Born in Liverpool, he studied piano and composition (1962-1965) at the Royal Academy of Music with Alan Richardson and worked at English National Opera as a répétiteur.
[4] Several works featuring narrator and orchestra for young people appeared in the 1980s, written for the Manchester Camerata, including Cinderella (1980) and The Midas Touch (1982).
[3] The orchestral song cycle Chants du Roussillon, first performed in 1988 at Moura Lympany's Rasiguères Festival, were written for the soprano Elizabeth Harwood and subsequently recorded by Virginia Kerr.
[10] A recording of vocal, orchestral and chamber works, A Celebration of Paul Reade, was issued in 2023 by Signum Records, including Chants du Roussillon, Song of the Birds, Suite from The Victorian Garden, the Serenata for Wind Sextet, and Catalonia, the first movement of a proposed bassoon concerto, which was the last piece that Reade composed.
[1] He was survived by his wife Philippa Davies (the principal flautist of the London Mozart Players), as well as his ex-wife Mary Clark (married 1965, divorced 1985), and their son and daughter.