Britain’s most down-to-earth pop stars Paul and Jacqui reunited for new album
IN A pub in Manchester, Britain’s most unlikely pop stars are ordering lunch.
No sushi or Cristal here: half a lager, a blackcurrant and soda, a cheese sandwich and the chilli-and-rice special are about as exotic as it gets. The bill comes to less than a tenner. As singers of The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott sold more than 15 million records and scored a string of hits including Rotterdam, Perfect 10 and Don’t Marry Her.
Today they release their second album as a duo: Wisdom, Laughter And Lines. But for pop stars they seem remarkably… ordinary. “I always feel slightly disappointing to people,” Paul laughs. “I always expect them to ask for their money back, like, is that all you’ve done with our money?
Dressed up like that and spent the rest on beer? “Reviews of our concerts used to say we looked like a bunch of people who’d been pulled out of a queue at a bus stop and made to go on stage.”
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The self-deprecation is part of the charm of course. You don’t sell that many records by accident. And, with his first band The Housemartins and then The Beautiful South, Paul, 53, delivered a string of wonderfully catchy songs that mean he has seldom been out of the charts since the mid-1980s.
When Jacqui, 41, joined The Beautiful South in 1994 as the replacement for vocalist Briana Corrigan, the band hit the big time with a series of chart topping albums and a huge stadium tour. Both admit, however, that their latest incarnation is a much more relaxed affair. It nearly didn’t happen at all.
Jacqui left the band in 2000 to look after her son who had been diagnosed autistic and the pair lost touch. Paul continued with The Beautiful South for another seven years before embarking on a solo career and Jacqui returned to her “normal life” in St Helens, Merseyside.
She says: “My friends used to joke that I could go to the front of queues. And I’d be, like, what am I going to say, ‘Do you know who I used to be? Do you know who I was?’ I never thought I would be a singer in the first place. When I left it was easy to get back to a normal life. And there was a very important thing going on in my home life too, which I had to be there for.
They played our song on the radio this morning and my mum phoned me screaming she was so excited
“I did a lot of volunteer work and then I worked in schools. I never had a problem adapting.” A decade passed before Paul, originally from Sheffield, made contact. “I always felt that if I got back in touch with her it would sound a bit like, ‘Hey, look what I’m doing’, you know? But then a friend told me Jacqui was on Facebook.
“So, one night I messaged her. And I remember when she answered, tears welled up in my eyes. I was so pleased to be back in touch.” The result was a “tentative” album as a duo, What Have We Become, which reached No 3 in the charts last year – and the realisation that, whatever else they may do, they work best when they are together.
The Beautiful South - A Little Time
On the surface Wisdom, Laughter And Lines sounds typically Beautiful South – full of catchy melodies, clever lyrics and his ’n’ hers harmonising – but it also holds a deeper pull. As the title suggests, there is a thoughtful, more reflective side to the record, too. “The Beautiful South became this chart-making machine,” says Paul.
“It was like a speeding train. And when we got back together this time I explained to Jacqui that it wasn’t a speeding train any more, it was more like a broken-down old bus ambling through the countryside.” Which is not to say there isn’t an edge to the album. Paul has combined an everyman blokishness with some of the most cutting lyrics over the past three decades.
By his own admission The Housemartins were “immersed in anger” about the miners’ strike and Margaret Thatcher and The Beautiful South continued to blend singalong melodies with a stridently Left-wing stance. He’s still politically outspoken, claiming, “I’m happy to say I’m further to the Left than Jeremy Corbyn”, but he also admits that age has mellowed him.
He says: “I can write songs now that are more observing all sorts rather than taking a political line. That’s about being older and wiser.” If the music is reminiscent of their multi-platinum-selling former band, the pair behind it couldn’t behave less like stars if they tried. It’s not just about keeping it real with cheese sarnies and halves of lager, it is obvious in the very way they talk.
Ask Jacqui about long-term plans and she laughs. “Long term? I’m just enjoying it for what it is. They played our song on the radio this morning and my mum phoned me screaming she was so excited.” It is a refreshingly endearing attitude for any singer to have, let alone the member of a band that achieved 15 million sales.
Paul says: “I always say I can picture 100,000 records because that’s basically Wembley. After that I get confused. Fifteen million? That’s just mind-boggling.” He pauses. “You know what my problem is? I’ve got no ambition for growth. I’m a plodder. All I’ve ever really wanted is to be able to make another album. It’s just turned out well, that’s all.”
* Wisdom, Laughter And Lines is out now on Virgin/EMI. Get tour tickets at www.gigsandtours.com
