Paul's musical interests developed early at school as a choirboy, pianist and guitarist. In his teens he juggled duties as a chorister at Coventry Cathedral with playing in rock bands and singing in close harmony groups. Paul discovered formal Barbershop in 1975 though a chorus in his home town of Saffron Walden, Essex, and soon qualified as a judge with the British Association of Barbershop Singers, which he remains to this day.

He co-founded the Cambridge Chord Company as its director in 1990, taking it from a home-spun group of a dozen singers to Choir of the World at the 2004 Llangollen International Eisteddfod. In that time CCC won six British and two European championships and twice became the highest-ever placed British chorus at the international Barbershop convention.

A prolific arranger of close harmony music, Paul has been principal coach to around eight British champion quartets and is a sought-after trainer of both mixed and single-gender choral groups. For his long service to the Barbershop movement he was awarded a coveted place in the BABS Hall of Fame.

His deep bass voice has featured in various TV commercial jingles and he was recently a panellist on Aled Jones's Radio 3 series about the British amateur choral scene, The Choir.

A media consultant by day, he still finds the odd opportunity to join his sons in a jazz trio, thrash the bass guitar in Raving Bobby B and the Bombers, and play the organ at his local church.