The Beautiful South

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The Beautiful South
The Beautiful South in concert.
The Beautiful South in concert.
Background information
Origin Hull, England
Genre(s) Pop, Rock
Years active 1989 - 2007
Label(s) Universal, Go! Discs, Ark 21, Mercury, Sony BMG
Associated acts The Housemartins
Website http://www.beautifulsouth.co.uk/
Former members
Paul Heaton
Dave Hemingway
Sean Welch
Dave Stead
Dave Rotheray
Briana Corrigan
Jacqui Abbott
Alison Wheeler

The Beautiful South were an English pop group formed at the end of the 1980s by former members of Hull group The Housemartins - Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway. The duo were initially joined by Sean Welch (bass), Dave Stead (drums) and Dave Rotheray (guitar), all of whom stayed with the group throughout their 19-year career. Later additions included female vocalist Briana Corrigan; she was replaced by Jacqui Abbott, who in turn was replaced by Alison Wheeler.

The group broke up in January 2007, claiming the split was due to "musical similarities"[1], having sold 15,000,000 records worldwide.

Contents

[edit] Biography

The Beautiful South was originally conceived as a quintet with two lead vocalists, Heaton and Hemingway. Rotheray and Heaton, meanwhile, co-wrote the band's compositions.

On the band's first album, Briana Corrigan would also be featured as a background vocalist; she would be promoted to full membership status in 1990, and thereafter feature as a lead vocalist on numerous Beautiful South tracks. Also important to the band's sound was studio keyboard player Damon Butcher, who, though never an official member of the group, played virtually all the piano and keyboard parts on the band's albums. This set-up helped to characterise the bittersweet kitchen sink dramas played out in Heaton's often barbed songs.

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, "A Little Time". 0898 Beautiful South followed in 1992, with hits including "Old Red Eyes Is Back".

However, in 1992, Corrigan left the band to pursue a solo career, a decision that was prompted partly by a desire to record and promote her own material (which she felt was not getting enough exposure in The Beautiful South) and partly by ethical disagreements with some of Heaton's lyrics, particularly songs such as 36D, which criticised British glamour models and the industry that employed them. Hemingway later remarked, "We all agree that we should have targeted the media as sexist instead of blaming the girls for taking off their tops".[2][3][4]

In 1994, St Helens supermarket shelf-stacker Jacqui Abbott was brought on board to fill in as the new third lead vocalist for the band. Heaton had heard her sing at an after show party in St Helens and remembered her vocal talents.

Abbott's first album with the band was Miaow in 1994. Hits included "Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud)" and a cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," previously popularised by Harry Nilsson. 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". This album is noteworthy because it became the fastest-selling album in UK music history.[citation needed]

In 1995, the band was one of the support acts for R.E.M. on the British leg of their world tour.

The 1996 album Blue Is the Colour sold over a million copies, and featured hit singles Rotterdam and Don't Marry Her. The album demonstrated the band's gradual shift towards a country music sound, and was well-received by the public and on BBC Radio 2. In 1997 the Beautiful South headlined stadium concerts for the first and last time, in Huddersfield and at Selhurst Park in London.

The albums Quench (1998) and Painting It Red (2000) were received with a mixed critical reception, and sold in relatively low numbers. Abbott quit the band in 2000. After a second Greatest Hits album Solid Bronze in 2001, the band took a little time off so that Heaton could release a solo project.

Regrouping in 2003, they recorded Gaze with yet another female vocalist, Alison Wheeler. Wheeler was still in place for 2004's Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs, which was an album of unusually arranged cover tunes including "Livin' Thing", "You're The One That I Want", "Don't Fear The Reaper" and "I'm Stone In Love With You". One track from the album, "This Old Skin", was presented as a cover of a song by an obscure band known as The Heppelbaums; it was later revealed to be an original Heaton/Rotheray composition.

The band's last album Superbi was released on May 15, 2006. Superbi was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, a farm in Bakewell and at producer Ian Stanley’s studio in Enniskerry, County Wicklow. It was mixed by Bill Price (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Guns N' Roses). Paul Heaton’s hand is recognisable in quirky song titles such as 'The Rose of My Cologne', 'The Cat Loves The Mouse' and 'Never Lost A Chicken To A Fox'. First single 'Manchester' started off as a poem - "If rain makes Britain great, then Manchester is greater" – 'a sodden tribute' to the city in which he now lives, says Heaton. The tracks cover love and loss and all that happens in-between …"So many pop songs are written about 15-20 year olds. We've never really targeted them, or newly weds. We write about people who've lived together most of their lives."

[edit] Split and forthcoming solo careers

After a band meeting on 30 January 2007, they decided to split.[1] They released a statement on 31 January 2007, in which they joked their reasons for splitting were "musical similarities" - an ironic reference to "musical differences" which are often cited as the reason for a band's split. "The band would like to thank everyone for their 19 wonderful years in music," the statement also said.

Since the split, Dave Rotheray has released two albums with the band Homespun.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums


[edit] Compilations

[edit] Singles

Year Song UK singles U.S. Modern Rock Album
1989 "Song For Whoever" 2 - Welcome to the Beautiful South
"You Keep It All In" 8 19
"I'll Sail This Ship Alone" 31 -
1990 "A Little Time" 1 - Choke
"My Book" 43 -
1991 "Let Love Speak Up Itself" 51 -
1992 "Old Red Eyes Is Back" 22 - 0898 Beautiful South
"We Are Each Other" 30 10
"Bell Bottomed Tear" 16 -
"36D" 46 -
1994 "Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud)" 23 - Miaow
"Everybody's Talkin'" 12 -
"Prettiest Eyes" 37 -
"One Last Love Song" 14 - Carry on up the Charts
1995 "Pretenders to the Throne" 18 - (released later on Solid Bronze)
1996 "Rotterdam" 5 - Blue Is the Colour
"Don't Marry Her" 8 -
1997 "Blackbird on the Wire" 23 -
"Liars' Bar" 43 -
1998 "Perfect 10" 2 - Quench
"Dumb" 16 -
1999 "How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?" 12 -
"The Table" 47 -
2000 "Closer than Most" 22 - Painting It Red
2001 "The River/Just Checkin'" 59 -
"The Root of All Evil" 50 - Solid Bronze
2003 "Just a Few Things That I Ain't" 30 - Gaze
"Let Go with the Flow" 47 -
2004 "Livin' Thing" 24 - Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs
"This Old Skin" 43 -
2005 "This Will Be Our Year" 36 -
2006 "Manchester" 41 - Superbi
"The Rose of My Cologne" 99 -

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Pop group Beautiful South split", BBC, January 31, 2007. 
  2. ^ Contemporary Musicians, Volume 19. beautifulsouth.org (1997-09-01). Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  3. ^ The Beautiful South - the Band. BBC (2001-11-29). Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  4. ^ A Little Time. songfacts.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.

[edit] External links

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