WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Paul Varney

Have you heard Paul Varney ‘Yell’ lately? He’s still instantly replaying that one!

Paul Varney first became known in the late 80’s children’s drama series Children’s Ward and Press Gang (both 1989). He actually made his debut as a young boy in the 1979 film ‘Players’ and continued as an aspiring actor into the 1980’s before being recruited, along with Daniel James, by Stock Aitken Waterman for the new Pop duo, Yell. They released their debut single in Janaury 1990, a cover of Dan Hartman’s “Instant Replay” and it went to No.10 in the UK.

For whatever reason, their follow up singles were not a success, even a cover of “Let’s Go Round Again” failed to ignite any interest and with the release of “One Thing Leads To Another” and their debut album, “Let’s Go” in 1991, Paul and Daniel called it a day and ended Yell. James (real name Colin Heywood) dropped out of sight for many years, although he made a return to music in 2021 and has released a number of singles since.

Paul remained with Stock Aitken Waterman and recorded two solo singles, “So Proud Of You” and “If Only I Knew”, but both flopped and Paul went away again, although he was not idle! Paul ended the 1990’s back in the charts, just where he had been at the very beginning of the decade, as co-writer of the UK’s entry into the Eurovision Song Contest that year.

Paul submitted “Say It Again” for the show and it was duly selcted and performed by new girl group Precious. The song came in 12th on the night with 38 points and went to No.6 on the singles chart, Paul’s best and most successful release to date! Once more, Paul oddly disappeared after this success, but made a return in 2016 with a new single, “Kiss And Make Up”. he has been busy ever since both on his own recordings and as a guest vocalist on other peoples.

2023 alone has seen him perform on Stardate’s “Who We Are” along with his own tunes “Frequency” and “Where The Flowers Used To Grow”. You can’t keep the man down and hopefully one thing will lead to another and he will notch up another big hit one day very soon…