Paula Cook

Paula Cook (born 2 November 1969) is a British auto racing driver. She is best known for her efforts as an independent driver in the British Touring Car Championship, driving for the family-run DC Cook Motorsports. As well as racing, she ran the family-owned DC Cook Direct dealership, from her father's death in 2005, until its closure in 2009.

Racing career

Early career

Born in Rotherham, Cook began her auto racing career in 1994, when she competed in both the Formula Vauxhall Junior and Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series championships, finishing second overall in the latter.British Formula Renault (becoming the first female ever to achieve a pole position in an international race), followed by three years in the British Formula 3 Championship between 1996 and 1998. In 1997, she drove for the works Nissan team in the RAC Tourist Trophy.

BTCC

Towards the end of 1998 British Touring Car Championship season, Cook entered the final four rounds for her father's DC Cook Motorsport Team in a Honda Accord. She entered once more with DC Cook in 1999, planning to compete in the entire season, the first woman to do so. However, despite a reasonable start to the year, the season for Cook was cut short after round 16, after her team pulled out of the series due to financial difficulties.

Hey Paula

Hey Paula may refer to:

Hey Paula (song)

"Hey Paula" is an American pop standard love song recorded by the singing duo Paul & Paula. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending February 9, 1963, and also made it to number one on the Hot R&B Singles chart. "Paul" was the song's writer, Ray Hildebrand, a student at Texas' Howard Payne University, a Baptist institution in the city of Brownwood. "Paula" was Jill Jackson, the niece of the owner of the boarding house where Ray lived.

Writing and recording

Hildebrand wrote the song, originally titled "Paul and Paula", taking inspiration from the Annette Funicello hit "Tall Paul". Hildebrand and Jackson performed the song on a local radio station and the song soon became popular enough for the duo to try to make a professional recording. They went to a studio in Fort Worth, Texas, and were fortunate enough to find a producer, Major Bill Smith, with studio time and musicians booked and a missing lead vocalist. He recorded their version of the song and released it on his LeCam Records label, changing the name to "Hey Paula", credited to Jill and Ray. When the record became a success, it was picked up by the larger Philips Records, which changed the billing to Paul and Paula.

Hey Paula (TV series)

Hey Paula is an American reality television series starring and co-produced by American television personality Paula Abdul that aired from June 28 to July 27, 2007, on the Bravo network. The series was also broadcast in Britain on the ITV2 channel and Arena 105 in Australia.

Synopsis

The program showed the private life of Paula Abdul as she promotes an upcoming season of the Fox series American Idol while simultaneously developing the Bratz movie as well as a new fragrance line. It also featured Abdul preparing for and making a variety of public and/or television appearances.

Abdul's persona on Hey Paula was considerably less genial than that of her established reputation as "the nice one" on American Idol. Abdul's behavior on the show, particularly toward her staff, was revealed to be less than exemplary. She frequently dissolved into tears and childish tantrums over seemingly inconsequential occurrences, and was even caught on camera privately bemoaning being "...tired of people not treating me like the gift that I am."

Cook da Books

Cook da Books (also known as Cook the Books, and Da Books) were a British new wave band from Liverpool, England popular in the 1980s. Their success began with politically charged compositions and peaked with pop friendly film soundtrack and commercial releases. The band had a self professed reputation for being fiercely independent but enjoyed major label attention and numerous high profile global performances.

History

Cook da Books formed in 1980 in Fazakerley, Liverpool composed of former members of pub/cabaret circuit groups The Dogems and Brooklyn" two bands untouched by the phenomenon of the city punk and new wave scene but competent musicians with close harmonies gained from the Hilda Fallon Roadshow days similar to other local bands such as Our Kid. The initial line-up was Kevin Kunky Kelly (Guitar/vocals) Peter "Digsy" Deary (vocals, guitar), Owen Moran (bass, vocals), Tony Prescott (keyboards), and John Legget (drums).

They initially gained attention with their acclaimed, and politically charged debut single "Piggie in the Middle 8", whose provocative lyrics about the Toxteth riots were penned by their manager John Smith who secured reggae superstar producer Denis Bovell to produce the track at his Studio80 in London. Bovell had recently had a number two record with Janet Kay's "Silly Games" and Smith played the demo to Bovell and secured his support for producing the track. Smith further secured a deal with Probe records to release the record in the rising independent market. This was the first record ever released on the Probe label, which went on to become successful with many other artistes following this release. Smith also found local photographer John Stoddart for the artwork of the 7" & 12" sleeves, This was his first band session and Stoddart went on to photograph many bands including most notably Frankie Goes to Hollywood through their major success.