Scottish singer Owen Paul, who shot to fame with the 1986 hit My Favourite Waste Of Time, has led an eventful life over the past four decades, from a run-in with the Osbournes to a serious stage fall.
A Surprise Hit Forty Years Ago
In 1986, while the world was gripped by the Chernobyl disaster, the Challenger space shuttle explosion and Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal, Owen's song was everywhere on the radio. The former Celtic FC player had been signed by Epic Records, partly thanks to support from Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell.
Owen became obsessed with the melody after hearing Bette Midler sing it on late-night TV. He recorded his version the next day, and it became the lead single from his debut album.
Chart Success and a Career Pause
Released in May 1986, the song was a huge hit, kept off the top spot only by Madonna's Papa Don't Preach and Chris de Burgh's Lady In Red. It spent five weeks in the top 10 and 10 weeks in the top 40, outselling hits by Paul Simon and Whitney Houston.
Despite the success, Owen was unhappy. He told the BBC: "I was on Top Of The Pops and flying around the place and for a lot of people it would have been a dream come true. But it was going in a direction I didn’t want. It felt to me as if it was killing what I had to offer."
After a fight with his label, Sony, he turned his back on music. He worked as a music consultant for Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood, and ran a theatre in London's Leicester Square for over ten years. He told Classic Pop magazine: "I thought, ‘I’m going to have to lay low for a while’ to try to regain my thing and slowly bring out more rocky records, little by little. That sabbatical turned into 25 years plus."
Comeback and Unusual Encounters
Owen made a slow comeback, producing a triple-platinum album for a Japanese rock band in 1989 and co-producing the UK's Eurovision entry in 2001 for Sheffield singer Lindsay Dracass. He also toured and recorded with Mike + The Mechanics.
He accidentally appeared on the first season of MTV's The Osbournes after playing music in a friend's garden in Beverly Hills. Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne shouted at them and threw things. Owen's face was blurred after he refused to sign consent forms without viewing the footage first.
In 2019, he was rushed to hospital after falling off a stage at a festival in Southend, Essex, cracking his ribs, spraining his wrist and suffering a head injury. He told the Daily Record: "Everything seemed to be in slow motion so I knew I was in trouble. Then of course I hit the ground full in the face with an almighty thud – then the slow motion was gone."
Owen continues to perform at retro festivals such as Rewind, Let's Rock and Britfest, and recently released a 40th anniversary version of his hit Pleased To Meet You. He has three children but keeps details of any romantic involvement out of the spotlight.
