Paul’s in tune with countryside
Paul Aitken may have gone from punk rocker to television mogul but his love of Britain’s countryside has never wavered.
This passion is now the driving force behind The Country Channel, a TV station he runs in Oxford Road, Chipping Norton. Evesham-born Paul’s other love is broadcasting.
As a young singer/actor he chose to study drama at Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, Kent, because it had a radio studio.
By the 1970s he was the drummer/vocalist in The Banned, a punk rock/new wave band that sold 80,000 records for EMI’s Harvest label. The Banned’s biggest chart hit was the single Little Girl in 1977.
Paul and songwriting partner David Owen-Smith also wrote music for children’s TV show Take Hart in the 1970s.
Nowadays, Paul is the drummer in party band The Retros, who once played at Twickenham stadium before a rugby match between England and the All Blacks. He had minor stage and TV acting roles.
Becoming a producer/ director, Paul founded his own TV production company in Chipping Norton during the 1980s. This company eventually moved to Kiddington, Oxfordshire, where he founded Country Channel TV three-and-a-half years ago.
Paul said he launched the channel because the countryside was poorly served by national TV.
Full story here
05/02/2010