Well, Paul is back and on tour starting 6 November with a new band. Here's from the promo email:
21 years ago Paul Heaton first entered the charts with his first band The Housemartins, he then went on to form The Beautiful South who sold an incredible 15 million albums worldwide and wrote countless chart hits. The band split last year 'due to musical similarities' and Heaton took a well deserved break. So it's of no great shock to anybody that he returns this November with a new band and an 11 date UK tour showcasing brand new material.
YORK Fibbers - Tue 6 November STOKE Sugarmill - Wed 7 November SHEFFIELD The Leadmill - Thu 8 November OXFORD Carling Academy - Fri 9 November DUBLIN Whelan's - 11 November (ticketmaster.ie) BELFAST Auntie Annie’s - 12 November NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms - Wed 14 November LIVERPOOL Carling Academy - Thu 15 November HULL University - Fri 16 November LONDON Bush Hall - Mon 19 November BIRMINGHAM Glee Club - Tue 20 November GLASGOW King Tut’s - 21 November MANCHESTER Club Academy - Thu 22 November
Tickets for the tour go on sale on Friday 12th October, however there is an exclusive pre sale available at 9am tomorrow morning Thurs 11th October via this link:
We've been hoping against hope against this day, but it's finally come. The Beautiful South announced on their MySparce page they are disbanding, and have done the rounds of the UK press confirming the bad news.
Whether "musical similarities" or disappointment at their slowly diminishing sales, the lyrical, musical, and casual genius of Humberside's finest will re-shuffle the deck independent of one another.
I'm thrilled to have seen them in New York this fall - both at their surprise "Cake Shop" session with a long foreshadowing conversation afterwards, and their triumphant Irving Plaza gig the following night. From the first time I heard them and saw them in Philadelphia in 1989, to their awesome (and female-free) swing through California, and their amazing US close-out in 2006, they have always been as great in person as on every bleak but peppy chord of every album.
I appreciate the opportunity to dig thru the swag pile with Krusty Kev, have my balls (billiard) handed to me by Dave R., philosophize about the future of the Internet and the world with Sean, and listen to Paul's "deep track" mix tapes. For a band found under every tannenbaum and in every cassette deck in the UK, I've always been touched by their unstinting humanity, which for me was the root of their excellence.
Thanks, guys (and Allison, Briana & long-lost Jacqui), and kickin' horns for all the rewards. Thanks for busking your way into our hearts, building an unstoppable lyrical and musical partnership, and sharing yourself with us.
The Beautiful South Cakeshop Ludlow Street, New York City, NY 6 November 2006 Courtesy of Whistling in the Dark (while we were just eating cake)
While ticket sales don't always work out the way they should. TBS made the most of their time in New York - replacing their Monday Irving Plaza gig with a freebie in the Bowery at the "Cakeshop".
01 Especially For You 02 The River 03 Pretty Things 04 Manchester 05 Old Red Eyes Is Back 06 Prettiest Eyes 07 Paul's Poem 08 Rotterdam 09 One Last Love Song 10 Perfect 10 11 Let Love Speak Up Itself 12 Don't Marry Her
Performers: Paul Heaton - vocals Dave Rotheray - guitar Dave Hemingway - vocals Alison Wheeler - vocals Tony Robinson - trumpet/backing vocals Gaz Birtles - backing vocals Kev Brown - backing vocals Sean Welch - backing vocals
Paul also unveiled a new poem, aka something from his lyrics journal without any music written:
Poem About Everything and Naught
When hip-hop's selling perfume And boy band's selling grief The blues man's market life insurance just won't flip underneath Jazz just chucks its concrete into transparent handkerchief Everything is anything to anyone
The butchers sell you pantyhose The supermarket sells you land And the news really likes to read the news but he's also in a band And feminism's fast asleep with a cock in either hand Everything is anything to everyone
Modern, modern man is a man of many lives So we decorate, we imitate, we duplicate their lives It's the sound of octopuses giving infinite high fives Everybody's business is show business
And the indoors wants you Oliver And the outdoors wants you Audi The bank they want a Tex or Hank And the mic wants Pavarotti Kitchen, garden, wardrobe, property in the sun Everything is anything to everyone
The newsagent sells you holidays The travel shop sells you sand The local vicar saves your soul But he also saves the damned Nothing's black and white no more Just permanently tanned Everything is everything to everyone
Locate, locate, locate Locate the victim's house Swap their wives And take their lives And turn them inside out Nothing left in closet Nothing left in doubt Everything is anything to everyone
Modern, modern woman Is juggling many lives Duplicating, decorating, imitating lives To the sound of a million whistling wolves From the ground of a thousand building sites Everybody's business is show business
And the thin are getting thinner And the big are getting bigger Till 5 and 75 year olds worry about their figure The big are getting bigger The thin are getting thinner Till everyone is looking at everyone else's dinner And we shave our heads to make us look thin Till the whole fucking Earth's of fat bald skin To the fitness instructors and the owners of the gym I see piling down from the balcony of the trim And there's your space, MySpace, their big mouth Turns everything and everyone inside out Your tube, Me tube, everybody spout Everything is anything and naughtis fucking naught
Woohoo! In addition to a new album, we finally have some tour dates that include the United States!
Sun 08/13/06 Carlisle, UK Sands Centre Mon 08/14/06 Llandudno, UK North Wales Theatre & Conf. Centre Fri 08/18/06 North Yorkshire, UK Castle Howard
Tue 10/31/06 Chicago, IL Park West Wed 11/01/06 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre Mon 11/06/06 New York, NY Irving Plaza Tue 11/07/06 New York, NY Irving Plaza Fri 11/10/06 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
Sun 12/10/06 Birmingham, UK National Indoor Arena Mon 12/11/06 Bournemouth, UK International Centre Tue 12/12/06 London, UK Carling Apollo Hammersmith Fri 12/15/06 Manchester, UK Manchester Evening News Arena Sat 12/16/06 Sheffield, UK Hallam FM Arena
