Paul Delaney

Paul Delaney
Paul Delaney
Native name	Paul
Born	September, 1977 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Residence	Valencia, Spain
Nationality	British
Other names	dEL, EL dEL, Club Madchester DJs, Stereo Revolver DJs
Education	Digital Marketing Institute (2018 – 2019), Edinburgh Napier University (1995 – 1998)
Occupation	Entrepreneur, Publisher, SEO Professional
Years active	1998 - Present
Known for	Entrepreneurship, Education, DJ/Promoter of Club Madchester
Home town	Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

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.

Introduction

Paul's track record includes a wide array of clients and employers, 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 helped brands facing seven figure losses back into profitability.

His academic credentials include a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing from the Digital Marketing Institute, a BA in Publishing from Edinburgh Napier University. 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. He pursued a BA in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University from 1995 to 1998, and 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

In 1995 Paul began working at the Edinburgh club night, Club Madchester, an event started by Steven Cumming in 1994 that ran until 2018. Not long after, he started his own night with, now-renowned Festival Promoter and DJ, Chris Knight/Astrojazz. Paul began to work closely with Events Armoury managing, promoting or DJing at their numerous student focussed events- and built a publicity distribution service that stretched across 11 university and college campuses, as well large street teams.

By 1997 Paul was the main DJ at Club Madchester and played four and five hour long sets through to the late 1990s at La Belle Angele and many other Edinburgh venues. In 1999 Mani of Stone Roses and Primal Scream joined Paul on stage and performed at the club's 5th birthday party, held in La Belle Angele.

Guerilla Marketing

To promote the Club Madchester events, Paul, Steven, and the others involved, unleashed guerrilla marketing campaigns that captured attention in local and national publications, featuring in International DJ Magazine and Loaded Magazine, in 1997. Tactics included pasting the faces of Shaun Ryder and Bez from Happy Mondays/Black Grape into old movie and TV posters, album covers and band photos— to use as publicity materials- a pioneering approach to meme advertising long before it was popularised.

Further pushing the envelope, at night they would project images of their upcoming event posters onto prominent buildings in historic Edinburgh. This, along with enthusiastic poster distribution, secured local media coverage and positioned them as avant-garde guerrilla marketers.

Career

Education Industry

In 1998 Paul joined Basil Paterson College, an English language school. Later moving to a sales and marketing role for the OISE chain in Oxford in 2001, opening up new agent affiliate channels using email marketing and PDFs - little used technologies in education at the time.

In 2003 Paul relocated to Valencia, Spain, taught English, learned Spanish, and worked in prestigious UK summer schools during school holidays. He returned to Oxford in 2006 manager of the global affiliate sales office for OISE. After a record sales season in 2008, Paul moved to the Eurocentres Foundation, directing the Swiss chain's sales and marketing campaigns over a number of continents. In 2011, Paul joined EAC Language Centres, acquired by TUI Travel PLC, as sales and marketing director, in the team that took the struggling giant from years of losses back to an operating profit in one academic year.

Paul left the corporate world in 2013, relocated to Zurich and formed his marketing agency. In 2016 he rebranded Hallmark Property's struggling London English language school, and helped create of one of the largest single-site international summer schools, ever, in the UK, attracting over 2000 students in summer 2017. In the same year Paul also helped AEC Education Group PLC grow a new seven-figure revenue stream for their Malvern House brand, in London.

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.

In 2021 Paul rebranded his digital marketing agency to Content Ranked, reflecting post-Covid services being mainly SEO for Education.

Events

Viral Pioneers

As well as using his sales and marketing skills in Education, Paul continued to promote, and perform, at music events with Steven Cumming. The pair were very early commercial users of social media, and capitalised on platforms such as Hi5, Bebo, MySpace, and later Facebook, to attract people from Edinburgh, Scotland, and England, to their monthly Club Madchester nights.

They developed organic content marketing strategies, before the term existed, to grow a sizeable and influential audience. They shared Steven's meme style images, Paul's podcast DJ mixes, and pioneered the use of customised click-bait 'on this day', 'today's birthdays', and 'historic photos'- as social media engagement tools in the UK music industry.

Club Madchester Events

As their digital marketing skills grew, so did the club night- and soon there were monthly events in Glasgow as well as Edinburgh, with occasional nights in Dunfermline and Paisley.

Paul saw that Tim Burgess was engaging with their social media content and invited him to DJ at Club Madchester. The 2010 night at The Liquid Room was a huge success, and so Paul and Steven started inviting members of other bands to guest DJ at their events, a first in the Scottish alternative club scene.

An impressive list of guest DJs played at Club Madchester nights including: - Peter Hook of New Order/Joy Division - Mani of the Stone Roses and Primal Scream - Tim Burgess of The Charlatans - Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays - Bez of Happy Mondays - Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets/XFm - Mike Joyce of The Smiths - Rick Witter of Shed Seven - Andy Williams and Jez Williams of Doves - DJ Dave Booth, the original Madchester DJ

Paul and Steven also DJ'd at official after-show parties with members of touring bands, including: - Terry Hall of The Specials - Steve Craddock of Ocean Colour Scene - Kyle Falconer and Kieran Webster of The View - Nick Power of The Coral - Phil Smith, Stone Roses, Oasis, and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Tour DJ

They also promoted, and co-promoted, live music events, Paul frequently DJ'ing as the warm-up, for acts including: - Peter Hook & The Light - Stereo MCs - Rick Witter and Joe Johnson of Shed Seven (acoustic) - Rick Witter and Paul Banks of Shed Seven (acoustic) - John Power of The La’s and Cast (acoustic) - Mark Morris of The Bluetones (acoustic) - Tom Hingley of Inspiral Carpets (acoustic) - Northside - Chris Helme of The Seahorses (acoustic) - Nigel Clark of Dodgy - Winachi Tribe

Peter Hook & The Light's performance at the Liquid Room in Edinburgh in April 2011, the band's third ever concert, was the first time outside of Manchester they performed Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album, and their first Scottish live performance. Rowetta of Happy Mondays appeared with the band, and Peter Hook played a DJ set at Club Madchester afterwards.

Former Stone Roses tour manager, Steve 'Adj' Atherton, MC'ed at the pre-gig party Paul & Steven organised before the Stone Roses last ever concert at Hampden, Glasgow in 2017. Manchester DJ Dave Booth, one of the most influential DJs in the UK alternative music scene from the 1970s to 1990s, and orignal DJ at the Stone Roses Warehouse parties, some of the first raves in the UK, also performed- his last ever Scottish DJ sets, before he passed away in 2020.

Throughout this period, Paul DJ'd at official post-gig parties in Edinburgh for The Charlatans- alongside Tim Burgess, and also Beady Eye- alongside Alan McGee of Creation records. He DJ'd as Club Madchester in 2015 at the first ever Shiiine On Festival. Paul returned to Shiiine On in 2018 DJ'ing as Stereo Revolver on a bill that included Bentley Rhythm Ace, playing with James Atkin of EMF. The Big Beat act opened their live performance playing along with the last few tracks of Paul's DJ set. Paul also promoted and DJ'd at Fabrika De Funk - opening for Ghetto Funk artists Shaka Loves You, Sammy Senior, and DJ Detta.

In 2015, after 20 years, Paul wound down his DJ and club activities, though he continued with Club Madchester in Glasgow, and appeared with producer DJ Groovecellar in Switzerland.

The Club Madchester events stopped abruptly after 24 years in February 2018, the final night took place at The Record Factory in Byres Road, Glasgow. Events in Edinburgh had stopped in December 2017. Paul returned for a final Edinburgh DJ gig at The Liquid Room on Boxing Day 2018, at an Official Madchester brand event. He teamed up with Glasgow's DJ Fran Tamburrini and they launched Stereo Revolver in 2018, Tim Burgess and Kieren Webster appearing as guest DJs, amongst others, but no nights have run since 2019.