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 Housemartins

There's good publicity and bad publicity and the BBC, our oh so impartial public service broadcaster, seems to be the master of turning the bad to the good when given the nod from the establishment. The tail end of last week the Duke of Edinburgh was responsible for a collision with a car carrying two of his wife's subjects and a nine-month-old baby. This news naturally placed the Windsors in a rather poor light, as questions were raised about whether it was right for the 97 year old Prince Philip to still be driving...and certainly not without wearing a seat belt!

The start of this week saw the BBC news deliver a fluff piece about two infant Chinese twins who, having watched an episode of Peppa Pig in which the porcine heroine meets the Queen, made a video requesting to meet the Queen themselves. The British Ambassador in China, keen to restore some good faith in the Windsors, were quick to extend an invite to the two girls at the British Embassy and the BBC spun the whole thing as proof that 'Brand Britain' is a winner overseas. 

It all reminded me of this classic Housemartins song from 1987, in particular the line "And even when their kids were starving, they all thought the Queen was charming" A nine month old baby could have died because of the cavalier attitudes of an infirm nonagenerian. But it's OK, cos he's royalty and we all love royalty don't we?

  

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Out On Blue Six: The Beautiful South

Broadcast last week, the excellent Paul Heaton documentary From Hull to Heatongrad revealed much about the genius songwriter, including how disappointed he is by one particular track from the 1992 album 0898.

36D was a track written about tabloid Page 3 girls (such as Samantha Fox, pictured above), Heaton's intention was to attack the glamour industry that belittles and sexualises women, reducing the appeal of the opposite sex to their vital statistics ("36D, So what is that all that you've got?") Unfortunately, the intention was rather mixed in the song's lyrics which presented the models themselves as the primary object of Heaton's scorn. 

"We all agree that we should have targeted the media as sexist instead of blaming the girls for taking off their tops. It was a case of rushing headlong into the recording of the song" Dave Hemingway, whose vocals feature on the song, explained in 1997 to the Chicago Sun Times. But one of the band's vocalists, Briana Corrigan, was conspicuous by her absence on the track: she disliked Heaton's sexist lyric and it's decision to lay the blame at the models themselves. When Corrigan decided to leave the band for a solo career, the direction some of Heaton's songs (including Mini-Correct and Worthless Lie which would both appear on 1994's Miaow, performed by new vocalist Jacqui Abbott instead) followed seemed to be one of the deciding factors; "My reservation about some of the lyrics became like a trigger to spur me on" adding that she felt "As a woman in this business you're always in a much stronger position if you perform your own stuff", something that was not really an option in a band dominated by Heaton and songwriting partner, Dave Rotheray.

"If you're gonna offend a feminist like Briana it's always worth looking at your lyrics and looking at yourself again," Heaton said in last week's documentary."And looking back, I was right about Mini-Correct and she was right about 36D. It sort of blames the industry but to lay any blame at the Page 3 model, that's blaming the workforce. And she's right to say that wrong as a song. I've not played it since"

Heaton and Corrigan in happier times

Now, I totally agree that the sentiment behind 36D is a deeply flawed one, but I still like the song itself. That said, it wasn't as popular as some hits from the band, reaching number 46 in the UK charts in the autumn of 1992, spending two weeks overall in the Top 75, with many suggesting that the sexual connotations within the song itself led to its poor performance overall.

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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: The Housemartins

We're into the year 1986 in BBC4's repeats of Top of the Pops and it kicked off on Friday with the documentary Top of the Pops - The Story of 1986, which featured an interesting tidbit from the Housemartins' Paul Heaton, about their single Caravan of Love

Released in time for the coveted Christmas number one slot in '86, Heaton claims the band were right on course for achieving that accolade and were even told shortly before the charts were released for that week that they had made it. However, the number one that year proved to be Jackie Wilson's Reet Petit - a rank outsider that came out of nowhere.

So what happened?

Well, Heaton claims it's all to do with the band's politics and, specifically, a disparaging comment they made regarding Margaret and Dennis Thatcher, that ultimately nixed their chances.

Did the chart people and the BBC really do the dirty on the Housemartins in the same way they fixed it for Rod Stewart to be number one instead of the Sex Pistols during the Silver Jubilee week?

Who knows - but I don't see any reason why Heaton would lie, and it's public record the song was hotly tipped racing up the charts that week, ahead of all the competition. All I do know is that Caravan of Love is a cracking song and that it is perhaps for the best it didn't get the top spot over the festive period. It's far too good a song to have the 'Christmas song' albatross around its neck, with a message that is for all year round.

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Out On Blue Six: The Beautiful South

Because we all know one...

It now reminds me of this book cover I recently shared

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Out On Blue Six : The Housemartins

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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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Out On Blue Six : The Beautiful South

Three superb covers (ELO, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John and S Club 7) from the bands 2004 album (E Gads, 10 years already?!) Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs...

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Out On Blue Six : The Housemartins

What else could I play today in light of the news that Hull has been chosen to be the next Capital of Culture other than Hull's favourite sons (and one of my favourite bands) The Housemartins?!

David 'please love me' Cameron praised the selection of the city and the work of The Housemartins in the House of Commons earlier;

"In terms of popular music, Hull has a great record. I remember, some years ago, that great Housemartins album London 0 Hull 4"

Which was instantly punctured on Twitter by Housemartins frontman himself Paul Heaton;

"Well, apparently David Cameron likes London 0 Hull 4. Which part of the attack on his policies and rich friends did he like best???...When I took over my pub in Salford, the first people I barred was Cameron and Osborne. That ban still stands"

Heaton joins fellow musicians Keane and Primal Scream who have expressed 'horror' and 'opposition' to a Tory government who used their music for a manifesto launch and a Tory Party Conference respectively, and of course The Smiths Johnny Marr who bluntly banned Cameron from being a fan of his music!  

Tories 0 Music 4

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