The Beautiful South

The Beautiful South
The Beautiful South in concert.
Background information
Origin	Hull, Yorkshire
Genres	Pop,pop rock
Years active	1988–2007
Labels	Go!, Ark 21, Mercury, London, Sony, Elektra
Associated acts	The Housemartins
Past members	Paul Heaton Dave Hemingway Dave Rotheray Dave Stead Sean Welch Briana Corrigan Jacqui Abbott Alison Wheeler

The Beautiful South was an English pop/rock group formed in 1988 by two former members of the Hull group the Housemartins—Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway—both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. Other members throughout the band's tenure were former Housemartins roadie Sean Welch (bass), Dave Stead (drums) and Dave Rotheray (guitar). After the band's first album (recorded as a quintet), they were joined by a succession of female vocalists, all of whom performed lead and backing vocals alongside Heaton and Hemingway – Briana Corrigan for albums two and three after appearing as a guest vocalist on one, followed by Jacqui Abbott for the fourth through seventh albums, and finally Alison Wheeler for the final three Beautiful South albums.

The group broke up in January 2007, claiming the split was due to "musical similarities", and having sold around 15 million records worldwide.

Paul Heaton and David 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 often claimed to have set a fixed lifespan for themselves, and 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'd 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 David 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 - though never an official member of the group, he would end up playing virtually all the piano and keyboard parts on the band's albums.