The album came into being as two of The Housemartins, Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway formed The Beautiful South upon the former's breakup in 1988. The Beautiful South therefore were seen as the next guise of The Housemartins. Both bands had already had two greatest hits albums: The Housemartins in 1988 ( Now That's What I Call Quite Good) and 2004 ( The Best of The Housemartins), and The Beautiful South in 1994 ( Carry on up the Charts) and 2001 ( Solid Bronze). A BBC review of the album stated "Often misunderstood and overlooked by the barometer of cool, Heaton and his minions have beavered away nevertheless and become two of the finest exponents of pop Britain has ever had", [2] while the Manchester Evening News declared "the early work shows them as being a jewel in our pop heritage." [3] Chart performance [ edit ]

The sleeve of the album contains an introduction to it and a brief history of the band by long term friend and fan of the bands, journalist and radio DJ Stuart Maconie. It also contains artwork from throughout the bands' careers and gives the names of all the members of both bands throughout their duration.