The Band No One In America Knew
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 1:32 pm
One of my favorite bands of all time have called it quits after 19 years of music. The Beautiful South rose out of the ashes of The Housemartins in 1989 when Paul Heaton and David Hemmingway (drummer turned vocalist) decided to form a different group. Another of their former band mates had far more success in America — Fatboy Slim.
I found Welcome To The Beautiful South in the CD bin in the on-base store in Keflavik, Iceland and bought it solely for the cover (yes, I’m that adventurous). I had no idea that it was former Housemartins, whom I was a fan, until I put the CD on and Heaton’s extremely distinctive vocals came out of my speakers. Along with XTC’s Oranges & Lemons, it became one of my two favorite albums of 1989. They won me over completely with their biting, ironic and bitter lyrics put to 70’s-era, happy arrangements. In fact, they are masters at the musical juxtaposition. It’s amazing to listen to.
February 1st, 2007 at 5:33 am
D told me today. I’m not surprised, they’ve split before and had changes of female singer, too, often with acrimonious partings. They leave behind a legacy of fantastic albums and singles (with the exception of the covers album, which was just so bad it was shocking). x
February 1st, 2007 at 5:35 am
By the way, your blog is freaking out today in terms of its layout. The two sidebars keep appearing, disappearing, coming back–and the centre column of posts moves to the right, then back to the middle while all this is going on.
So your blog is basically restless and fidgety. Hmm. Me wonders if some WordPress 2.1 quirk is to blame… Have you changed anything to invoke a self-rearranging blog space? x
February 1st, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Naw, the blog does that too me as well because of the way the template is laid out in php. I did it as it appears so I knew where files are where and what I needed to edit for changes. Plus I think my host has been slow of late.
I can’t believe you didn’t like the covers album. There were several songs on there that had me in stitches due to the new arrangements plus the ‘new’ song was great. I do adore their version of “This Will Be Our Year”.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I think one of the coolest things I’ve heard in a long time is their reason for splitting: musical similarities.
Respect.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Ralf:
Yeah, I loved that as well. It does speak volumes as there is no one in the band to push each other towards excellence.