The Beautiful South

The Beautiful South were an English pop rock group formed in 1988 by former Housemartins members Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway, both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. The other original members were guitarist Dave Rotheray, bassist Sean Welch, and drummer Dave Stead. All five original members remained with the band throughout its existence. The band's original material was written by Heaton and Rotheray.

After recording their first album, Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989), as a five-piece, they were joined by a succession of female vocalists; Briana Corrigan from 1990 to 1992, Jacqui Abbott from 1993 to 2000, and Alison Wheeler from 2003 to the band's split in 2007.

The group are known for wry and socially observant lyrics. They broke up in January 2007, saying the split was due to "musical similarities", having sold around 15 million records.

Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway had initially come to attention as (respectively) the lead singer and "singing drummer" of the successful Hull jangle pop band the Housemartins, who had scored seven UK Top 40 singles and two Top 10 albums between 1986 and 1988. (Heaton was with the Housemartins for their entire existence; Hemingway joined in time for their second and final album.) The band was known for blending overt socialist politics and a form of Christianity, having baited the British monarchy, the building industry, and South African apartheid in their songs as well as including gospel elements in their music. The Housemartins said they had set a fixed lifespan for themselves; the members duly brought the band to an end in 1988 at the height of its success. Heaton and Hemingway immediately began work on setting up a new band, naming it "the Beautiful South" as a sarcastic comment on their staunch Northern roots.

The third initial bandmember was Dave Rotheray, a songwriting guitarist who had 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—although never an official member of the group, he ended up playing virtually all the piano and keyboard parts on the band's albums.

Their first album, Welcome to the Beautiful South, was released in 1989 and promptly produced a number two UK singles chart hit, "Song for Whoever". With the follow-up single "You Keep It All In" reaching number eight and "I'll Sail This Ship Alone" reaching number 31, the band were soon set to equal or surpass the success of the Housemartins, while the songwriting built on and expanded the trenchant social critiques which the previous band had been known for. Topics included nationalism, domestic violence, football hooliganism and the self-serving industry of love songs, and the album's disturbing cover art also drew attention. Northern Irish singer Briana Corrigan was featured as a background vocalist on the album. Her contributions proved so successful that she was soon promoted to full membership status, as the band's third vocalist.

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.

The band's third album, 0898 Beautiful South, followed in 1992. It provided another Top 20 hit, "Bell Bottomed Tear", as well as two further Top 30 hits, "Old Red Eyes Is Back" and "We Are Each Other", although a fourth single, "36D", only placed in the Top 50. "We Are Each Other" also became the band's biggest hit in the United States, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1992.