Paul Draper
From Philosopedia
Draper, Paul Edward (26 Sep 1972 - )
Draper, the lead singer of the United Kingdom alternative rock band called Mansun, is a rhythm guitarist, lead vocalist, songwriter, and pianist. Born in Wavertree, Liverpool, into a working-class family he lived on Garmoyle Road, the same road where John Lennon had lived many years before. Lee Fay has described Draper as being shy (backstage) but flamboyant (onstage). He attended a Catholic grade school, was thrown out of Wrexham Art College (the faculty felt his idea of art didn’t quite conform to its teaching, allegedly because he created paintings with a ruler). According to Fay,
- The Paul the audience sees onstage is flamboyant, glammy, campy, confident, forgetful (lyrics usually spontaneously take on new forms) and almost brash. This is a stark contrast to the Paul fans meet backstage - a shy, quiet, humble young man who is often mistaken for being standoffish or aloof. He often seems troubled - shown both in his demeanor and his lyrics - and has been described on several occasions as a future rockstar-suicide victim. A group of fans in Thailand actually held an all-night vigil for Paul outside his hotel - praying that he not meet the same demise of heroes like Kurt Cobain (from Nirvana) or Richey Edwards (of Manic Street Preachers).
Paul describes himself as anti-political but does have very strong philosophical beliefs in both Marxism in its purest sense (the theory and practice of working class self-emancipation) and Taoism (the belief that one must follow the process of nature by which all things change for a life of harmony).
In New Musical Express, Draper was asked why he wrote a cross and chain in view of his negative opinion of religion and the resultant hypocrisy:
- I’ve got an upside-down cross which I wear quite a bit, the anti-Catholic inverted one. This one here, the big one, is my nan’s; I wear it for family reasons.
Asked to which authority he cowers,
- I suppose you end up cowering to fucking everything life throws at you. Or you can protest all the time. You can pretend you’re a non-conformist by wearing a T-shirt that says, “I Don't Conform” but I suppose everyone buckles under. You can hide behind the excuse that you're fighting within the system but . . . .
When Diana, the Princess of Wales, died, the London Times quoted Draper as saying,
- I think people are looking for something to replace god. I don’t think anyone believes in things like that anymore. The world is too small now for people to be scared into believing in deities. Before, they were terrified into giving their money to the Church. It’s all about aura, but people are deluding themselves.
(See Draper's website
