Crisis were formed in 1978 by two former members of Grosvenor High School namely Tom Clyde Keyboards Vocals and Ross McClelland bass. They brought in Paul Rowan on Guitar / lead vocals. Paul recalls how he got involved with the band “I was recruited by Tom and Ross who were a year ahead of me at Grosvenor High School as they had heard my tapes which I used to bring into school which featured my nephew and I doing Bowie and Pistols covers on our little cassette recorder!”

Drummer Michael Sands was recruited via an advert in the Belfast Telegraph and the band were now off and running. The band gigged extensively in their short lifespan playing venues such as the Pound in Belfast, the Heather Dew in Antrim and at Kelly’s in Portrush. The band also embarked on a week long tour of the south of Ireland with Uncle Waldo. P45 were also due to be on the tour but pulled out at the last minute. The tour was called "The Better Than Working Tour" and wasn’t without incident as Paul recalls “Yes, the start of the tour was marred by a court case where the keyboard player and a roadie had to pay a fine for "indecent exposure". Basically they had mooned at some poor Sunday motorist when we were down the south putting up posters for the impending tour. The said motorist then duly reported the matter and the Garda nabbed us and slung us in a cell. The bass player and myself were allowed out to go home and get bail money to get them out!” The mini tour did however go ahead and saw Crisis play the Dandelion Market in Dublin on Sunday 22 July 1979 with Uncle Waldo.

Crisis had a number of original songs in their set and recorded a demo of one such track "Since You Been Away" which still remains unreleased to this day.

Come 1980 however "musical differences" had raised it's ugly head and Paul Rowan left the band. The band continued under the name Saigon. Paul would later reappear in Lunatic Fringe and Michael Sands went on to be front man with the Chevys. Paul would later reappear on drums in Deja Vu, then fronted Lunatic Fringe and Michael Sands went on to be front man with the Chevys.

In the 80’s Paul played in Glam influenced band Hades Whores with Greg Cowan from The Outcasts. Paul was gigging regularly with Stop Stop Start Again until his untimely death on 27th May 2019.