When your great grandfather was once the managing director of the world's most famous recording studio, Abbey Road, perhaps it's no surprise to find you have musical bones. Add to that a grandfather who has worked as a nano-electronic particle physicist, it's no wonder than Paul is probably the only No.1 pop star who knows his way around a Van Der Graaf generator.

Basically there's only one way to describe Paul--expect the unexpected. He can talk the hind legs and the front legs off a donkey, and yet when the mood takes him he'll happily sit quietly and listen to the S Club 7 mayhem going on around him.

Paul being Paul, he's done all sorts of part-time jobs from being a barman to a ceramic hygienist, while taking an acting and musical theatre course at Mount view Drama School. Oh yes, and his musical tastes vary from Fatboy Slim to heavy metallers Korn. In fact, before joining S Club 7, Paul used to sing in a rock band. "I'm into all sorts of music," he nods enthusiastically. "As far as I'm concerned, there really are only two types of music: good and bad."

Alongside music, Paul is passionate about a lot of things. He fell in love with acting when as a teenager he joined the National Youth Music Theatre's production of Pendragon. He's also mad about rugby ("I once won a competition in The Daily Mail to train with the England squad but I wasn't good enough to play it professionally," he sighs) and then there's his appetite for fast cars--even though his last car, Marvin, was a Mini. "I ran Marvin into the ground," he admits, "and haven't had a car since!"

As the second oldest, Paul sometimes takes charge of S Club 7 business. "He's like my daddy figure!" jokes Jon. "He may have a grown up head on his shoulders but he's also the joker of the band and takes his fun very seriously. "I've burnt a lot of midnight oil and at least 25 candles at both ends," he says with a wicked grin.