Paul is Dead
From Summerofweird
In "From where the Sun Goes" Moloney sings "I'm a river that just flows" which apparently refers to the River Thames that runs through London. Believers eventually decided that Mabe had died after his hair had caught fire whilst standing on Westminster Bridge, citing a line in “Pangassius Cat” as evidence: “the water's all around, but you don’t make a sound’ allegedly supporting the claim that Paul jumped into the River Thames. The line "H20 and chlorine too will permeate my skin, I will stay here in the water 'til I forget how to swim" from the track "Fish" some argue is the final proof that Paul drowned
In “Come Down” Meakin sings the line “are you up there for good, will you ever come down” allegedly alluding to the fact that Paul is up in heaven, never to return. Furthermore “now we’ve another star shining through the night” in the same song served as further evidence in the minds of some fans that Paul had passed away and in the song “Lunacy” Moloney singing the line “ through the darkness you always shine” supposedly gives further credence to this interpretation.
Some fans even went as far as undergoing a pilgrimage to Paul’s supposed tomb. With his hippy fashion and old rock music taste, Paul was often (and erroneously) regarded as something of a musical “dinosaur”. In “Quagga Quarry” when Moloney sings the line “And I went searching for the dinosaurs, and found them down in the bedrock” he is apparently stating that Mabe’s remains are resting under a now defunct nightclub in of that name in Oxford Street, London.
Many believe that a major key to the riddle is provided by one of the band’s earlier songs. “Love the Hydra” at first appears to be a random mish-mash of mythology and half rhyme. A strange tale of a girl who keeps a “phoenix in a cage” and sang “the siren song”. But, buried (no pun intended) in the very first verse is, “and changed its ashes every day”. Could this be a ploy by the group to continue to move Paul’s cremated remains daily to avoid detection and replace them with others? And is the “siren song” a reference to the band’s paranoia that the police were onto them? If this is true, there may be a string of mutilations not uncovered and Kick Asteroid, a seemingly fun little beat combo from the end of the last millennium, could have been murderers on an unprecedented scale. “She Goes to Pieces” leaves little to the imagination and hardly requires further backing of this theory.
Moloney sings “two sides to every story, only one side is true” in Time And Time Again: is he merely illustrating the dichotomy that plagues any re-telling of a story, or is he trying to confess to something much darker? What really led Meakin to hurriedly flee the country shortly after the band split?
Critics of this theory are quick to point out that Paul could not have been killed off at such an early point in the bands short career, and argue that the four band members, including Paul, were regulars at Popscene, another London nightclub, as late as 1996. However, conspiracy theorists consistently point out that there have been no statements from Paul himself, and that the surviving members of the band readily admit that they were stoned out of their heads throughout most of 1995 to 1996, and are yet to produce independent witnesses to these visits; they also have no knowledge of Paul’s whereabouts today.
Further to the increasing weight of “evidence” that Paul died (or was killed) towards the start of the band’s career is the seemingly inexplicable line found in a rarely played KA song, “Invertebrate”. This particular track disappeared from the band’s repertoire as quickly as it appeared. The opening couplet “Peaceful parasite, harmless hermaphrodite", at first appears to be another assembly of words purely for their meter and rhyme. However, could it be that the “harmless hemaphrodite” was in fact Paul? It is well documented, with photographic evidence that Paul was not adverse to wearing clothes better suited to the female gender. Could it be that this fancy actually went further than that and, indeed, he was now “harmless” because he was dead?
After the band dismantled, Meeks seemingly fled the country, Moloney locked himself in a tiny room in Colliers Wood and Ware became a Buddhist monk. Three very separate paths, which are claimed in some quarters to be an attempt to “split up” and throw any investigations off the scent of any wrong-doing. By staying in his room and recording events daily, Moloney may well have slipped up if conspiracies are to be believed. Investigators trawling through the wealth of recordings and near mad scrabbling have uncovered, what some claim, is hard evidence of guilt and remorse. “'Galileo” with its references to space and the planets deceives the casual glance. The line “I can see Great Wall and ocean” appears to be from the lips of a lost soul floating in space with no home. However, Moloney’s original drafts reveal a different intention…perhaps. The original line, as discovered in a tattered notebook years later was actually written as “I can see dead Paul in ocean”. Is this a damning admittance of Paul’s watery demise as “referred” to in seemingly countless other Asteroid tunes?
Which still leaves the question, if Paul was dead, who was that on stage with the band?
Some suggest that to the answer to this lies in Meakin and Moloney’s dark collaboration prior to Kick Asteroid. Shortly before Paul was enlisted into Kick Asteroid, Meakin and Moloney had another outfit that went under the name of Better Than You. Although ostensibly a three piece, this band did have a brief period when a fourth member, a shadowy figure known only as “Giles” was recruited as a second guitarist. Quite why a three piece combo would require another guitarist has never been properly explained by either Meakin or Moloney, and the third member, a certain [Alan D’Alvarez], has not been seen since. Although the theorists agree that D’Alvarez was too recognisable (he had actually appeared on stage with Meakin and Moloney and could in no way have been mistaken for Paul) they postulate that the mysterious “Giles” was hastily drafted in as a replacement in the Asteroid following Paul’s disappearance. Conveniently enough “Giles” has also seemingly disappeared. This brings the tally of guitarists who have slipped from sight after performing with Meakin and Moloney to an unholy trinity of three.
There is also the strange incident of Meakin’s supposed attempted suicide from a bus in Park Lane, sometime around 1996. Although he himself claims this was due to too much alcohol, the theorists point to massive anomalies in the circumstances surrounding the event. The Routemaster double decker bus is an icon of London, and is recognised worldwide. One of its distinguishing features is its open platform at the rear of the vehicle allowing for easy alighting. It is from such a platform that Meakin supposedly “fell” after a night out with Tony Ware. Meakin claims that he was taking at night bus home, but anyone with local knowledge will confirm that the Routemaster does not operate as a night bus.
The two had apparently been to a concert at a venue known as the London Astoria 2. It was a venue that they knew well, having spent many a drug fuelled debauched evening at. Yet for some reason, instead of staying on for the after hours nightclub, Meakin left on his own and boarded the fateful bus. This behaviour in itself was unusual, as many have testified that normally he would be thrown from the club virtually senseless from alcohol consumption. Had his meeting with Ware sparked remorse in the blackheart of the drummer of the death of Paul?
To return to the lyrical clues once more, what was playing on Meakin’s mind when he penned the line “I’ll be black and blue for you” in the track Black & Blue? Was he beating himself up over his part in Paul’s demise? And how do you explain “Eyelashes flashing have him down on his knees” from the same tune? Was Paul cut down because he fluttered them at the wrong person once too often? It seems every question raises another and answers are hard to come by seeing as the “remaining” members of the band have conveniently forgotten many details of that era. It has already been mentioned in this essay that the majority of the group were “off their heads” during most of this sinister time but one member, by his own admission, appears to have never strayed further than a few pints of lager. Indeed, Ware may well hold many answers. If he can remember dates of gigs clearly, surely he can remember other events that need explanation? When asked about Paul, he manages to turn the conversation round to tattoos quickly as if he doesn’t want to go near the subject. And why is he obsessed with violent films?
If it were needed, more evidence appears to be left lurking in Kick Asteroid’s lyrics. When pressed, Moloney claims “Rendezvous with Rama” was written around an instrumental tune supplied by Ware and the words are loosely based around Arthur C Clarke’s short story The Sentinel. He cites the line “check out TMA1” as a reference to Clarke’s "Tycho Magnetic Anomaly 1". Why would someone living in Collier’s Wood do that? Did he actually mean “Total Mabe Annihilation 1”? And if so, does the “1” mean this will not be the last? Forgive the author asking so many questions but has anyone actually had physical contact with Pete Mabe recently?
It was mentioned earlier in this piece that Moloney may have been caught out by not disposing of original lyrics for the song “Galileo”. It appears to many that Meakins may have fallen for the same error if he was trying to cover his steps. Recently, on internet forums, there has been a raging debate regarding the original lyrics for “Shadow of the Palace”. Was, “Alexandra, city vista. First I kissed her, now I miss her” previously recorded as “Alexandra, city vista, first I kicked him, now I miss him”? If so, Meakins has committed a double whammy by not only admitting an act of violence but also telling the world where this happened.
