About Paul King

Discovering that a life as a trainee chartered accountant was not for him, he began a period of busking and roaming around Greece, the south of France and Spain where he ended up doing a spell in a Spanish prison after being arrested for busking. Having his hair and beard removed courtesy of one of Franco’s barbers he was eventually deported and made his way to Cornwall where he found the inspiration to write and compose.

Paul returned to Surrey at the onset of the winter months, picking up some weird and not so wonderful jobs – fruit picker, grave digger, drayman, hod carrier, sculptor and scenic artist. Paul is a very talented artist and worked at Shepperton studios as a prop maker on the Bond film, Casino Royale. He also formed a folk band, ‘The Russian Front’ with Steve Bloomfield who later found great success with pop/rockabilly cross–over band ‘Matchbox’. Steve was co–producer on ‘Lyin’ Again’ and ‘Rosalyn’.

He had been to see local band, The Good Earth several times whilst back in England, sat in at some of the gigs and eventually became a full time member. Primarily a jug band, they played some memorable gigs, none more so than their appearance at the 1970 Hollywood music festival on the bill with such luminaries as – Black Sabbath, Traffic, Jose Feliciano and the Grateful Dead. The band was now called Mungo Jerry and their debut single, In The Summertime became an enormous hit worldwide with Paul on banjo and jug. Read more …

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