Paul - P.P. - Michiels

Belgian singer who got more fame though his work in the group Soulsister (The Soul Sisters, Leyers, Michiels & Soulsister) than by his previous attempts as a solo-artist.

Paul Michiels (the P.P. in his initials stands for Polle Pap - a nickname he got by his job as a milkman in his native town Heist-op-den-Berg when he was just a kid) is a very good singer. He started out with the bands Purple Bus (no known releases), Octopus (successful close-harmony from 1974-1980), then tried a solo career (as P.P.Michiels & Paul Michaels), and finally teamed up with the talented songwriter Jan Leyers for Soulsister.

The song "Females" was a well-noticed single in 1981 (it even entered the top 30), but mainly because it was accompanied by a video-clip featuring some beautiful and very scarcely dressed specimen of the subject about which he is singing.

After the split of the group Soulsister in 1995, Paul Michiels picked up his solo career again in style.

In February 1998, he releases the Motown-like single "One day at a time". The single was so successful that the release of the full-CD was done two months earlier than originally planned. One month after the release of this album "The Inner Child", over 10.000 copies were already sold. The album is filled with the same melodic soulpop that made him famous with Soulsister (contrary to Jan Leyers, the other half of the band, who has gone in heavier rock, with his band My Velma). Most songs were written by Paul Michiels, in cooperation with Marc Vanhie (see The Bet) and Wigbert, and B.J.Scott for the lyrics. The production was in the hands of Wouter van Belle.
As Jacky Huys wrote in Knack : "After the split/hangover of Soulsister, Paul Michiels has been hatching his solo album for two years. Not that it is a rupture with his past : "The Inner Child" is "standard Michiels", being a warm-blooded record by one of Belgium's best voices. The songs vary from Steve Winwood to Motown, or from Dire Straits to The Band."

Paul Michiels also was/is part of a number of special bands, such as Spelers en Drinkers (the 'tribute-project" for Johan Verminnen) and the coverband The Big M's (first with Hervé Martens & Robert Mosuse, these days with Hervé Martens, Marc vander Rasieren en Chris van Nauw), that has been touring all around Flanders for years now and is a big hit in the youth-club-circuit.

As Jacky Huys wrote in Knack : "After the split/hangover of Soulsister, Paul Michiels has been hatching his solo album for two years. Not that it is a rupture with his past : "The Inner Child" is "standard Michiels", being a warm-blooded record by one of Belgium's best voices. The songs vary from Steve Winwood to Motown, or from Dire Straits to The Band."

Paul Michiels also was/is part of a number of special bands, such as Spelers en Drinkers (the 'tribute-project" for Johan Verminnen) and the coverband The Big M's (first with Hervé Martens & Robert Mosuse, these days with Hervé Martens, Marc vander Rasieren en Chris van Nauw), that has been touring all around Flanders for years now and is a big hit in the youth-club-circuit.

In 2000, Paul Michiels rose to the forefront once again by recording two tracks with his old Soulsister mate Jan Leyers for the soundtrack of the Jan Verheyen movie "Team Spirit". Especially the "Forever Young" cover (originally by Alphaville) scored big. For the Louis Neefs-tribute "20 jaar later", Paul Michiels a cover of "Aan het strand van Oostende" (Evangelina), also performed live at the sold-out concert in the Antwerp Sportpaleis.
A bit later, he also recorded - again with Jan Leyers - a ballad called "Let Me Be Turned To Stone" (origininally in 1968 by the Amercian band The Peddlers), which was used as the theme-song of the VTM-series "Veel Geluk Professor", and of which the decent number of 15,000 copies were sold.

Because of all this, plans grew to record a new album which would consist of nothing but covers: "We'll try to dig up some treasures that still lie hidden on bottom of the pop-ocean. It'll be mainly music from the time when I was young myself, the period between '60 and '80." he declared to Teek. Apart from the two previously mentioned songs with Jan Leyers, and a new recording of the song "Females", there was room on the CD "Forever Young" for stuff from Eddie Cochran, Jacques Dutronc ("Et moi et moi et moi" ), Donovan ("Sunshine Superman"), The Wallace Collection ("Daydream" ), Dionne Warwick ("Walk on By" ) and much more. The album also gathered some attention because it was presented (with the help of radio Donna) for an exclusively female audience. The then 52-year old Paul Michiels was still looking very sharp, and can be considered to be one of the few Flemish male sex-symbols.

Buy CD's of this artist at

Albums :
- The inner child (CNR/Arcade,1998)
- Foverever Young (Arcade-RoadRunner, 2001)
Singles
- One Day At a Time (CNR, 1998)
- Flame of Love (CNR, 1998)
- Forever Young (Sony, 2000)
- Let Me Be Turned To Stone (2000)
- Daydream (2001)

Websites :
- fansite over Paul Michiels & Soulsister (dead?)
- Paul Michiels & de Big M's bio for Suikerrock