THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF PAUL HAIG (Part 18)

I mentioned in last week’s post that Paul Haig had revived ROL Records in 1999 for the purpose of issuing Memory Palace, attributed to Haig/Mackenzie, and consisting of the music that he and Billy Mackenzie had collaborated on in the early-mid 90s.

ROL has been the vehicle for Paul’s work throughout the 21st Century, all of which in the early part of the decade were albums, with the imagined soundtrack albums Cinematique 2 and Cinematique 3 appearing in 2001 and 2003 respectively. ROL was also the label for the issuing of some more posthumous (and quickly deleted) previously unreleased material by Billy Mackenzie (solo or in collaboration with Steve Aungle) and a live CD by Josef K, featuring two Edinburgh gigs from back in 1981. Again all of this activity was between 2001-03.

It was another four years before the next burst of activity, with the biggest surprise that it consisted of a 7″ single and download:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Reason
mp3 : Paul Haig – Maybe

There was never any real push to make it a hit – it was pushed and promoted largely through Paul’s website and I’m not sure just how easy it was to find in shops. It’s a decent enough and enjoyable piece of music, not as immediate or upbeat as some of his previous 45s, but catchy enough, and with its refrain of ‘It’s time I was leaving…I’m moving on….’ it seemed to be sending out the message that this could be the farewell to the industry.

Thankfully it wasn’t.

The b-side is a short (just over 2:20) but interesting enough song….it was just a real joy to hear Paul singing again after all these years.

JC