Paul Heaton
Paul Heaton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Paul David Heaton |
| Genres | Indie pop, pop, alternative rock |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, harmonica, guitar |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Labels | Go! Discs, Universal, Ark 21, Mercury, Sony BMG [W14] |
| Website | http://www.myspace.com/paulheatonmusic, http://paulheatonmusic.co.uk |
Paul David Heaton (born 9 May 1962; Bromborough, Cheshire, England) is an English singer-songwriter. He was a member of The Housemartins, who disbanded in 1988, and a member of The Beautiful South, who disbanded in 2007. He is currently pursuing a solo career.
Early life
Heaton was born on the Wirral on 9 May 1962. At the age of four his family relocated to Sheffield, South Yorkshire (then the West Riding of Yorkshire).[1] While living in Sheffield, Heaton became interested in football, and while his father and elder brother elected to watch Sheffield Wednesday, Heaton chose to support Sheffield United. After moving to Sheffield, Heaton's father took a job in management and Heaton described his childhood as being "fairly middle class, although you wouldn't know it given the schools I went to and the friends I had".[2] After a childhood in Sheffield, Heaton moved to Chipstead, Surrey during his adolescent years, an early life Heaton described as "bred in Sheffield, fed in Surrey".[1] Whilst in Surrey he, with his brother Adrian, formed their first band "Tools Down" with friends John Box and Stuart Mair. After leaving Surrey, Heaton spent time in Germany before moving to Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire (then Humberside), where he formed The Housemartins. Heaton also lived in Leeds for some time.[3]
Football hooliganism
Throughout his childhood, Heaton's main interest was football, and he regularly attended Sheffield United games. Heaton also ran with the Blades Business Crew, a hooligan faction of Sheffield United supporters.[4] When he began singing, Heaton used to bait his early audiences by mocking their football clubs, he later admitted. For example, at an early Beautiful South performance in Manchester, Heaton baited the crowd by shouting "fuck off, you Manc twats", after which some members of the audience began throwing chairs towards the stage.[5]
The Housemartins
Heaton, then billing himself as P.d. Heaton, formed The Housemartins in the early 1980s. This band featured Stan Cullimore on guitar, Ted Key on bass and Hugh Whitaker on drums. Shortly afterwards Key left the band and was replaced with 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 cappella version of the Isley Brothers' "Caravan of Love", which was their only Number 1 hit in the UK. For the second album Hugh Whitaker was replaced with Dave Hemingway on drums. Shortly afterwards the Housemartins split up.
The Housemartins' lyrics were a mixture of Marxist politics and Christianity. (The back cover of London 0 Hull 4 contained the message "Take Jesus - Take Marx - Take Hope".) Heaton has since stated on many occasions that he is an atheist.
The Beautiful South
In 1988, 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 joint lead singer and frontman. The writing partnership of Heaton and Rotheray proved very successful. 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 single "A Little Time", released in 1990; 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 the band split up in January 2007.
On the ITV documentary music series Faith & Music screened 29 October 2006, Heaton talks openly about his atheism and his battle with alcoholism.
After a band meeting on 30 January 2007, they decided to split. They released a statement on 31 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.[6] On an interview with BBC Breakfast in July 2008, Heaton clarified this statement by stating the Beautiful South had made similar sounding albums for the past ten years.
The New Beautiful South were formed shortly after by David Stead with other members of the band, but without composers Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray, playing old hits live to small venues.
Biscuit Boy (a.k.a. Crackerman)
In 2001, Heaton released a solo album using the persona of Biscuit Boy (a.k.a Crackerman). This double-barrelled name, including the parenthetical a.k.a., was the official project name on all early releases.
The solo album, called Fat Chance, was not a commercial success, peaking at #95 for 1 week on the UK chart. Also, "Mitch", the lone single credited to Biscuit Boy (a.k.a. Crackerman), reached only Number 75 in the UK Singles Chart.
In an attempt to re-launch the album, Mercury Records re-issued Fat Chance in 2002. The album featured new artwork, and was now credited to Paul Heaton. However, this record charted even lower in the album charts, hitting #168. "The Perfect Couple", a single pulled from this re-release also did poorly, peaking at #102 UK. Heaton subsequently rejoined The Beautiful South from 2002 to 2007.
With the 2007 dissolution of The Beautiful South, Heaton has formed a new band "The Sound of Paul Heaton" and is touring small venues.
Second solo album
Heaton's second solo album The Cross Eyed Rambler was released on 7 July 2008, and was preceded by the single "Mermaids and Slaves" on 30 June, and he toured in support of it throughout July.
The album charted at number 43.
Third solo album
In Autumn 2009 Paul teamed up with Manchester musicians Jonny Lexus (aka Jonny Wrong), Jonny Wright and Pete Marshall, and set about working on his third solo album "Acid Country"
The album was recorded in Colne, Lancashire at Modern English Studios with The Earlies members Christian and Nicky Madden and mixed by Tom Dalgety
In May 2010 Paul and his band headed off on their "Pedals and Pumps" tour, playing local pubs in an attempt to promote the local pub. Paul combined this tour with another passion of his, cycling. He cycled from show to show, accompanied by the support act and long term friend, Gus Devlin, covering nearly 1000 miles.
Heaton and his band played in the Left Field Tent at Glastonbury 2010, closing the stage on the Sunday evening with a duet with tent-curator and old Go! Discs cohort Billy Bragg.
His third solo album, Acid Country was released in September 2010 and charted at number 51.
In November and December 2010 he supported Madness on their 'Do Not Adjust Your Nut Tour' performing mostly songs from Acid Country, as well as material from his second album. He also sang Housemartins hits Caravan of Love and Me and the Farmer and covered White Man In Hammersmith Palais by The Clash.
The 8th
In between touring Acid Country, Paul and the band started work on putting together a series of demos Paul had recorded with fellow Beautiful South member, Dave Rotheray, and current guitarist Jonny Lexus.
The piece, commissioned by The Manchester International Festival, was based around the concept of the 7 deadly sins, the 8th sin revealed by Heaton himself during the performance. For the piece, each sin is given a section of the song, and is sung by a different singer representing that sin. The guest singers featured on The 8th were London based soul singer Wayne Gidden (Lust), Scottish singer/songwriter Aaron Wright (Wrath), Scottish singer/songwriter King Creosote (Gluttony), Manchester singer/songwriter Simon Aldred from Cherry Ghost (Greed), former Beautiful South Singer Jacqui Abbott (Envy), Manchester based gospel singer Yvonne Shelton (Sloth) and Hull based country singer Mike Greaves (Pride).
The sections were linked together with a narration written by English actor/playwright/producer Che Walker.
It was narrated by American actor and star of The Wire Reg E. Cathey
The debut performance was in July 2011, in the Festival Pavilion Theatre in Albert Square, Manchester. This was the first time in over 10 years that Paul and Jacqui Abbott had shared a stage, and the first time Jacqui had sung publicly since leaving The Beautiful South in 2000.
Politics
Heaton is known for being a socialist which is reflected 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.[citation needed] He is also a strong advocate of removing the British monarchy. Some of his lyrics also look at the injustice of world leaders sending ordinary people into combat while not getting their own hands dirty (Have You Ever Been Away 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).[citation needed]
Drinking
Heaton has suffered from drinking problems at many times in his life.[7] Heaton has on occasions referred to the Beautiful South as having a heavy drinking culture. Many songs by The Beautiful South, such as Woman in the Wall, Liar's Bar, I May Be Ugly, The Slide, Look What I Found in My Beer and most notably Old Red Eyes Is Back, have referred to alcoholism or drink-fueled violence.[8]
Other appearances
During the 1990s, Heaton regularly appeared on 'Football Italia', Channel 4's coverage of Italian Serie A football as a pre match guest and was frequently introduced by host James Richardson as an 'Italian Football expert'.
In March 2010, Heaton set off on a cycle tour of British pubs, promoting his latest album, British pubs and cycling.[9][10]
Personal life
Heaton is the father of three daughters. He now lives in Withington, Manchester, and supports Sheffield United. Heaton appeared on a BBC One talking heads programme, Why we love the Royle Family along with Noel Gallagher in his capacity as a fan of the television sitcom, The Royle Family.
References
- ^ a b Pattenden, Mike (1999). Last orders at the Liar's Bar: the official story of the Beautiful South. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-06739-X.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|Page=ignored (|page=suggested) (help) - ^ Pattenden (1999). p.43
- ^ Pattenden (1999). p.185
- ^ Pattenden (1999). p.188
- ^ Pattenden (1999). p.112
- ^ Pop group Beautiful South split from BBC News website, retrieved 31 January 2007
- ^ Pattenden (1999). p.181
- ^ Pattenden (1999). p.183
- ^ Beautiful South's Paul Heaton plans pub gig tour by bike - Daily Telegraph
- ^ The Beautiful South's Paul Heaton to cycle 720 miles on UK pub tour - NME