Derbyshire musician is “ecstatic” to have new SCRUMP song played on BBC Music

Paul Gibson, 40, who has been creating music for over twenty years, recently launched four new songs as SCRUMP and on Saturday night, the BBC platform, dedicated to discovering and supporting new music, played his new track on their show, which aired on BBC Radio Derby.

The show, run by Dean Jackson and the Beat team, hailed this week’s song selections as “brilliant” and “absolutely sublime”.

“We’re getting in early here with SCRUMP I have to say,” Dean said. “It’s just coming out right now and SCRUMP feels like a brand-new project to get involved with. Get in there early doors.”

Success stories of those first championed by their local BBC Music Introducing show include famous artists such as, Ed Sheeran, George Ezra, The 1975 and Florence + The Machine, and seven of the top ten biggest selling songs of 2022 came from artists championed by their local introducing shows.

Paul has written, performed, recorded, mixed and produced his four indie-pop songs. ‘Situation’, ‘Live Life’, ‘Rnr Rock Star’ and ‘My Equitable Love Letter’ launched on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms on November 11th, under the title ‘DIY. EP1’.

He says, “The SCRUMP is exquisitely ecstatic to have been played on BBC Music Introducing and on BBC Radio Derby, especially so early on in the SCRUMP journey.

“The SCRUMP is getting his live show together and is really looking forward to playing gigs. He wants to eat up as many as he can and is hungry to play for audiences. He promises top notch performances at showtime and kindly requests that you watch this space.”

Just as BBC Music Introducing is supporting SCRUMP, Paul himself has been an avid supporter of unsigned musicians and bands. In 2006 he ran ‘Arch recordings’, a recording studio providing Derbyshire and Staffordshire musicians a much-needed rehearsal and recording space and Paul was a big advocate of driving the live music scene regularly running music events and gig nights in order to give local unsigned musicians and bands a stage. With his own band at the time he was a regular performer in Derby venues such as The Victoria Inn, 12 Midlands Place and The HairyDog, 1 Becket Street.

Four years later he moved to Nottingham to run and renovate an abandoned building, working alongside The Art Organisation, to regenerate the disused property and turn it into a community arts centre for creatives, which included artists, musicians and dancers.

During this time, he also became a stagehand at Nottingham Arena working with big names in the music industry such as Take That, Queen and Bette Midler.

“I loved it,” Paul says. “I worked every shift I could get and it eventually led to me working on all the big festivals; Reading, Leeds, V Festival, Download. I was promoted to Crew Boss and the highlight was definitely when I was Crew Boss for The Other Stage and The Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

“For me at that point I just wanted to be around the magic of live music, in whatever capacity. I was stage building for bands such as Coldplay, Muse and U2 and then I was also working on the tech side of shows – lighting, sound, video, special effects, whatever it was, if it was to do with live performances, I wanted to be a part of it.”

Paul began his own crewing company now known as AB Crew, which he runs with his brothers, Mark and Andrew, supplying crew and stage builders for arenas, tours and events worldwide. This year they also launched Base Event Structures supplying stages and temporary structures for the entertainment industry.

“It would be amazing to follow in the footsteps of the incredible musicians I’ve been lucky enough to work for,” Paul says. “At the moment though, SCRUMP is just looking for a small, dedicated fanbase, anyone he can get to enjoy his music, and to play as many gigs as he can get his sticky little mitts on.”