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In The Beautiful South, Heaton remained lead singer but was joined by Hemingway and female singer Briana Corrigan to create a trio of lead vocalists. This set-up helped to characterize the bittersweet Kitchen Sink Drama s played out in Heaton's often barbed songs. The band's music might sound like bubbly, catchy, lightweight pop but Heaton's sour, savage and amusing worldview on everything and anything (alcoholism, religion, sex, politics and, mostly, the down side of relationships) is always lurking beneath the surface of the quirky melodies. The tastes and smells of the local pub are never far away either, with the band gaining a reputation for boozing. The band's first album was '' Welcome To The Beautiful South '' ( 1989 ) and spawned the hits "Song For Whoever" and "You Keep It All In." The release of 1990's '' Choke '' album saw the band claim its only Number 1 hit to date, "A Little Time". '' 0898 '' followed in 1992, with hits including "Old Red Eyes Is Back". In 1994, after Corrigan quit the band when she saw Paul's lyrics for the forthcoming album "Miaow", St Helens supermarket shelf-stacker, Jacqui Abbott , was brought on board to fill in. Heaton had heard her sing at an after show party in St Helens and remembered her vocal talents. Jacqui's first album with the band was '' Miaow '' in 1994. Hits included "Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud)" and a cover of Fred Neil 's "Everybody's Talking," previously popularized by Harry Nilsson . The end of that year saw the release of '' Carry On Up The Charts '', a "best of" compilation consisting of the singles to date plus new track "One Last Love Song". The album was massively successful and it is said that 1 in 7 homes in the UK owns a copy. '' Blue Is The Colour '' (1996), '' Quench '' (1998) and '' Painting It Red '' (2000) followed with varying success. Jacqui also quit the band in 2000. After a second Greatest Hits album '' Solid Bronze '' in 2001, they recorded '' Gaze '' in 2003 with yet another female vocalist, Alison 'Lady' Wheeler . Wheeler was still in place for 2004's '' Golddiggas, Headnodders And Pholk Songs '' (An album of unusually arranged cover versions including " Livin' Thing ", "You're The One That I Want", "Don't Fear The Reaper" and "I'm Stone In Love With You"). The latest album '' Superbi '' is due for release on 15th May 2006. Superbi’ was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios, a farm in Bakewell and at producer Ian Stanley’s place in Eniskerry, it was then mixed by the legendary Bill Price (Sex Pistols, Clash, Gun ‘n’ Roses). Any Beautiful South fan will recognise acclaimed lyricist Paul Heaton’s hand in quirky song titles such as ‘The Rose of My Cologne, ‘The Cat Loves The Mouse’ and ‘Never Lost A Chicken To A Fox’. First single ‘Manchester’ started off as a poem - “If rain makes Britain great, Then Manchester is greater” – ‘a sodden tribute’ to the city in which he now lives, says Heaton. The tracks cover love and loss and all that happens in-between …"So many pop songs are written about 15-20 year olds. We've never really targeted them, or newly weds. We write about people who've lived together most of their lives." DISCOGRAPHY Albums
SINGLES
SIDE PROJECTS AND SOLO RELEASES Paul Heaton has released an album called ''Fat Chance'' under the name Biscuit ### (aka Crackerman) whilst Dave Rotheray has released two albums with '''Homespun'''. EXTERNAL LINKS
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