YOU know the story.

A band go their separate ways and then the singer almost instantly forgets them when they reinvent themself as a solo artist.

Except it was not like that at all for Paul Young.

He may still be best known for his debut solo album, No Parlez, but he said he was racked with doubt when he decided to call it a day with his former group, Q-Tips.

Going solo was the result of a division between bandmates and record industry pressure as a new music era began to dawn but Paul found it a very hard decision.

The 62-year-old said: "Looking back on it now, the Q-Tips were dividing into two camps.

"Some of the band thought we should go one way and then I was writing stuff with the keyboard player feeling we should go another way. I felt we should be a little more contemporary.

"But I never thought: ‘That’s it, I’m going to go solo’.

"We asked our manager to look for another deal. He got us off Chrysalis Records because we didn’t want to be with them anymore.

"But then when he was coming to record companies they were saying they didn’t want the band.

"This was right at the beginning of all the synth pop duo era like Soft Cell and Blancmange.

"So I think the record companies looked upon the Q-Tips as archaic and why pay for an eight-piece band when you can pay for two people?

"So basically they didn’t want to take the band but they wanted to take me. That happened on more than one occasion during his discussions with labels so our manager felt he had to tell me."

But Paul, who had always been in bands up until that point including Kat Kool and the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, did not know what to make of it.

Paul told Weekend: "I thought for a long time about it. It crept into my dreams and everything. It kept coming up about what I should do.

"It was tough for me because I’m very loyal to my friends. I was even reading star signs in the Evening Standard and the guy was saying: ‘This could be the most important time in your life’.

"I thought: ‘What am I going to do?’ It was really strange but I did take the solo deal.

"I thought I’d run it like Rod Stewart and The Faces so I’d do a solo album and then could still do stuff with the Q-Tips but it didn’t go that way at all."

Q-Tips disbanded in 1982 and a year later Paul released No Parlez.

The record saw all of the artist's musical influences that did not quite suit Q-Tips all come out at once.

Paul added: "Making that solo album was the most fun I had in the studio. You could sense the excitement. We were really pushing ourselves musically to come up with different things.

"I still sang as though I was singing an R&B track in some cases like on Iron Out The Rough Spots and Wherever I Lay My Hat.

"But I utilised everything I was listening to from R&B to African music.

"It was quite shocking to me what came out because one of them was like a cross between country music and Bobby Womack, one was a little bit like a pared down Stevie Wonder and there a Cajun influence because I was going to see all the Cajun bands who were coming over at that point.

"I was firing off in all directions and it was only when I got with the producer Laurie Latham that we got a bit of focus on where we were going to go."

Paul is now celebrating 35 years of No Parlez.

The album topped the charts for five weeks and went triple platinum and in recognition of that huge moment in his life he will playing the record in full at the Parr Hall on October 9.

So how fast did his life change at that time?

Paul said: "It was pretty fast. I remember us booking some small clubs that I was going to play before the record went to number one.

"My manager said we could move all the shows to big theatres but I didn’t want to upset the club owners so that tour stayed in all the clubs. We had to keep the budget down as well so we turned up in a Transit van and on the first night the fans got hold of the van and almost turned it over.

"It was like Jaws: ‘We’re going to need a bigger bus’. It was slightly scary but it was exciting as well.

"I spent a lot of time on the road with the Q-Tips and we could whip a crowd into a frenzy.

"We used to come off stage some nights and go: ‘Wow, that was incredible’. The atmosphere was electric.

"But then I could wander the streets the next day and not be bothered. Being recognised everywhere was new."

Despite all the success, Paul admitted he still often misses the camaraderie of being in a band and that is why Q-Tips briefly reformed in 1993 and why he created a side band called Los Pacaminos, inspired by his love of all things Tex-Mex.

Paul added: While making No Parlez I even fooled myself that I was in a band by getting a bunch of musicians who came together as the album was being recorded.

"One by one I’d ask them to play on something and they said they’d love it if there was a tour.

"Then I gave them a name – The Royal Family – so once again I was kind of fooling myself that I was part of a line-up.

"It was only further down the line when members were starting to change a bit more frequently that I realised this was me on my own.

"I’m still trying to get that side of my life back – being in a band."

Paul Young will perform at Parr Hall on October 9. Visit pyramidparrhall.com or call 442345