The Beautiful South
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The Beautiful South are a British pop group formed at the end of the 1980s, from the ashes of Hull group The Housemartins. The band was put together by lead singer, Paul Heaton, and drummer, Dave Hemingway. They were joined by Sean Welch (Bass), Dave Stead (Drums) and Dave Rotheray (Guitar). Rotheray also co-writes the songs with Heaton.
In The Beautiful South, Heaton remained lead singer but was joined by Hemingway and female singer Briana Corrigan to create a trio of lead vocalists. This set-up helped to characterize the bittersweet kitchen-sink dramas played out in Heaton's often barbed songs.
The band's music might sound like bubbly, catchy, lightweight pop but Heaton's sour, savage and amusing worldview on everything and anything (alcoholism, religion, sex, politics and, mostly, the down side of relationships) is always lurking beneath the surface of the quirky melodies. The tastes and smells of the local pub are never far away either, with the band gaining a reputation for boozing. The band's first album was Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989) and spawned the hits "Song For Whoever" and "You Keep It All In." The release of 1990's Choke album saw the band claim its only Number 1 hit to date, "A Little Time". 0898 followed in 1992, with hits including "Old Red Eyes Is Back".
In 1994, after Corrigan quit the band when she saw Paul's lyrics for the forthcoming album "miaow", St Helens supermarket shelf-stacker, Jacqui Abbot, was brought on board to fill in. Heaton had heard her sing at an after show party in St Helens and remembered her vocal talents.
Jacqui's first album with the band was Miaow in 1994. Hits included "Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud)" and a cover of Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking". The end of that year saw the release of Carry On Up The Charts, a "best of" compilation consisting of the singles to date plus new track "One Last Love Song". The album was massively successful and it is said that 1 in 7 homes in the UK owns a copy.
Blue is the Colour (1996), Quench (1998) and Painting It Red (2000) followed with varying success. Jacqui also quit the band in 2000. After a second Greatest Hits album Solid Bronze in 2001,they recorded Gaze in 2003 with yet another female vocalist, Alison 'Lady' Wheeler. Wheeler was still in place for 2004's Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs (An album of unusually arranged cover versions including "Livin' Thing", "You're The One That I Want", "Don't Fear The Reaper" and "I'm Stone In Love With You")
Discography
Albums
- Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989) U.K. No.2
- Choke (1990) U.K. No.2
- 0898 (1992) U.K. No.4
- Miaow (1994) U.K. No.6
- Carry on up the Charts (1994) U.K. No.1
- Blue Is the Colour (1996) U.K. No.1
- Quench (1998) U.K. No.1
- Painting It Red (2000) U.K. No.2
- Solid Bronze (2001) U.K. No.10
- Gaze (2003) U.K. No.14
- Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs (2004) U.K. No. 11
Singles
- Song For Whoever (1989) U.K. No.2
- You Keep It All In (1989) U.K. No.8
- I'll Sail This Ship Alone (1989) U.K. No.31
- A Little Time (1990) U.K. No.1
- My Book (1990) U.K. No.43
- Let Love Speak Up Itself (1991) U.K. No.51
- Old Red Eyes Is Back (1992) U.K. No.22
- We Are Each Other (1992) U.K. No.30
- Bell Bottomed Tear (1992) U.K. No.16
- 36D (1992) U.K. No.46
- Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud) (1994) U.K. No.23
- Everybody's Talkin' (1994) U.K. No.12
- Prettiest Eyes (1994) U.K. No.37
- One Last Love Song (1994) U.K. No.14
- Pretenders To The Throne (1995) U.K. No.18
- Rotterdam (1996) U.K. No.5
- Don't Marry Her (1996) U.K. No.8
- Blackbird On The Wire (1997) U.K. No.23
- Liar's Bar (1997) U.K. No.43
- Perfect 10 (1998) U.K. No.2
- Dumb (1998) U.K. No.16
- How Long's A Tear Take To Dry? (1999) U.K. No.12
- The Table (1999) U.K. No.47
- Closer Than Most (2000) U.K. No.22
- The River / Just Checkin' (2000) U.K. No.59
- The Root Of All Evil (2001) U.K. No.50
- Just A Few Things That I Ain't (2003) U.K. No.30
- Let Go With The Flow (2003) U.K. No.47
- Livin' Thing (2004) U.K. No.24
- This Old Skin (2004) U.K. No.43
- This Will Be Our Year (2005) U.K. No. 36de:The Beautiful South