Paul Shull

Paul Shull

Background information
Born	(1973-05-25) May 25, 1973
Occupation(s)	Artist Management, Actor, Television Host
Years active	1993-present
Website	www.shullmgt.com//

Paul James Shull (born May 25, 1973), a rock n' roll promoter, expert swordsman, history buff and television host who has had a diverse career in the fields of music, film and television, with a passion for historically significant militaria. He is best known for hosting the television show The Weapon Hunter.

Career

Local years

Shull was born in Kitchener, Ontario and graduated with honours from St. Davids high school on Waterloo, Ontario in 1993. At 20 Paul became a music promoter, booking agent & band manager with London, Ontario based company Sink or Swim Promotions. In addition to helping Sink or Swim manage and promote local indie bands Shull booked over 500 local, national and international touring acts as well as handling bookings at local venues such as The Beat (Kitchener, Ontario) & Mrs. Robinsons.^[1]

In 1993 Shull promoted local bands Jacob’s Room & Chelsea Smile plus The Smalls, Grim Skunk, Ripcordz, Sweaters, Problem Children, Random Killing, Monsters of Doom, Mundane and more than 40 other bands.^[2] Toronto's annual five-day live music and film festival and music conference NXNE also enlisted Shull to scout for bands and performers to add to their festival roster.

After 3 years, and helping to build Sink or Swim Promotions to the point that he was being asked to handle band tours beyond his capabilities as an independent promoter, Shull bought the London, Ontario-based company^[1] & got involved in promoting Elmira, Ontario based band, The Ludes.^[3] On April 6, 1996 Shull gave a lecture entitled "Booking Your Indie Band" in Cambridge, Ontario wherein he discussed the ins and outs of the industry.^[4]

In that same year Shull joined the Board of Waterloo Sounds of Summer Festival as director of programming, a position held formerly by his mentor & fellow promoter Emmanual Patterson.^[1] Patterson was originally based out of the University of Waterloo as director of programming for the Federation of Students^[5] and spent 5 years organizing entertainment activities before he went to work for Universal Concerts himself. In June, 1997, the Sounds of Summer Music Festival in Waterloo Park attracted a crowd of over 10,000 people over 2 days and saw bands such as Craig Cardiff, The Ludes, Red Stone Circle, Corduroy Leda, Grace, I She Says, Mark Perak , Danny Michel, The Collectibles, 100 Mile House, Dr.Wiggly’s Rich Miezinger, Strange Days, Monoxides , Flux, MAdE, Glueleg, Dayna Manning, The Killjoys, Moxy Früvous and 54-40 take the stage.^[6]

Shull also helped Kitchener-Waterloo based psychedelic punk band Pablum connect with clubs & bands in the US to further their career^[7] and was instrumental in getting local club, Angry Buddha’z (Kitchener, Ontario), off the ground^[8] in less than a year as regular booker under Sink or Swim Promotions booking shows with bands such as Thrush Hermit, the Rheostatics, and Danko Jones.^[9]

International years

Shull went on to become stage manager for Calc Enterprises (Kitchener, Ontario) and worked with the Universal Concerts team as an in house stage manager at local clubs The Lyric^[10] and Metropolis in Kitchener, Ontario, Club Denim in Guelph, Ontario and The Drink in London, Ontario. In this position he worked with touring acts such as Garbage, Pennywise, Motörhead, Catherine Wheel, Robbie Williams, and Rodger Hodgson and, as his first gig as assistant stage manager on October 14, 1996 the Foo Fighters.

In 2000, Shull went to work with California-based Odd Job Inc. as an international stage manager. It was at this time that he got a call from an associate in LA asking if he was available to go on tour as a backline tech with ska-punk band Goldfinger.^[9] Shull worked his way up to stage manager and toured Canada, USA, Europe and countries such as Portugal, Japan, Australia, Budapest, Prague, and Ljubljiana working venues with capacities ranging from 1000-100,000 in outdoor, multi-billed festivals, as well as TV & radio performances. Shull also went on to stage manage international and national tours for Bloodhound Gang.^[11]

Later years

In 2003 Shull left the road to head up Watch Dog East (Toronto, Ontario) – a division of West Coast Management and booking agency S.L. Feldman & Associates & Macklam/Feldman Management & sister office to Watchdog West (Vancouver, British Columbia) Canada's largest booking agency dedicated to the discovery & development of emerging talent.^[12] Shull acted as an artist liaison with major labels, publishers & lawyers & provided clients with booking, tour support and management.^[13] He represented such acts as Sondre Lerche, Kyprios, Stabilo Boss and Day Theory and had a booking roster that included 3 Inches of Blood, The Divorce, Honeysuckle Serontina & Speed to Kill. Shull's position with Watch Dog also saw him manage Kitchener alt rock band The Miniatures (MAPLE MUSIC), (EMI PUBLISHING),^[13] Toronto hip hop group The Pocket Dwellers (EMI)^[14] and Calgary, Alberta hard rock band Out of Your Mouth (BMG), and worked with local acts The Candidates, who saw success in campus radio & a cross Canada tour, and Paul MacLeod’s band Hibakusha & Pimp.^[13]

In 2004 Shull was named president of DC Flag Records by founders and members of Good Charlotte Benji & Joel Madden (EPIC SONY).^[15] The label took artist, MC Chris^[14] independent artist status to having a top 10 single on iTunes in the U.S. and selling out 230 live performances based on little marketing. Other artists in the DC Flag family included hardcore punk super group Hazen Street and indie rock band Lola Ray from Brooklyn, NY. Shull also worked with Talk's Cheap Management [http://www.courageartists.com/ (Nashville Pussy) in co-managing psychedelic stoner rock band Nebula (whose roster includes former member of Fu Manchu, Ruben Romano).

2006 - 2010

In 2006 Shull formed Shull Management, an artist management company based in Toronto, Ontario that provides artist liaison with major labels, publishers & lawyers,^[14] and promptly signed Die Mannequin (EMI PUBLISHING), (WARNER MUSIC CANADA / CORDLESS RECORDING U.S.) who were slated as the opening act for Guns N' Roses on their eastern leg of their North American tour for their Chinese Democracy tour.^[12] Shull teamed up with Die Mannequin's Care Failure and started the label How To Kill Music (WARNER BROTHERS CANADA).^[16]

In this same year Shull was invited by the Canadian Human Resources Council to be a member^[17] of the Artists Managers Expert Working Group and contributed to the planning & writing of the competency profile Development, Marketing & Distribution in the Music Industry, a Competency Analysis [www.culturalhrc.ca/.../Music.../CHRC_DMD_Music_Profile_sample-en.pdf], a reference regulating industry standards for those working within the music business in Canada.

The following year, in addition to touring in support of Buckcherry, the Deftones and Canadian rockers Finger 11, Shull booked Die Mannequin on a tour with Sum 41 on their Strength in Numbers tour followed by a European tour in 2007 with Danko Jones.

Shull has gone on to team up with award winning Canadian film director Bruce McDonald, best known for his cult classic Hard Core Logo which has been ranked as one of the greatest movies to come out of Canada (others include Roadkill, Highway 61, Dance Me Outside, and Pontypool) to film The Rawside of Die Mannequin, an hour-long documentary television series created by I Mother Earth guitarist Jagori Tanna that features a behind the scenes look at Die Mannequin on the road and writing their new album with their manager Mr. Butterscotch (played by Shull). The documentary premiered at Toronto’s NXNE Festival on June 15, 2008 and in 2009 the it aired on Canadian digital specialty channel IFC & was nominated for 2 Gemini Awards, Best Photography in a Documentary Program or Series and Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Program or Series. Die Mannequin went on to release their 4th and most successful studio album to date FINO+BLEED and toured in support of the Canadian leg of Marilyn Manson’s The High End Low fall tour followed by the So Proudly We Fail Forever headlining club tour of their own across Canada.

Recent and Current Years

Shull began fencing in 2010 becoming a C.I. certified fencing instructor. He also became President and a member of the executive of Excelsior Fencing Escrime. Under the direction of the C.F.F. he was made chair of the Canadian Fencing Historical Committee in 2013.

More recently Paul developed and is currently the host of the hit television show The Weapon Hunter (Cream Productions ^[18] U.S.A. Smithsonian / Canada Travel and Escape). The show focuses on and is driven by his passion and love for militaria and adventure as he takes viewers inside the eccentric world of rare military artifact collectors and teaches us a few things about history along the way.

In his "spare time" Shull exercises his manual labour skills as a painter, plaster master & restorer of historical homes & buildings.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2009	The Rawside of Die Mannequin	Mr. Butterscoth	actor
2010	Hardcore Logo II	Mr. Butterscoth	actor, associate producer, music supervisor
2015	Weapon Hunter	Himself	host, associate producer, story consultant

References

External links

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