Welcome To The Beautiful South

Product Information

If you never knew you could bop your head to lighthearted songs about murder, well, welcome to The Beautiful South. After politically minded Hull-based indie pop outfit The Housemartins went their separate ways in 1988, vocalist Paul Heaton and drummer Dave Hemingway formed The Beautiful South, the name being a glib nod to Southern England from a band with Northern roots. Their first single—a deeply cynical love song called "Song for Whoever”—was released in September of 1989 and laid out the band’s musical framework of pairing darkly tongue-in-cheek lyrics with jazzy piano riffs and sprightly melodies. The band’s first foray climbed to No. 2 on the charts and their equally bitter romp, "You Keep It All In", with vocalist Briana Corrigan providing a sweet counter note, followed suit. A month later, they released their debut, Welcome to the Beautiful South, sharing their caustic musical humour with fans who were in on the joke. Their peppy breakup anthem "A Little Time" from their 1990 album Choke went to No. 1 as fans related to its spurned lover’s revenge theme, and the singles compilation, Carry on Up the Charts, which they released in 1994, was so popular it reportedly could be found in one in every seven UK households. Over the course of the next 10 years, the band released a steady stream of albums that told grim stories and bleak romances all wrapped in jaunty tunes, as well as jazz-pop covers of songs like Pebbles’ “Girlfriend” and Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’”. The band broke up in 2007, spinning off into solo acts and other iterations. On their way out the door, they released a statement saying they were splitting up “due to musical similarities”—a fittingly cheeky farewell. HOMETOWN Hull, England Contemporary Musicians, Volume 19". beautifulsouth.org. 1 September 1997. Archived from the original on 21 June 2007 . Retrieved 26 July 2007. The third initial bandmember was Dave Rotheray, a songwriting guitarist who'd previously played with Hemingway in two other Hull bands, the Newpolitans and the Velvetones. At the time, Rotheray was studying for a PhD at the University of Hull and living on Grafton Street, where Heaton also lived. Rotheray and Heaton became the songwriting team for the Beautiful South, which was conceived as a quintet with Heaton and Hemingway (who was no longer drumming) as the two lead singers. The core band was completed by Dave Stead (ex-Luddites/Vicious Circle) on drums, and former Housemartins roadie Sean Welch on bass guitar. Also important to the band's sound was studio keyboard player Damon Butcher — though never an official member of the group, he would end up playing virtually all the piano and keyboard parts on the band's albums. Waller, Don (13 May 1990). "The Beautiful South, 'Welcome to the Beautiful South,' Elektra / Beats International, 'Let Them Eat Bingo,' Elektra". Los Angeles Times. Why it took a little time for The Beautiful South's Jacqui Abbott to find her voice again". Belfast Telegraph. 24 October 2014 . Retrieved 27 April 2016.

Adventurous to be sure, Heaton and the rest of the “South” ventured outside of the boundaries of northern soul, with the inclusion of jazz-beats, sophisticated piano melodies, and New Wave guitars to create the sound of The Beautiful South that would last for almost 20 years. While original lyricism was their raison d’être, they weren’t afraid to throw in an unexpected cover, especially their brilliant take on the 80s R&B hit “Girlfriend” by Pebbles. “I’ll Sail This Ship Alone” throws another curveball, with Heaton in a rare moment of vulnerability finally shows a chink in his armor on this melancholic ballad.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "British certifications – Beautiful South". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 7 May 2023. Type Beautiful South in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.

Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Christgau, Robert (31 July 1990). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice . Retrieved 11 February 2018.Loftus, Johnny. " Welcome to the Beautiful South – The Beautiful South". AllMusic . Retrieved 15 August 2009. Moving away from ruined lives and relationships, 'I’ve Come For My Award' enters the world of business and dodgy-dealings. The guitar lines sound very much like they were lifted from a Smiths album, and then given some of the band’s trademark jazzy swagger, and the lyrics, as ever, are exemplary; “I took on your free enterprise and your pretty little shops; walked in with empty bags, and walked out with the lot”. Using Ms. Corrigan's chirpy passion, Mr. Hemingway's boyish murmur and his own torchy voice, Mr. Heaton has perfected the sort of vocal arrangements he had experimented with on the group's two previous albums. The vocalists don't sound like soul singers, but they do sing soulfully. The Beautiful South is now able to present emotional contrasts throughout the album's various pop styles, ranging from 50's dance beat to British music-hall patter. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

In 1990, the Beautiful South released their second album, Choke. Two singles—"My Book" and "Let Love Speak Up Itself"—charted outside the Top 40, but the album also provided the band's only Number 1 hit, a Hemingway/Corrigan duet called " A Little Time". The video, featuring the aftermath of a domestic fight, won the 1991 BRIT Award for Best Video. [3] Third album and Corrigan's departure [ edit ] There are some songs from your childhood that you clearly remember hearing on the radio for the first time. It was summer 1989, and it was a period of change in my life which my ten year old self was feeling pretty optimistic about. My family were about to move house, I was about to go up to senior school, both big life-events for your average ten year old. I was sat in our old kitchen, my mum was cooking tea with the radio on, something which she habitually did despite the fact she wasn’t a huge fan of late 80s pop music, when suddenly this piano feature was punctuated with a line which I now consider among the greatest opening lines in the history of popular song “I love you from the bottom of my pencil case”. As opening lines to songs go, it’s an absolute winner. Except this just wasn’t any old song. This was the debut single by The Beautiful South, and therefore the first time the public had heard anything by this band. As opening lines to your career go, “I love you from the bottom of my pencil case” may very well be the greatest ever, and is certainly in songwriter Paul Heaton’s top five. European platinum certificates: 1996". ifpi.org. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012 . Retrieved 1 March 2010. Welcome to the Beautiful South is the debut album by English band The Beautiful South, released in October 1989 by Go! Discs and the next year in the United States by Elektra Records. Three singles were released from the album, which became top 40 hits in the United Kingdom: " Song for Whoever" (#2), " You Keep It All In" (#8) and " I'll Sail This Ship Alone" (#31). It's All Two Beautiful". NME. 23 November 2000. Archived from the original on 29 January 2009 . Retrieved 14 August 2008.Find sources: "The Beautiful South"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( November 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Heaton has always been that most British of songwriters, and that tradition continues here, from the celebration of that famously rain sodden city of Manchester (“If rain makes Britain great, then Manchester is greater”), or the vicious disillusionment on the duet of The Cat Loves The Mouse, those very English emotions of disappointment and melancholy are fully on display. Gettelman, Parry (27 April 1990). "The Beautiful South". Orlando Sentinel . Retrieved 24 February 2023. Even if you were caught off guard by the lilting harmonies and finger-snapping choruses, the controversial cover hinted at the dark comedic streak that would become the thru-line of the band. Conceived by artist Jan Saudek, the cover depicted a woman with a gun in her mouth, and another with a man smoking, which was famously banned by the American retail chain Woolworths, resulting in an alternative cover with an innocuous teddy bear. French album positions". infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on 20 August 2008 . Retrieved 1 March 2010.