Paul Wellings

Paul Wellings was born and raised in the London Overspill suburbs in the sixties, the eldest son of a P.E teacher and school assistant. He has one brother. After starting his journalistic career on the regional press, Paul landed a prestigious freelance job on the pop press with the NME, thanks to his best man Tony Parsons. He was the first to write about the r'n'b soul scene and its links with the soccer casual movement. In the early ‘80s his group the Anti Social Workers released an LP, produced by the legendary reggae producer the Mad Professor (of Massive Attack fame), to rave reviews. The group supported reggae legend Peter Tosh (Bob Marley's partner) on tour. He has also worked on the showbiz pages of the Daily Mirror and London's Evening Standard.

As a sideline he was a two-step soul DJ with underground radio stations Laser and LWR (the station that launched Radio 1's Tim Westwood). He has appeared on more than 20 TV shows discussing black music, youth culture, soccer casuals, and pirate radio and is appearing in S.O.U.L - the major ITV documentary about the history of black culture. He has written five books - This is The Modern Word, East Ending, The Chaps, I'm a Journalist...Get Me out of Here, about his life on the NME and theDaily Mirror, and Spend It Like Beckham - plus the screenplay Thieves. His latest book is Sex,Lines and Videotape, published in 2006. He has also contributed to MOJO and Echoes.In 1991 he moved into PR where he has a full-time career as well as being a freelance journalist for the Independent.

Stop Press: His new book The Divine Comedians featuring the funniest quotes from radical stand-up comedy was published by The Progressive Press in June 2012.

Read Paul's article on famous film quotes

5 articles

By Artist | By Date

List of articles in the library by date

Eastie Boys: Real Life in London's East End

Report by Paul Wellings, Evening Standard, The, 24 July 1987

IT IS A HOT day in London’s East End. I’m sitting in my home of Stepney, sipping an ice-cool lager outside the infamous Blind ...

The Badder the Better: Soulboy Life in London

Report by Paul Wellings, Evening Standard, The, 31 March 1988

IN LONDON TOWN, they’re funking till they’re raw. From badland clubland they’ve voted with their feet for black soul music. Pirate stations like ...

John Lydon: Lydon and I

Book Excerpt by Paul Wellings, 'I'm a Journalist...Get Me Out of Here!', 2004

I BLUFFED my way into journalism and am still bluffing in the PR world. If the truth were told, most journalists are bluffers to some ...

The Rise and Rise of the Casual: Football and Music

Book Excerpt by Paul Wellings, 'Spend it Like Beckham', 2005

THE BEST FANZINES in the mid 80’s were The End (from Liverpool, written by Pete Hooton, lead singer of The Farm, whose single ‘Altogether Now’ ...

Make my day: the best (and worst) lines in the history of film

Essay by Paul Wellings, Independent, The, 20 October 2006

As in life, first impressions count in cinema. In Citizen Kane (1941), the opening word, Charles Foster Kane's dying utterance "Rosebud", holds the key (perhaps) ...

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