PAUL YOUNG has another string to his musical bow ? and it is drawing him towards the heady delights of Tex-Mex.

Los Pacaminos ? ?It?s a bit of a play on pack ?em in!? he grins ? is a tight little seven-piece outfit that provides an incendiary mix of Tex-Mex classics, Spanish songs and original material.

And on Saturday, February 21, the band will be playing at the Wharf, Tavistock.

?Los Pacaminos lures me away quite a bit because it?s raucous and seductive. I have a fire for it and I?m getting to understand it.

?Paul Young has been going so long I am having to make it contemporary all the time. I?m firstly Paul Young ? but with Los Pacaminos its a new creative spirit,? he says.

While it is easy for him to get excited with the Pacaminos he philosophically accepts one cannot survive without the other.

?Being Paul Young is my bread and butter. That?s what people know me for.?

The Tex-Mex mix grew out of a love of this type of music. It?s somewhere between the Mariachi and Norteno styles of Mexico and the country/blues sounds of South Western America.

?I was between record labels and writing material for a new album but I wanted to play live again. I have always loved the Tex-Mex sound and knew a few musicians who had a similar passion for this type of music ? so I asked them to join me in forming a band.?

Paul says it started out playing just for fun but it took off.

?What is really nice is that everyone else in the band can sing too, and they do, all in their own different styles. It?s real bar room stuff, foot stompers, not too many slow songs ? a real party atmosphere!

?My previous manager didn?t like me doing this because he didn?t think it was good for my career. But I?d rather do what?s good for me and it is good for me to learn another culture and music. You have to think about it ? otherwise you stagnate,? he says.

?It got me away from what I was famous for. I had to learn. It is something that you have to sit down and think about.?

It was, he says, like Hugh Grant being delighted to be playing a despicable sod in Bridget Jones? Diary.

?You approach it with a lot of energy because it?s something different.?

Paul hopes that although the band members are all getting older they can keep an open mind about music.

The current line up features Paul with Drew Barfield on guitar/vocals; Melvyn Duffy, pedal steel; Steve Greetham, bass/vocals; Matt Irving, keyboards/accordion/vocals; Jamie Moses, guitar/vocals and Mark Pinder on drums.

The band?s long awaited first album is suitably titled ?Los Pacaminos? and is on What Records and distributed through IS/Universal. It features 12 great tracks guaranteed to get your pulse racing and the dancing shoes on.

Paul says he wishes radio stations played a wider variety of musical styles instead of purely feeding the taste of a specific demographic audience. He feels there is too much emphasis on a very young record listening public ? unlike America where older people are actively buying records.

Paul got interested in World Music when Alexis Corner began playing it on the radio. Performers like Ry Cooder were his inspiration.

Now he has become absorbed by the whole Tex-Mex scene.

?I got into the culture side ? the food, arts, famous writers. It is very happy up beat music. Even when they have a night of the dead it?s a celebration because it is an oppressed and poor region. These are places that have the happiest music. You can get lost in the music. The music can put you in another place. If you have any imagination you can forget where you are,? says Paul.

He enjoys the intimacy of small venues like the Wharf as much as larger concerts.

?It is special. It is totally different to playing a bigger place. They are both thrilling but in a different way ? you can see their faces. You get an immediate feed back.?