Paul Heaton: I have to get into that frame of mind to write songs

Jul 4 2008 by Andy Welch

Andy Welch talks to the former Beautiful South singer

ARRANGING to meet Paul Heaton in a pub is hardly a surprising choice of location.

The former Housemartins and Beautiful South frontman writes and sings about booze and the establishments that sell it a lot, and he’s also talked about the darker side of drink and his battles with alcoholism in the past. Today is different, though, as he’s on the water.

"I’m doing a radio show later, I don’t want to go in stinking of beer, do I?" he says, smiling.

You’d be hard-pushed to find a better drinking buddy than Heaton.

He has a wickedly dry sense of humour, as demonstrated over the years in his songwriting – try finding an article or review about him that doesn’t contain the words sardonic or laconic – and he quite happily tells anecdotes about places he’s visited, chats about music and is wonderfully opinionated.

He put these characteristics to great use when penning some of the most original pop songs of the last 20 years.

The Beautiful South’s Song For Whoever perfectly summed up teenage crushes, while A Little Time astutely examined both the male and female perspectives of a relationship, in the most typically British way – self- effacing, understated and with a wry smile. During their eight years together, the band released 10 albums and sold more than 15m records. Carry On Up The Charts, the singles collection released in 1994, briefly became the fastest-selling album in chart history. Not bad for a band who dubbed themselves "everyone’s second-favourite band".

Then last year came the announcement The Beautiful South were to go their separate ways, and in their inimitable style, they blamed it on "musical similarities".

For Paul, splitting the group he formed from the ashes of The Housemartins was a natural move.

"There were a series of events over the years that helped me arrive at the decision to leave," he says. "I’d done a solo album already (2001’s Fat Chance, under the moniker Biscuit Boy aka Crackerman) and (the band’s guitarist) Dave Rotheray had done three solo albums with his Homespun project. That was a factor.

"Me leaving Hull was also part of it," he continues, referencing his move from East Yorkshire – the place he’d called home since moving there from Birkenhead as a teenager – over to Manchester.

"Being in Manchester meant I was less part of The Beautiful South, and I’ve got two daughters now, so that’s changed my priorities, I want to spend time with the kids."

Now 46, but looking as fighting fit as he did in his twenties, thanks to a new-found love of the gym, Paul is on the cusp of re- leasing The Cross Eyed Rambler, his second solo album and the first to bear his name.

It hits shops next week, and lead single Mermaids and Slaves is currently a Radio Two favourite.

Like most Beautiful South lyrics written after 1993, Paul wrote the album in the Netherlands: "I usually pick a different Dutch town each time I go, but I liked Alkmaar so much that I went there again for this," he explains.

"I’ve always liked to travel and go away to write lyrics anyway, but I chose the Netherlands because it’s about the nearest country to us that’s foreign.

"I like to be away from English- speaking people because it makes me a bit more lonely and melancholic and thoughtful.

"I have to get into that frame of mind to write songs, there’s no point being really happy."

The resulting album is the best thing Heaton has written in years, more energised than the last few Beautiful South efforts, and with his trademark cutting lyrics at the fore.

A Good Old Fashioned Town takes a swipe at traditionalists, reactionaries and xenophobes – "You know, the sort of people who start sentences with, ’I’m not being racist, but’," says Paul – Little Red Rooster is about "a young lad falling in love with an older woman for a bit of secur- ity," and closer Everything Is Everything is a rallying state-of- the-nation cry about "everything, really!".

"That song’s about greed really," Paul continues, "and the way greed is being manufactured.

"We’re bombarded with so much and told we want it, whatever it is, and then when you do take something you think you want, you can’t remember why. It’s a strange world."

Paul’s views are forthright and candid, and after a quick rant on rampant commerce, he spends some time analysing Big Brother, football pundits and various other, unconnected topics.

A few years ago, he appeared on the BBC’s Question Time, where his opinions very nearly got him into trouble. "The aud- ience were pretty reactionary," he says, smiling. "It was in Peter- borough, and it was full of UKIP supporters and farmers, basically, so I didn’t get many claps!

"I got a stunned silence with one of the things I said. I was asked whether I agreed with the House Of Lords being closed, and with the abolition of hereditary peers, so I said, ‘Give them five minutes’ notice and blow the building up’. I could see David Dimbleby staring at me, and I think they thought I was joking, but that’s pretty much what I still believe.

"I’m getting more political as I get older," he continues, "and I’m shifting more to the left as well. They say you get more right wing as you get older and have kids, but I’m the opposite.

"A lot of people have moved to the left because the Labour party has moved to the right. People feeling isolated and party-less. I never thought of Labour as my party, but people like Dennis Skinner and Tony Benn who you felt were representing your side are gone, there’s no one like that any more."

PAUL HEATON releases his new album, The Cross Eyed Rambler, on Monday, July 14