Paul Heaton
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Paul David Heaton (born May 9, 1962) is an English singer-songwriter. He was a member of The Beautiful South, who disbanded in 2007, and a member of The Housemartins, who disbanded in 1988.
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[edit] Early years
Heaton was born in West Kirby, England, the third son of Horace Heaton and Doris James Heaton. His father was a football player and came quite close to having a professional career with Liverpool, Everton and Tranmere Rovers. Paul was brought up in Sheffield and was very athletic as a boy, excelling particularly in cross country. When he was 14 years old, the Heaton family moved to Surrey, where Paul became known as a class eccentric; he was soon expelled from his school for numerous incidents of bad behaviour. Due to his lack of O-Levels, his mother insisted he follow his brother, Adrian, into college, where he met several students who played in their own bands.
Heaton is the father of two daughters. He has never married.
[edit] Early music career
Paul's first musical experience was in a band called Tools Down alongside brother Adrian and friend John Box. They only made one recording, "All I Want", although they gained experience from playing in pubs. At Reigate College, Paul decided he was going to be in a band, though his poor behaviour continued, as he set off bangers and robbed the college safe. However, it was at Reigate that Paul met Quentin Cook, singer of A Disque Attack. Cook and Heaton formed a band with John Laurenson and Chris Lang, called The Stomping Pond Frogs, who busked on weekends. Heaton described the Pond Frogs' music as "Cabaret."[citation needed] After leaving college, Paul worked as a ledger clerk for 3 years before moving to Norway with his girlfriend.
[edit] The Housemartins
Paul Heaton formed The Housemartins in the early 1980s. It featured Stan Cullimore on guitar, Ted Key on bass and Hugh Whitaker on drums. Shortly afterwards Ted left the band and was replaced with Quentin Cook, now known to all as Norman Cook (later Fatboy Slim). The Housemartins released a number of singles and two studio albums, London 0 Hull 4 and The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death. Their most famous hit was an a capella version of the Isley Brothers' "Caravan of Love", which was a Christmas number one in the UK. For the second album Hugh Whitaker was replaced with Dave Hemingway on drums. Shortly afterwards the Housemartins split up.
[edit] The Beautiful South
In 1988, Paul Heaton formed The Beautiful South from the ashes of The Housemartins. It had Dave Rotheray on lead guitar, former Housemartins roadie Sean Welch on bass, David Stead on drums and probably most surprisingly, Housemartins former drummer Dave Hemingway, now in the role of lead singer and frontman. The Beautiful South released two top ten singles, "Song for Whoever" and "You Keep It All In"; the latter featured Irish singer Briana Corrigan on vocals. In 1989, the band released an album, Welcome to the Beautiful South. The band's biggest success to date is the release of the single "A Little Time" in 1991; it reached number 1 on the charts. The band went on to release eight more albums, including two (1996's Blue Is the Colour and 1998's Quench) that reached the #1 spot on the UK album charts, as well as releasing the best-of compilation Carry on Up the Charts, which also reached #1 and achieved platinum status before splitting up in January 2007.
On the ITV documentary music series Faith & Music screened 29th October 2006, Paul talks openly and honestly about his atheism and his battle with alcoholism.
After a band meeting on the 30th January 2007, they decided to split. They released a statement on 31st January, in which their reasons for splitting were "musical similarities". "The band would like to thank everyone for their 19 wonderful years in music," the statement also said. [1]
[edit] Biscuit Boy
In 2001, Heaton released an album with his side project Biscuit Boy (a.k.a Crackerman). However the album, called Fat Chance, was not a success, with a single, "Mitch", reaching only Number 74 in the UK Singles Chart. Due to this failure, the album was re-issued by Mercury Records under Heaton's own name. This record charted even lower in the charts.[citation needed]
[edit] Politics
Heaton is well known for being a socialist and this is best shown through his lyrics over the years, also during his time with the Beautiful South all money was split equally between all members of the band making them one of the few co-operative bands ever, he is also a strong advocate of abdicating the British monarchy. Some of his lyrics also look at the injustice of world leaders sending ordinary people into combat and not getting their own hands dirty(From Under The Covers and poppy). These are all common themes in his more political songs, but as well as this his songs have covered a range of topics from Feminism (Mini Correct), Global Warming (Man's World), Globalisation (Big Coin) and the Euro (The Root of All Evil).
Some examples of his socialist lyrics include;
“Too many Florence Nightingales, not enough Robin Hoods” – Flag Day (1986)
“From the front page news to the interviews, its sink the reds and left the blues, they pretend they’re differing points of view, but its only different shades of blue” – Freedom (1986)
“Whisky for the Greek and the Turk, Gin for the Arab and the Jew, A double arsenic for Mister Le Pen, Cause it's him who soils Europe and not you.” – Hidden Jukebox (1994)
"For year after year we’ve stomached these views, starvation can’t compete with Royalties cruise." Man's World (2001)
Examples of anti-royalist lyrics;
“It’s a waste of time if you know what they mean, Try shaking a box in front of the queen, Cause her purse is fat and bursting at the seams, It’s a waste of time if you know what they mean.” - Flag Day (1986)
“So to a world without hunger, where royalty face death. (I think the answer's yes, I think the answer's yes)” - I Think The Answer's Yes (1990)
"Royalty's balloon coming down is a memorable shriek" - Who's Gonna Tell? (2000)
[edit] The Future
On his regular DJ slot with Manchester radio station ALL FM, Heaton has said he is looking at his options, but fans hope to see some more solo stuff.
[edit] References
- ^ Pop group Beautiful South split from BBC News website, retrieved 31 January 2006
