ‘You’ve Got No Life Skills, Baby!’, which is reminiscent of the best artrock-meets-pop moments of Mansun’s Attack Of The Grey Lantern.
Paul plays the majority of the instruments on Cult Leader Tactics 11-tracks, including guitars, drum machines and synthesisers, on an album produced with long-time collaborator, acclaimed producer Paul ‘P-Dub’ Walton at the latter’s Loft Studios, with additional engineering by Scott Knapper.
Cult Leader Tactics features guest appearances from revered musician and producer Steven Wilson, who co-wrote and plays on ‘Omega Man’ – a collaboration about his and Paul’s feelings of isolation during lockdown – Gamaliel ‘Gam’ Rendle Traynor from the band Sweat, who played, arranged and engineered all strings (recorded at Sweat Studios, Peckham, London), as well as a 288-person C.L.T. Lockdown Choir who sing on ‘Lyin’ Bout Who U Sleep With’.
Cult Leader Tactics tracklist:
- Cult Leader Tactics
- Internationalle
- Dirty Trix
- Cult Leader Tactics in E-Flat Minor
- You’ve Got No Life Skills, Baby!
- U Killed My Fish
- Everyone Becomes A Problem Eventually
- Annie
- Talkin’ Behind My Back
- Omega Man (Feat. Steven Wilson)
- Lyin’ ‘Bout Who U Sleep With
Cult Leader Tactics is available on the following formats:
4CD Deluxe Book Edition, including a hardback book
Gatefold single LP
Gatefold single LP indie-only release, comes with a bonus 7” featuring a second collaboration with Steven Wilson
Gatefold single coloured LP
Digipack CD
Digital
Paul Draper was the frontman of Mansun – one of the most iconic bands of the late ’90s. Over the course of three albums (a fourth issued posthumously), they achieved something unique – after fostering a fervent cult following, they managed to maintain critical and commercial success with a series of intensely radio friendly yet increasingly experimental records. Off the back of their biggest radio record, Mansun imploded in 2003 and Paul all but disappeared from view.
Paul Draper's debut album Spooky Action is the result of a decade of thinking, tinkering, writing, recording and focusing. Lyrically, it’s biting and brutally honest – an autobiography set to captivating, addictive melody across eleven songs that peak then peak again, then peak again. Taking its cue from 2016’s two EP releases and recorded in collaboration with Catherine AD (the Anchoress) and long time Mansun collaborator PDub.
Spooky Action's eleven tracks veer from warped voodoo psych (Don’t Poke the Bear) to glistening synthetic soul (Things People Want); from warped, razor wire rock’n’roll (Grey House) to glorious widescreen analogue pop music (Jealousy Is A Powerful Emotion). Collectively, they represent Paul’s strongest, most consistent set of songs to date – half a lifetime’s work condensed into just over an hour of perfectly formed music.
Kscope has also acquired the iconic back catalogue of Draper’s former band, Mansun. Learn more about the future special releases planned on the Mansun artist page.
ATTACK OF THE GREY LANTERN
DELUXE REISSUE OF PAUL'S FORMER BAND MANSUN'S CLASSIC DEBUT ALBUM
Stunningly remastered from the original multi-tracks – this incredible album will be available on all digital platforms and as a media book CD, a 2 x black gatefold vinyl, a very limited 2 x purple gatefold heavyweight vinyl (complete with original design printed inner bags) and a lavish four disc limited book (3CD+DVD) including remastered album, DVD (including 5.1 mix, original videos and hi-def mix), a 70 page book with a new extended essay on the making the record and its impact, a CD of never before heard demos, rarities & outtakes and a CD of selected Mansun BBC Sessions.
JEALOUSY IS A POWERFUL EMOTION EP
Paul Draper's third EP Jealousy is a Powerful Emotion features two new versions of Spooky Action album-track "Jealousy is a Powerful Emotion", including a single edit with new vocals, two solo acoustic recordings of "Jealousy..." and "Things People Want", plus the intensifying remix from UK sensations Public Service Broadcasting.
EP TWO
Paul Draper's EP TWO features Friends Make The Worst Enemies – a knock-out punch; 5 minutes of relentless chasmic melody and autobiographical melancholy that immediately reminds the listener why Paul’s songs were rarely far from the FM dial during Mansun’s supernova career; Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid – a spacious ballad that veers from delicate acoustics to thunderous bass-driven echo-chamber noise; Don’t You Wait It Might Never Come – a ramped up, surging rock’n’roll number and a gorgeous acoustic take on Friends Make The Worst Enemies.
EP ONE
Paul Draper's debut EP features three tracks: Feeling My Heart Run Slow - a thundering juggernaut of a revenge rock n roll song; No Ideas - a mind-expanding spy movie soundtrack condensed into just under six minutes (and featuring Steven Wilson), and The Silence is Deafening - a gleaming pop song that perfectly melds together glacial synths and soaring guitar-bass-drums. The EP also features an alternate mix of Feeling My Heart Run Slow by Andy MacFarlane of Scottish band The Twilight Sad..
