Out On Blue Six: Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott

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Out On Blue Six: The Beautiful South

A number 2 hit for The Beautiful South in 1998, Perfect 10 is a suitably Carry On like tune from a band whose 1994 best of album was entitled Carry On Up the Album Charts. Jokey in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink innuendo kind of way, it isn't without its own profound message - that of successful relationships which exist outside of the mainstream idea of conventional beauty.

In the sleeve notes of his latest, greatest hits album, The Last King of Pop, Paul Heaton has this to say about Perfect 10;

"One of those songs that sounded so innocent and so romantic as a lyric, but became the opposite when it reached the charts. Written on a scrap of hotel note paper, after a drunken night in London, it was intended as a gentle squeeze in the hips of an equidistant lover. With Paul Weller's understated guitar and Norman Cook's bombastic co-production, the mood soon turned from pre-pubescent Peter Skellern, to a cold, calculating, coffin bound Tom Jones. How success can change your little tune in the cross hairs of public regard"

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Out On Blue Six: The Beautiful South, and Tonight's Tele Tip

Here's a classic from the great Paul Heaton and my hometown St Helens' own Jacqui Abbott,

You can see more of Heaton and Abbott tonight in the Channel 4 documentary, Paul Heaton: From Hull To Heatongrad, a documentary this very blogger was briefly asked to help out with earlier this year. It should be a good watch (and, if you ask me, a long overdue appraisal of one of the UK's finest songwriters) but, if you're not a night owl you might want to set your TV planner - it's on a ten past midnight!

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Out On Blue Six : Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott

So great to see former Beautiful South members Paul Heaton and St Helens own Jacqui Abbott back with some new music after time out as pub landlord and mum respectively. This track DIY is the first single from their forthcoming album What Have We Become and the video is directed by that other St Helens luminary Johnny Vegas. Needless to say, as a St Helener, I am very proud!

I actually stood behind Jacqui in a chip shop in town once, she ordered chips and a jumbo sausage and was very friendly and approachable!

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