Re: Paul Heaton's new album - any thoughts?
I'm actually a big fan of The Beautiful South, what do you mean the other members are on tour as "The New Beautiful South" and that they'd never wanted to break up? Are you saying it was Paul Heaton who broke up the band so he could go solo?
just found a review of the NBS.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Gig-review-The-New-Beautiful.5120034.jp
MEET the New Beautiful South: like the old Beautiful South, but minus the bloke that sings plus the bloke that helped him write the songs.
The Hull collective's highly questionable decision to reform sans front man Paul Heaton and guitarist Dave ADVERTISEMENTRotheray raises a pertinent point about the importance, for dignity's sake, of sometimes just letting go. Yet there's arguably logic in there, too: why should the rest of the band remain inert when there's still a substantial and eager audience for the songs?
Certainly, this sell-out show suggested fans aren't hugely fussed who's in or out; they just wanted the hits, last heard circa 2007 exclusively in arenas and summer festival fields. They got them – Rotterdam, Don't Marry Her, Perfect 10 and the rest – but the hitch was fell-off-the-back-of-a-lorry quality.
Invariably soused, Heaton was hardly the most charismatic of chaps, but so bluntly charmless was Dave Hemingway's frontman routine here – stepping up into the breach buried anonymously in a big jacket and woolly cap – he managed to make the last guy look like Liberace by comparison.
Alison Wheeler, the third female singer to brave the band's notoriously unreconstructed dynamic, was infinitely more game yet too cut a solidly unremarkable figure.
Impressing critics was never the Beautiful South's chief concern – they were always a fans' band foremost. The New Beautiful South are as well, and their best-of set stirred up a lively – Phoenix Nights lively, anyway – boozy Saturday night sing-along vibe by the end.
Some new songs are promised, although judging by the scant merit of the Beautiful South's last couple of albums it feels more like a threat. Until then, this lot's status looks secure as Britain's favourite Beautiful South tribute band.
