Paul Delaney
Paul Delaney is a Scottish Entrepreneur, Publisher, and SEO Professional. based in Valencia, Spain. Paul has three decades of experience in generating growth for brands across the Education, Travel, and Leisure sectors.
Contents
Introduction
Paul's extensive track record includes a wide array of clients, from start-ups to PLCs, helping them achieve significant revenue milestones—breaking through the £1 million, £10 million, and £40 million marks for the first time. Additionally, Paul has a proven ability in turning around brands facing multi-million-pound losses, achieved in record times.
His academic credentials include a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing from the Digital Marketing Institute, a BA in Publishing from Edinburgh Napier University, an UCLES (Cambridge ESOL) CELTA, and an Ableton Live Certificate in Music Production from Point Blank Music School. Paul also performed as a DJ for two decades under the stage name EL dEL and has released podcasts and track-remixes under that name, also as Club Madchester and Stereo Revolver.
Early Life and Education
Paul Delaney was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Paul was both academic and active as a child, and represented both his school, Trinity Academy, and Boroughmuir Rugby Club as a teenager. In 1995, he played in the Digital Under-18 Rugby Scottish Cup winning team. Paul pursued a BA in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University from 1995 to 1998.
Paul later went on to study an UCLES (Cambridge ESOL) CELTA in 2003, an Ableton Live Certificate in Music Production with Point Blank Music School in 2013, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing with the Digital Marketing Institute in 2018,
DJing & Club Promotion at University
In 1995 Paul began working at the Edinburgh club night, Madchester, which ran from November 1994 until February 2018. Soon he and, now-renowned, DJ & Festival Promoter Chris Knight/Astrojazz started their own club night. From late 1995 Paul worked closely with Events Armoury managing, promoting or DJing at their numerous student club events. Paul built up a publicity distribution service that stretched across 11 university and college campuses, as well large street teams.
In 1996 Paul became the main DJ at Club Madchester, an event started by Steven Cumming in Shady Lady's, in The Mission, in 1994. Through the 1990s the night ran at La Belle Angele, The Music Box (later The Liquid Room), and other Edinburgh venues. The first birthday of the club, albeit in 1996, featured a live performance from Northside, their first since the collapse of Factory Records. In 1999 Mani of Stone Roses and Primal Scream joined Paul on stage and performed at the club's 5th birthday party in La Belle Angele.
Guerilla Marketing
To promote their events, Paul and Steven unleashed guerrilla marketing campaigns that captured attention in local and national publications, featuring in International DJ Magazine and Loaded Magazine. Their innovative tactics included "photoshopping" the faces of Shaun Ryder and Bez from Happy Mondays/Black Grape onto movie and TV posters, old band photos and the like— and using them on publicity for their nights that was displayed prominently all over Edinburgh- a pioneering approach to meme and mashup publicity more than a decade before it became a mainstream phenomenon.
Further pushing the envelope, they employed students to place projectors in their apartment windows, which at night would display moving images of their upcoming event posters onto prominent historic buildings in Edinburgh. This not only secured local media coverage but also positioned them as avant-garde guerrilla marketers.
Career
Education Industry
In 1998 Paul worked for Basil Paterson College, an English language school. Later moving to a sales and marketing role for the OISE chain in Oxford in 2001, using email marketing and PDFs - then new technologies - to open up new marketing channels for them.
In 2003 Paul relocated to Valencia, Spain, taught English in a school, learned Spanish, and began freelancing. Paul returned to Oxford in 2006, managing global agent and affiliate sales for OISE. In 2008 Paul moved to the Eurocentres Foundation, directing the Swiss chain's sales in a number of regions. In 2011, Paul joined EAC Language Centres, acquired by TUI Travel PLC, and as sales and marketing director, was instrumental in the team that took the struggling giant back to an operating profit in one academic year.
Paul left the corporate world in 2013, relocated to Zurich and formed his marketing agency. Shortly after he helped AEC Education Group PLC open a multi-million pound revenue stream for their brand Malvern House. In 2016 Paul took on Hallmark Property's struggling English language brand, and using offline and online marketing, delivered multimillion pound growth in one academic year- helping them create of one of the largest international summer schools ever in the UK, attracting over 2000 students in summer 2017.
In 2020 Simon Gooch Founded Seed Educational Consulting, a company dedicated to providing study abroad opportunities to West African students, Paul is the brand's Marketing Director. The organisation has offices in six countries and representation in many others across the continent.
In 2021 Paul rebranded his marketing agency to Content Ranked to focus purely on delivering SEO projects for clients in the education sector.
Paul has recently also embarked on a new publishing venture with Rhys Southern, the Australian entrepreneur, SEO professional and public speaker.
Events
Viral Pioneers
Alongside his career in international education, Paul continued to promote and perform at music events with Steven Cumming, and others. Relaunching the brand online in 2006, the pair were very early commercial users of social media, and capitalised on platforms such as Hi5, Bebo, MySpace, and Facebook, to build a significant following for their Club Madchester nights across Scotland, the UK, and beyond.
They immediately used content marketing tactics- sharing Steven's viral meme style publicity and Paul's podcasts mashing indie music with acid house- to reach the obsessive fans of the Madchester music scene. With the fanbase starved of events for many years, they soon started travelling from across central Scotland and up from England for the monthly club nights.
Club Madchester Events
As their reach grew, Paul and Steven took a groundbreaking step by inviting band members from the Madchester scene to guest DJ at their events, a first in the UK alternative club scene. A monthly Glasgow night started soon after.
Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays in 2003, and Tim Burgess of The Charlatans in 2008, played their first club DJ gigs with Paul and Steven at The Liquid Rooms. An impressive list of guest DJs from the UK's alternative music scene played at Club Madchester nights including:
- Mani of the Stone Roses - Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets/XFm - Peter Hook of New Order/Joy Division - Bez of Happy Mondays - Rick Witter of Shed Seven - Andy Williams and Jez Williams of Doves - DJ Dave Booth
Paul and Steven also DJed at 'after-show party' events with members of touring bands DJing, such as: - Terry Hall of The Specials - Steve Craddock of Ocean Colour Scene - Nigel Clark of Dodgy - Kyle Falconer and Kieran Webster of The View
They also promoted live music events including: - Stereo MCs - The La’s (acoustic) - Shed Seven (acoustic) - Chris Helme (acoustic) - Northside - Mark Morris (acoustic) - Tom Hingley (acoustic)
Paul Delaney and Steven Cumming, as Club Madchester, co-promoted Peter Hook & The Light's performance at the Liquid Room in Edinburgh in April 2011. It was the band's third ever live performance and the first time outside of Manchester they performed Unknown Pleasures. Rowetta of Happy Mondays appeared with the band and Peter Hook played a DJ set at the club night afterwards.
The Club Madchester 'One Love' events pre and post the Stone Roses' Glasgow Green and Hampden concerts, featured performances from long-time collaborators Clint Boon, Dave Booth, and also the Stone Roses tour manager, Steve Adge. The parties were held in the basement club of The Admiral Bar in 2013, and at The Record Factory in 2017.
Throughout this period, Paul DJed at official post-gig parties in Edinburgh for The Charlatans, and also Beady Eye- alongside Alan McGee of Creation records. He DJed as Club Madchester in 2015 at the first ever Shiiine On Festival, with one of the festival stages being dedicated to the Scottish club night. Paul returned to the festival in 2018 DJing as Stereo Revolver on a bill that included Bentley Rhythm Ace, playing with James Atkins of EMF. The band opened their set joining Paul on stage playing along with the end of his big-beat set. Paul also appeared at Edinburgh nights including FBI, Day Tripper, eXhibit Music, and Fabrika De Funk - opening for Ghetto Funk artists Shaka Loves You, Sammy Senior, and DJ Detta. In 2014, Paul cut back on his DJing, and took a career break from education, to care for his infant son. Though he continued to DJ in Glasgow and guest slots in Switzerland with producer DJ Groovecellar.
In 2018 the Club Madchester events stopped abruptly after 24 years. The final night took place at The Record Factory in Byres Road, Glasgow in February that year. Events in Edinburgh had stopped in December 2017. Paul's last DJ gig in Edinburgh was at The Liquid Room on Boxing Day 2018, at an event organised by the Official Madchester brand. Paul and Glasgow's DJ Fran Tamburrini launched the Stereo Revolver club nights in Glasgow in 2018, COVID-19 brought the regular events to an end.
Personal Life
Details about Paul Delaney’s personal life are primarily private, but it's known that he resides in Valencia, Spain with two sons.
Gallery
References and External Links
Stereo Revolver (and old Club Madchester) Facebook
Tim Burgess at Club Madchester
Peter Hook & The Light at Club Madchester
