The Housemartins / The Beautiful South

[KLG-7DD]

What do you think?

Paul Heaton's music has been in my life since I was a kid, so I'm unable to judge any of it objectively (nostalgia and familiarity breeds fondness), but I am pretty sure he's actually an amazing songwriter. The music can be a little wet and middle of the road, but so what? It's all done so well, the songs are almost universally catchy, and the lyrics/themes are excellent and unexpected.

Five bags of popcorn.

[KLG-7DD]

Also love how well he can write for women, with them almost always being the more powerful voice in a song (let's just ignore 36D). Love the "not taking that sort of bullshit" final verse of A Little Time (which given first impressions might just sound like a standard wet relationships song).

[thraxx]

Can't be doing with The Beautiful South since I hitched a lift with someone on a London to Norwich journey that took about 5 hours and i had to listen to fucking Blue Is the Colour on loop the entire way.

However, it's probably just an urban myth, but I read somewhere that there was a pub close to Paul Heaton's house that was always noisy and disturbing him into the small house, so he bought it and shut the fucker down.  I have always found that deeply impressive.  I hope it's true.

[doppelkorn]

I'm a massive fan. It's amazing how many people who claim to be clued up about music think that specifically TBS are bland.

[doppelkorn]

I just saw on his Wiki page he used to run with a Sheffield Utd hooligan firm.

Ledge. Or not.

[Tom Pynchon's Photo]

Can't be doing with The Beautiful South since I hitched a lift with someone on a London to Norwich journey that took about 5 hours and i had to listen to fucking Blue Is the Colour on loop the entire way.

However, it's probably just an urban myth, but I read somewhere that there was a pub close to Paul Heaton's house that was always noisy and disturbing him into the small house, so he bought it and shut the fucker down.  I have always found that deeply impressive.  I hope it's true.

I think Paul Heaton has bought a pub but not to shut it down. Pretty sure Bryan Adams did what you said though - bought and shut down a pub next to his london home coz of the noise it made

[doppelkorn]

What the fuck ever happened to Bryan Adams? And Ryan Adams come to think of it...

[PaulTMA]

I rather enjoyed the singles of The Beautiful South, only going as far as to buying their Miaow album when it came out.  But after their huge-selling hits album, they seemed to become deeply irritating to my ears from Rotterdam onwards.  I wouldn't have minded the inescapability of their middle period's biggest hits had they only been up to the standard of 'Ol' Red Eyes Is Back' etc.  That covers album they made sounded amusing, at least to be enjoyed purely by reading it's Wikipedia page.

[KLG-7DD]

I rather enjoyed the singles of The Beautiful South, only going as far as to buying their Miaow album when it came out.  But after their huge-selling hits album, they seemed to become deeply irritating to my ears from Rotterdam onwards.  I wouldn't have minded the inescapability of their middle period's biggest hits had they only been up to the standard of 'Ol' Red Eyes Is Back' etc.  That covers album they made sounded amusing, at least to be enjoyed purely by reading it's Wikipedia page.

I don't really bother with anything past the Rotterdam era. To be honest, I pretty much stick with Carry On Up The Charts, that's enough goodness for me. And what goodness it is.

[phantom_power]

The first two albums are great, full of catchy songs with a dark, left-leaning tone. They went downhill a bit after that. The Housemartins were amazing and anyone who thinks otherwise is an awful human being and terrible lover

[doppelkorn]

While we're here, how did four white fellas from Hull[nb]Nominally[/nb] cover an Isley Brothers tune and do it better?

[Rolf Lundgren]

What the fuck ever happened to Bryan Adams? And Ryan Adams come to think of it...

Ryan Adams is so bloody pissy about people mixing him up with Bryan Adams but Bryan Adams was around for ages before Ryan Adams strummed his first chord. It's like being called Ruce Springsteen and thinking I won't bother with a stage name but I'll spend my life getting mistaken for someone else.

Back on topic, The Beautiful South have always been a band I'd never consider buying an album of but I'd happily listen to them when they come on the radio.

[SteveDave]

Ruth Springsteen.

Colour me another fan of "Carry On Up The Charts" Although oddly my vinyl copy has a lady singing "Let Love Speak Up Itself" which looking at Wikipedia tells me it was a demo version...

[DukeDeMondo]

I absolutely adore The Beautiful South. Up to and including Blue is the Colour. Very few other folk come close to doing what they could do in their prime. There are people just as arch and wink-winky and self-reflexive about everything, and there are people just as good at knocking fuck out your guts till you've cried all the cry that's in you, but rarely are those people the same people, and rarer still are the people that are doing both of those things at the same time.

"At the same time...??"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6b788OF-qA

Anyway. Brilliant, brilliant band.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I like "Old Red Eyes Is Back" and nothing else whatsoever by The Southies. Also, Paul Heaton is a cunt who used to go round Hull shagging all the female students, and attempting to beat up all the male one with his thuggish mates. My own mate at the time was at the recieving end of an attempted duffing up, but told Paul Heaton that he'd bought his sister their last album for hier birthday, and if Heaton didn't watch out, he'd tell his sister what a cunt he was. That told him.

[HappyTree]

I can't judge the music of these bands objectively as, from the very first moment I saw the Happy Hour video, I instantly hated Paul Heaton's face. I don't know why. It seems to be a fairly innocuous face, but I just had an irrational repulsion and that was that. So maybe this is why I also hate his voice, or maybe I just also hate his voice. You can tell I'm not a fan. For all I know he might be brilliant, but I will die in sweet ignorance of his contribution to the world.

[Vodka Margarine]

I always liked the three rotating voices in TBS. Heaton and Hemingway are both hugely gifted singers. Personally my favourite female was Jacqui but Briana was a different kind of incredible. I can't imagine anyone else singing A Little Time and Bell Bottomed Tear and nailing them, though I imagine they gave it their best shot.

I'm much more of a Housemartins man these days. The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death is probably even better than London 0 Hull 4 and boasts the best album title ever. Such beauty in those songs, something that's often overlooked with their zany knockabout funster image.

[Brundle-Fly]

I first discovered The Housmartins when they supported Madness in 1985. I thought they were too jangly, too The Smiths for my ears but by the time Happy Hour had come out a year later I was sold.   I'd say their run of singles are easily up there with the likes of Madness and The]Smiths* (*who I'd grew to appreciate more by then).I was particularly fond of their slower numbers: Think For A Minute, Build and Always Something There To Remind Me. Gorgeous.

I wasn't massively into The Beautiful South, only really liking their flop singles: i.e. My Book, Dumb. Enjoyed reading Paul Heaton's interviews as he always gave good copy.

"The Beautiful South split up because of artistic similarities" I've since heard other bands use this phrase but I believe it was Heaton who coined it first.

Apparently, The Housemartins will only reform if The Smiths do.

So, never then.

[Hodgson]

 Jacqui Abbot came into my Mum's salon in Chippenham to have her hair done once. I think they were recording something up at Peter Gabriel's studio in box. She was very nice apparently. In "Hate: My Life On The Far Right" by Matthew Collins, Collins claims that NF leader Ian Anderson loved "A Little Time" and told him to big the Beautiful South up in the NF magazine citing it as a good example of pop music with no black elements despite Collins trying to point out that the band was made up of "Irish and lefties". I'm another who loves Carry On Up The Charts but never really bothered with the albums ditto the Housemartins and "Now That's What I Call Quite Good". I'd recommend the bands Skin Deep and Burial to any Housemartins fans. Even though both bands were marketed as left wing Oi!/Ska, a lot of their stuff is actually quite Housemartinsy indie pop.

[doppelkorn]

That'd be the other Burial then LOL!

I think TBS get a terrible rep with people of my generation (mid-late 20s) because our parents used to play them along with the M-People and Lighthouse family as some of the first CDs they bought in the mid-90s, despite TBS being in a different league. Does anyone else recognise this...thing?

I'm going to dig out all their stuff tonight and binge.

[Hodgson]

 Yeah sorry that should be "The Burial" (80s band from Scarborough) not the dubstep one with no "The"

[biggytitbo]

I love them, especially the discursive songs written for the male and female voice, something they did better than almost anyone else.  I think it did become a case of biting lyrics, bland tune in the later years but there are still many gems to be found in the later albums, like Hot on the Heels of Heartbreak which is a big favourite. I believe Heaton and Abbot have reformed now haven't they?

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

I'm much more of a Housemartins man these days. The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death is probably even better than London 0 Hull 4 and boasts the best album title ever. Such beauty in those songs, something that's often overlooked with their zany knockabout funster image.

As I pointed out to Paul Heaton on Twitter a while ago, the sentiments expressed in "Build" seem to be against housebuilding, an attitude that can only exacerbate Britain's ongoing housing crisis. The trouble with these left-wing popstars is they're just against things, they never have any proper policies of their own. We're still waiting for The Levellers to fill in the details of their alternative model to capitalism.

[Gulftastic]

'I'll Sail This Ship Alone' is my anthem for when I'm a sad drunk.

From their later albums, I love Your Father And I

And Jacqui Abbot is lovely.

[Brundle-Fly]

  Even though both bands were marketed as left wing Oi!/Ska, a lot of their stuff is actually quite Housemartinsy indie pop.

Wow! Nice to hear a tip of a hat to Skin Deep and The Burial!  S.H.A.R.P. !!

Also for lovers of The Housemartins, I would throw Jim Jiminee into the hat. Excellent indie pop. Saw them live at The Marquee in 1988 but after one album Welcome To Hawaii and 2 Eps they vanished.

Do It On Thursday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpqFg0kqCBo

[23 Daves]

As I pointed out to Paul Heaton on Twitter a while ago, the sentiments expressed in "Build" seem to be against housebuilding, an attitude that can only exacerbate Britain's ongoing housing crisis. The trouble with these left-wing popstars is they're just against things, they never have any proper policies of their own. We're still waiting for The Levellers to fill in the details of their alternative model to capitalism.

"His window tax policy is a hodgepodge of half-baked ideas. Larry would do well to stick to singing songs like 'Float On' in future".

Also for lovers of The Housemartins, I would throw Jim Jiminee into the hat. Excellent indie pop. Saw them live at The Marquee in 1988 but after one album Welcome To Hawaii and 2 Eps they vanished.

Jim Jiminee were ace, but it would seem they split up in 1989. I think they probably emerged a little bit too late to benefit from their indie pop leanings. "Town and Country Blues" was their last (great) single, but by that point I was conscious of the fact that they sounded a little out of synch with the times.

[Ray Le Otter]

I love the alternative version of "Let Love Speak Up Itself" on "Carry On Up the Charts". And Jacqui apparently is a lovely person.

I probably stuck with the Beautiful South longer than was really necessary. There's nothing really after "Blue is the Colour" that is particularly essential, but the"Solid Bronze - Great Hits" compilation is as good a summation of their career as you could get. And they were a fucking great live band back in the day. I'm seeing Heaton and Abbott live in Salford next month (I think) which should be good.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

I think Paul Heaton has bought a pub but not to shut it down.

Yep. He owns the (fantastic) King's Arms in Salford, and has nearly always been there whenever I've been in.

[KLG-7DD]

Wow! Nice to hear a tip of a hat to Skin Deep and The Burial!  S.H.A.R.P. !!

Also for lovers of The Housemartins, I would throw Jim Jiminee into the hat. Excellent indie pop. Saw them live at The Marquee in 1988 but after one album Welcome To Hawaii and 2 Eps they vanished.

Do It On Thursday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpqFg0kqCBo

Is that the Jim Jiminee that once featured Hariet Wheeler of The Sundays?

[Brundle-Fly]

Is that the Jim Jiminee that once featured Hariet Wheeler of The Sundays?

I believe so. I don't think they officially released anything with Harriet singing. I've just discovered Jim Jiminee did release a second album. Hooray this thread.