Paul's Blog
May 5th, 2009
I left Scotland for the May weekend and I travelled south of the border to visit the English countryside. Not as mountainous as Scotland, but definitely has got it's own special kind of character in the Peak District. What was also good was at 9PM Taggart came on ITV, so Scotland was not so very far away after all.
Another episode of Taggart is on ITV and STV again at 9PM this Thursday. Other than that I'm compiling tracks for EMI Music, got a pilot to deliver, and some more songwriting...so it's busy, busy, busy here...
Older Blog's
April 18, 2009
Just a quick note to let you know that my music page is now jam packed with various music samples for you to audition. And if you like what you are hearing the creme-de-la-creme is still to come...keeep coming back or use the contact page to be kept up to date with my personal email. Cheers, Paul x
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April 13th, 2009
To blog or not to blog: that is the question
Happy Holidays Everyone!
I am starting to change my opinion about blogging and what people need to know about me…I’m talking on a professional level here. When I started this website back in December 2008, I was of the opinion that everyone’s going to want to know all about me on so many different levels, so off I went and started talking about all kinds of things. I mean you really want to know how often I go to the shops, and wash my car…right? Well maybe some of you do, and as much as I secretly would like to tell you, I just don’t think here is the place to do it. So from now on…less blogs…more music, and more music…ok.
If you want to connect with me on a more personal level, you will find me on facebook…under the name of…guess what …Paul Stirling Taylor. I know some of you already have, but if you do, it would be great if you let me know you got the link from here.
So without further ado, please check out my tunes on the music page.
Thank you for listening.
With luv and respect,
Paul
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March 15th 2009
Hello to all. First off I'm sorry its been over a month since my last blog. As some of you know I had a major service carried out last month. I'm glad to report I'm on the mend and things are almost back to normal. The start of this year was really busy for me; I submitted music for Taggart to complete the 25th season. This was my 5th year of Taggart, having been asked back to compose every single episode from 69 - 103 (with the exception of one episode) since 2004. So the seasons over, I've had my work carried out, passed the MOT, and I'm ready for action! I'm currently looking at other projects for this year, so if you are looking for some new refreshing musical input for your forthcoming productions, please get in touch and I will let you know what I can do for you. There's a few other things in the pipeline at the moment. I'm still writing songs, and I will soon be able to officially announce a new website where people can listen and purchase all of my latest tracks...all will be revealed soon! I hope you are well. All my best, Paul
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February 5th 2009 I'm mixing down the last of the music I composed for this current series of Taggart. As you may know this is the 25th season and it's still going strong and has become the longest running, continuous television crime drama series in the world! I had a review today with director, Pat Harkins, and he was very happy with the music for the forthcoming episode "Rapture" (no.103). The show will go into post production next monday and will be delivered to ITV shortly after. It's been great fun working on all of this seasons ten episodes! It is also good to see that last year ITV broadcast eleven new episodes and the viewing figures are still up there in their millions on the ITV network. I'm going to be off work for about a week next week for personal reasons, and I hope to be blogging again shortly after. I can also confirm the following transmission of the next new episode of Taggart that I composed the music for: Friday 20th February 2009, 9pm, STV & ITV1 Taggart 96 ‘Cold Reader' Writers Dominic Morgan & Matt Harvey Director Adrian McDowall Producer Graeme GordonExecutive Producer Eric Coulter Best to All, Paul
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January 20th 2009 Today is the day of Barack Obama's Inauguration - We hope the world can become a safer place! I have the BBC news channel on as I write this, and they’re reporting that UK public opinion is optimistic for President Obama. Taggart Season 25 – Since 2004, I've composed every single episode from 69 - 103 (bar one) and we're now on the last two for this season - episodes 102 and 103. Taggart 103 is directed by Pat Harkins. We’ve worked on many shows together and it’s Pat that first hired me for the job, so many thanks to him! New studio equipment – on Saturday I had Sky HD+ added to my existing 5.1 surround sound viewing room, complete with Blue-Ray movies and Sony Playstation 3 and PS3 games. So we are now also able show high definition television and HD satellite movies. Every visitor that comes to my home studio is always well catered for. Photo wall calendars - 100 have been made, 50 of them spell my name correctly, and 50 have a typo! So please specify which one you’d like by sending me an email. Strangely enough I told some people already about this - and most are asking for the typo version, which spells my name as “Paul Striling Taylor" on the front cover!
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January 12th 2009 Shoosh - Don't tell anyone but... It's been a busy start to the year for me. Having managed to survive another New Year (got the flu jab!), I hope most of you are safely back to work now, and you aren't off sick with said flu or measles, which seems to be relentlessly spreading across the country! It’s amazing how many of us get ill during or after a holiday break! So anyway, I started shopping at Lidl last week! This is my first attempt at spending less money, or so I think, because I really fancy buying some new equipment for the studio...and then there's the new Nikon D3, which would (in my mind anyway) turn my photos into real works of art!! Anyway, tracksuit on, and hood up (in case anyone from the 'Jones's' club recognised me), I covertly turned up in my great looking (but antique) Mercedes S500 AMG. After having a small problem with the parking bay, which nearly ruined the start of my covert operation, I managed to find a space at the opposite end of the car park next to a small tree - so it was partially hidden, but the extended rear end of the car didn’t help, awkwardly poking out from the rest of the deck, which I have to say, also included other Mercedes, BMW's, etc.!!. So with sunglasses on, hood up, and a protruding car behind what may as well been a burning bush for all to see, I cautiously meandered into this Aladdin’s cave of cheaper goodies! But hang on a minute! Why should I feel like this all of a sudden? Why should I feel bad about shopping more inexpensively? Also my car is probably one of the oldest in the car park, even though it might be quicker than some, although it can down a pint faster than most of the best dart players in the world. I mean it's a '99 model, just like my wife - now I'm definitely in a danger zone for saying that! So quickly adding, it's a beautiful car with great curves, that doesn't cost much to run...until the engine is started, of course! It's probably up there with the worst gas guzzlers on the planet, (absolutely no reference to my wife whatsoever here) is that why my road tax is probably worth more than my car? - can you sell that on EBay separately? The sore fact is I get about 12-18 miles to the gallon on a good day, which is probably in line with other v8's or v12's, and then there's the top of the range and highly revved-up 4x4's, which can be even worse! Incidentally, I can’t imagine wanting to drive 150 miles an hour in a 4x4 on some of our most colourful, yet rugged and robust countryside in the UK, not unless you find vomiting into a sick bag of major persuasion! - which I don't!! But somehow I cannot seem to want to rid myself of this beautiful heap of costly (yet roguishly) side of my driving nature. It's perfect - I don’t get stopped in it by the police - it looks like an old gentleman’s car - say no more! Yet is has the power of many hundreds of horses under the bonnet - which is funny, because when I open the bonnet, they must all disappear into thin air - no horses, just a big f*ck-off engine, and an even bigger fuel tank! I don’t see them at all... have you ever seen a car literally driven by 500 horses? I know the whole wheel driven vehicle experience was first invented years ago with horse drawn carriages, but when we replaced horses with cars, why do we still pretend they're still under our bonnets? And then there’s the question of which breed do car manufacturers use to identify the spec of their new vehicles. For example, The American Quarter Horse is meant to be the fastest, capable of speeds up to 50 miles an hour, and at that speed even your pet horse ,‘blazing saddles’, hasn’t got a look in!! I don't know about the rest of you, but I (obviously) don't understand the finite equation that proportionately delivers horsepower!? There's an answer to all this of course, but all of a sudden none of this matters any more (so no need to worry about those horses), because life as we know it has changed. Why? This is another subject for another day, because the more immediate question now is, what do we do about it? At this present moment in time, we’re evolving at a rate of knots faster than even Darwin anticipated. ... Into what, seems like - Why, oh, why, are we missing out the next couple of hundred years? Don't worry if I’m losing you here because I'm feeling a bit lost too - it's difficult to understand. Normally evolution is something that happens over a long period of time, and as humans we adapt; we slowly adjust to our new surroundings, one step at a time... But now the baby steps have gone and all of a sudden we've grown legs longer than John Cleese in Fawlty Towers doing the Germanic march, and we're gallantly quick-stepping off into 2010 and beyond… 1,2,3,4 - into what, I don’t know!? What I can say, from other reports, is this new era has less to do with our kudos (hmm - we'll see), which doesn't mean you can turn up at parties with really outlandish and 'no style of clothing sense' whatsoever...so forget that! That's already been pointed out to me by my wife! Seemingly there's no excuse for having to dress down without any sense of style. Shops like TK Max have great bargains and if you can choose well you can look just the part! Well, my wife can anyway, but she looks good in anything! According to the more philosophical writers of the press, this new dawn of time has greater importance of, well... just being us...less importance of ownership, glamour, and in particular, those really expensive handbags! This year, and maybe the next and then some, if we believe what we read, is about making more of ourselves personally, less attention on how much property we own, and it's a shame for those with loads they cannot sell. Or even worse for those people losing their properties, which is no laughing matter at all! So to end on a sincere note, it seems changes are ahead, but I do hope that we all make the best of whatever has to come - I still like beans on toast, I just hope it's doesn't become the daily special! So to all my friends and to everyone else, including those with more, and those less fortunate, my best wishes go to you all, and I hope 2009 also brings some new opportunities and has its advantages too! This message also goes to my entire family (including relatives I don't see much!). I hope you're all well, and all my best, Paul x
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January 4th 2009 Happy New Year to all!. My family and I have just returned from a very relaxing week on the Isle Of Lismore, Scotland. We spent our New Year there with some friends and I am pleased to say the weather was beautiful sunshine most days, with a cool crispness and flakes of ice gently covering the landscape, glistening and slowly melting away into the sundown with daylight gently drifting away about 3.30 in the afternoon into a bluish pinky red sky. I kept my camera close to me all the time to capture some of the beautiful images that nature had created for us this New Year. Click here for some examples. And I have to say the time away has helped me and my family no end, because last year brought a sudden change to us all after I nearly lost my life. I was saved by doctors and nursing staff at Glasgow's Victoria Hospital who performed an emergency procedure on me. I'm not going to go into the gory details of what happened, but what I can say is I have to return to hospital early this year for another operation, which I'm not looking forward to at all!. All will be revealed once I make it out of my next experience under the knife (and other scary implements, which, after the next procedure I'm going for was explained to me in graphic detail, all questions I had for the surgeon quickly disappeared into thin air, and I left the hospital with a rather blank look of shock and disbelief)!! Anyway, enough of looking for the sympathy vote and back to business! The fact remains - I'm still here and am ready to take on 2009 and whatever it intends to dish out. I'm looking forward to completing the remaining two episodes of Taggart for season 25, which end for me around beginning of February, and as you'll note from the news page, I've already started on a Dance album. So I've got plenty to be getting on with for now, as well as keeping this website up and running! Also, congratulations go to Adrian McDowall who won a BAFTA for his short film, Ma Bar. I'm currently working with Adrian on episode 102 of Taggart. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 17th Well, we're nearly at the end of another week and I can't believe it's xmas next week! I wish many festive greetings to you all! Tomorrow, I'm off to another final review of one of the shows I've composed music for, and after that I've got to get back to work at my home studio to start another job. I also need to be back to take over from my wife , because tomorrows the delivery day for our boys presents - sometime between 8am and 6pm. Amongst other things, it's going to be a musical xmas for my boys this year, because my eldest has started tapping out beats and wants a drum kit, so I've got him electric drum pads. My other son has started playing my piano to songs he's listening to on MTV! So he's getting a keyboard. Perhaps there's music in the family after all! We'll wait and see! Anyway, thats all for now and if I don't blog again, or speak to you in person, before the festive season - have a terrific one! Best wishes, Paul
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December 14th 2008 Hi All, The final review for Taggart episode 100, written and directed by Ian Madden, went well.I've spent the last week completing the music for Taggart episode 101, directed by Mike Alexander who won a BAFTA two weeks ago for the 'lifetime achievement award '- congratulations Mike! Also, as you navigate around the site you'll also see lots of new pages and articles, including an unashamed attempt to attract more customers by giving away free prizes. These are genuine offers which anyone can participate in. You'll see these offers including our star prize the ASUS ultra portable PC on the other pages. Anyway the question on everyone's mind (those who are interested anyway) is did the track get played on Saturday 6th? Well i can report it was played in The Star Bar at Heaven in London! But you know what they say - "one swallow doesn't make a summer" - (pun unintended in current context), so I guess we'll have to keep at it! (again it's no joke!) N.B THE SPECIAL OFFERS ARE NOW OVER (AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2008)
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December 4th 2008 Hi everyone, hope you are all well! First off I want to say a big thank you to everyone involved with True Horizon Music! I have heard a rumour that one of our latest dance tracks, which was first played at a private party two weeks ago has managed to find it's way into the hands of a DJ at Richard Branson's London Club, Heaven. Seemingly it's going to be played this Saturday, which also heads up Kylie's,G-A-Y KYLIE X 2008 PARTY,The Official Launch Party For The POP DVD OF THE YEAR. Expected audience attendance is around 2000 people. As I've got loads on this weekend I don't think I'll be able to make it (but you never know!). I would love to know if the rumour is true, so if any of you happen to be there this Saturday, 6th December, please let us know if your hear the dance track - Hold my Love (your the One I need). We've put up a 30 second sample of the track, so you can recognise it. We are also considering free downloads of the complete track, so please watch this space for further details. Special OfferAnyone who sends us video/audio clips of Saturday night featuring the track, or uploads them to YouTube, will receive a free gift from True Horizon Music, including all postage and packaging costs, which will be paid by us. This offer is extended to the first 100 people. contact us
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