Whatever happened to…Paul Heaton (ex The Beautiful South, The Housemartins)

Sometimes when a band splits up it seems that the members disappear into the debris of society never to be heard from again. When The Beautiful South came to a conclusion earlier this year after 18+ years of fantastic output I hoped it didn’t signal the end of Paul Heaton’s recording career.

I’ve been a huge fan of Paul since  the earliest singles by The Housemartins back in 1983. Never a band to overstay their welcome the Housemartins disbanded after just 2 albums, a clutch of memorable singles and some brilliant live shows. When they ended in 1988 Paul, Dave Hemingway and former roadie Sean Welch formed The Beautiful South.

TBS were superb for such a long time, as I look back now to the debut album - it was wonderful to see the evolution of the band over a nearly two decade span that featured 11 albums plus 3 greatest hits collections. In fact ‘Carry On Up The Charts’ was one of the best selling albums of the 90’s in the U.K.

Sadly The Beautiful South never experienced great success in the U.S. – of all major British acts of the last 30 years, TBS plus the Jam and Madness have never made it big in the States – and I think the common reason being that they were simply too English.

As for Paul, he actually released a solo album as ‘Biscuit Boy’ in 2001 – backed by members of Joe Strummer’s Mescaleros.

Well, it’s taken less than 9 months for Paul to be back on the road and recording. He is currently on a U.K. tour and might be heading to the States next year. If you take time to visit his site there are audio and video links to some of the new material. The new recordings sound wonderfully stripped down and as always lyrically without equal.

It’s great to see Paul back in the picture – not a shock at all…and destined not to vanish for long. If you’ve not got his back catalogue – I’d suggest ‘Painting it Red’ by the Beautiful South, and the recently released ‘BBC Sessions’ for The Housemartins. For getting to know Paul – I highly recommend ‘Paul’s Gang’ on you tube. A brilliant BBC documentary about the making of ‘Painting it Red’ filmed in 1999 and 2000.

“Too many Florence Nightingales, not enough Robin Hoods”  Flag Day – 1986 

Cheers