Paul Oxley's Unit
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Paul Oxley's Unit was popular rock band in Finland in the 1980s. The bands vocalist and songwriter was a man from Manchester, named Malcolm Campbell, or in his stage name, Paul Oxley. Playing the keyboards was Brian Hammond, but he wasn't playing yet in the first single produced by the group. The other members of the band were from Finland, and they were Ulf Enberg (quitar), Kjell Ekholm (bass) and Janne Romberg (drums).
At first the band was called Paul Oxley's Radio and with this name they released their first single, "Another Heartbreak/The Judge and the Jury" which had a reasonable amount of airtime in Finnish radiostations in 1980, but the real first taste of success came around the summer gigs of 1981 and from the debut-album "Living in the Western World", released in autumn of the same year. The album's melodic and energetic pop sold it's way to the Finnish youth so well, that over 60 000 copies were sold, pushing it over the Platinum marker and by today's standards, double platinum. The biggest hits from the album and possibly the most internationally recognized were "Spanish Bars", "Terry's Inside" and the album's namesake song "Living in the Western World."
The summer 1982 tour, Paul Oxley's Unit - Live in the Western World Tour, was a success and again in the autumn of the same year, a new album was released. It was called Both Sides of the Equator and reached gold record status with over 35 000 copies sold.
By the start of 1983, the band had changed its name as "Unit 6" and it released an LP named "After the Party." This album however, didn't sold as well and was received with more resentment, with accusations of loss of musical quality, and the band weren't doing very well at concerts either. The band then broke up, and the British members moved back to United Kingdom. At 1987 a record label called CBS released a compilation album of the bands songs, "The Paul Oxley's Unit Collection". By now, all of the bands records have been released in CD -format. In total, the band has sold over 100 000 records in Finland.
In 1995 Campbell returned for a holiday trip in Finland to meet his old friends, and the band was briefly put together (without Hammond) for a one-time gig. The concert, however, turned out to be quite popular and the members of the band thought about a bigger comeback. In 1996 they did in fact release a new album "The Magic", the drummer now replaced by Niklas Björkqvist and the keyboards now manned by Johan Lyander. A tour was made in the spring of 1997.
Kjell Ekholm is nowadays FST's (Finlands Svenska Television) entertainment manager. Paul Oxley (Malcolm Campbell) has made music in the United Kingdom with a group called "New World Orchestra" during the time of 1992-2001. His solo album, "Big Foot" is supposed to come out in 2006, but seems to be pushed back to an undisclosed release date.
Contents |
[edit] Members
Original line-up:
- Paul Oxley (lead singer)
- Brian Hammond (keyboards)
- Ulf Enberg (guitar)
- Kjell Ekholm (bass)
- Janne Romberg (drums)
The Magic line-up:
- Niklas Björkqvist (drums)
- Johan Lyander (keyboards)
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
- Another Heartbreak (1980: 1st)
- The Judge And The Jury
- Living In The Western World
- Spanish Bars
- Terry's Inside
- The Beat Of Your Heart
- Tears Among The Flowers
- Camera Camera
- After The Party
[edit] Albums
- Living In The Western World (1981, platinum)
- Both Sides Of The Equator (1982, gold)
- After The Party (1983, gold)
- The Paul Oxley's Unit Collection (1987)
- The Magic (1996)
[edit] Miscellanea
- Paul Oxley was also member of Devon based band New World Orchestra.
