Paul Harris Biographie

Grammy winning artist with cutting edge band Dirty Vegas - started his
working life aged sixteen as an Assistant Trader in the city - his love of
music was already prevailing, but mixing the two worlds wasn't easy.
Leaving his beloved 'discos' at 4.00 am and still making it to work for
6.00 am was demanding but Paul had a very specific goal in mind -
purchasing a set of decks - once this was achieved he was out of the city
and straight into Special Branch at Busbys, Nicky Holloway's Trip at the
Astoria and Paul Oakenfold's Monday's at Heaven. Paul's first DJ break came
aged 17 after constantly pestering the residents at Philip Salon's Troy
night - he was finally offered a set upstairs every Friday - playing what
was then known as 'Balearic Beats' (roughly translated to anything he
fancied - a set which Paul can still be heard spinning at highbrow fashion
shows and private party's!) Simultaneously a new bar opened across the road
called 'The Milk Bar' - so after finishing his Friday night set, Paul could
be seen throwing some shapes on the dance floor to sets by Pete Tong and
Dave Dorrell. The common denominator of music meant that Paul soon
befriended Dave and Nicky Holloway and when Darren Emerson left his Monday
night residency at The Milk Bar, Paul slotted in nicely - the Monday night
gig continued for five years - finally concluding at the Velvet
Underground. The Monday nights were quickly becoming established as a
London 'Hang Out' for promoters and producers - Paul soon found himself
locking down residency's at not only the Milk Bar in London but Pimp in
Wolverhampton, Open @ The Ministry of Sound and Billion Dollar Babes @ Raw,
he was also guesting at what can only be described as the ultimate nights
in the heyday of clubbing - Venus in Nottingham, the super glam Miss
Moneypennys in Birmingham, Cream in Liverpool and Golden in Stoke. Paul
soon graduated out of the DJ booth and into the studio being asked to remix
and produce - at the time this felt like more of a challenge, as club music
was taking a harder edge away from the house music he loved. He formed
'Colour System Inc' with Fionn Lucas and following on from the success of
their own releases - the offers started flooding in for remixes - over the
four years they had mixed an eclectic mix of artists, including All Saints,
Felix The House Cat, Giselle Jackson, Johnson and Abacus - Abacus became
one of the most played records on Pete Tongs show.... All was looking good
- but then in 1999, the music scene shifted again - and Paul returned to
the booth spinning at London's hottest parties hosted by close friends, and
THE original party girls, Charlotte and Fran Cutler and Meg Matthews. Paul
reclaimed residencies at the hippest nights, Miss D's Playboy @ Madam Jo
Jo's, the infamous Thursday nights at Kabaret and a number of premier /
launch parties spinning for the likes of Kylie, Madonna, Mario Testino,
Fendi and Juicy Couture (Paul can still count a number of these names as
current clients). Then in 2000 a chance meeting with old friend Ben Harris
and a chat at a party, led to 'Hydrogen Rockers' being formed - their first
release 'Musica' was available on CDR and the underground buzz was massive,
the track was picked up by Plastica in London and Yoshitoshi in the USA and
once again Paul felt he had found a sound he liked. As well as creating
their own music Paul and Ben, turned to remixing - with the boys having a
seemingly golden touch, their supporters included Sasha, Digweed, Howells,
Tong, Deep-Dish and Lawler - with dance floor fillers including 'Sono -
Keep Control', 'Lil Louis - Blackout' and 'J Magic - Love is Not a Game'. A
second chance meeting saw Paul bump into anther old friend Steve Smith who
presented him with a demo CD containing six tracks he'd been working on -
one of which Paul and Ben developed a house version of, and was transformed
into the modern day classic 'Days Go By' - so with an essential new tune
under the belt - 'Dirty Vegas' was formed! A major label deal was signed
and a full band was put together - Paul not coming from a band perspective
was literally thrown in at the deep end - but the debut album 'Dirty Vegas'
was finished. Then something happened which literally changed the band's
life - the track 'Days Go By' was picked up for a national US advertising
campaign (Mitsubishi) - the advert had a massive impact on the US market
and the record became one of the most requested tracks on American radio,
the album debuted on the US Billboard at number seven and went gold in the
US and silver in the UK. A tour followed with Moby as did appearances on
legendary TV shows 'David Letterman', 'Jay Leno' and 'Carson Daley', an MTV
award nomination, three Dancestar awards (including record of the year) and
of course the biggie - The Grammy for Best Dance Single (receiving three
nominations in total). The boys were so convinced they weren't going to win
The Grammy - they were actually in the bar when their award was announced.
The much converted award led to two years of solid touring - playing at all
the major festivals in both the UK and Europe. Then it was back in the
studio to start on the follow up album 'One' - this was released in October
2004 and reached Top 50 in the charts. It was during this time in the
studio that Paul started to miss the feeling and atmosphere of making and
playing house music, it was then that Paul made the massive decision, to
take the plunge, and in February 2005 Paul left the band. Immediately
after, Paul's DJ career once again took off, throughout 2005 he played
everywhere from Melbourne to Moscow, Singapore to Curitiba, and NYC to LA.
Production also went from strength to strength; remixing a whole multitude
of tracks, his last one in '05 went top 10 - Tom Novy. Studio work has also
been superb; his partnership with Jay P has proved to be the most
successful, with twelve tracks recorded and due for '06 releases under
various guises. Paul also has a follow up track coming on SR2 after the
triumph of "Watchin...' and a new track due on Toolroom Records , and also
a new SUPERBASS track on CR2 , all due for release sometime around the
Winter Music Conference '06. Due to Paul's heavy global DJ commitments he
had to pull his much loved residency at London's Kabaret Phophercy, but he
will continue to have a guest spot as and when he's in town. Again in 05
Paul played at the Serpentine Summer party, noted as THE summer party of
the social calendar, over the years Paul's played to A-Listers such as Jude
& Sienna, Kate Moss and Madonna and continues to support charities by
playing for parties for Sergeant Care Cancer for Jade Jagger. Highlight's
of the past year have been his first tour of OZ in June, New Years Day 06
in Tribehouse Germany, and of course his continued residency at Kabaret in
London. '06 already has Paul very very busy, with continued studio work, a
second tour of OZ & Asia in Feb, followed by Canada and USA in March.