Paul Heaton

150
Paul Heaton bigraphy, stories - Monarchs

Paul Heaton : biography

9 May 1962 –

Paul David Heaton (born 9 May 1962) 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. 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".Pattenden (1999). p.43 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". 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 Hull, where he formed The Housemartins. Heaton also lived in Leeds for some time.Pattenden (1999). p.185

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.Pattenden (1999). p.188 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.Pattenden (1999). p.112 Despite this, he now lives in Withington.

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.

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. He is also a strong advocate of removing the British monarchy. Some of his lyrics also criticize 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).

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.