Paul Heaton

Paul David Heaton (born 9 May 1962) is an English singer-songwriter.

Paul David Heaton was born in Bromborough, Cheshire (now Merseyside) on 9 May 1962 to parents Doris and Horace Heaton.

Heaton has two older brothers Mark Heaton and Adrian Heaton.

At the age of four his family relocated to Sheffield.

While living in Sheffield, Heaton became interested in football, and while his elder brothers elected to watch Sheffield Wednesday, Heaton chose to support Sheffield United.

After moving to Sheffield, Heaton's father took a job in management and Heaton described his childhood as being "fairly middle class, although you wouldn't know it given the schools I went to and the friends I had".

After a childhood in Sheffield, Heaton moved to Chipstead, Surrey during his adolescent years, an early life Heaton described as "bred in Sheffield, fed in Surrey".

Whilst in Surrey he, with his brother Adrian, formed their first band "Tools Down" with friends John Box and Stuart Mair.

Heaton, then billing himself as P.d. Heaton, formed the Housemartins in the early 1980s.

This band featured Stan Cullimore on guitar, Ted Key on bass and Hugh Whitaker on drums.

Shortly afterwards Key left the band and was replaced with Norman Cook.

The Housemartins released a number of singles and two studio albums, London 0 Hull 4 and The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death.

After leaving Surrey, Heaton spent time hitch-hiking around Europe before moving to Hull in 1983, where he formed the Housemartins.

Heaton also lived in Leeds for a year.

Throughout his childhood, Heaton's main interest was football, and he regularly attended Sheffield United games.

Heaton played over 700 competitive games at junior and amateur level, often insisting on driving back from gigs on a Friday or Saturday night to attend his Saturday and Sunday matches.

He was the frontman of the Housemartins, who had success with the singles "Happy Hour" and the UK number one "Caravan of Love" in 1986 before disbanding in 1988.

Their most popular hit was an a cappella cover version of "Caravan of Love" (originally by Isley-Jasper-Isley), which reached number 1 on 16 December 1986, their only number 1 hit in the UK.

For the second album Hugh Whitaker was replaced with Dave Hemingway on drums.

Shortly afterwards the Housemartins split up.

The Housemartins' lyrics were a mixture of Marxist politics and Christianity (the inner sleeve of London 0 Hull 4 contained the mantra "Take Jesus – Take Marx – Take Hope").

In 1988, Heaton formed the Beautiful South.

The initial lineup consisted of Heaton, Dave Rotheray on lead guitar, former Housemartins roadie Sean Welch on bass, David Stead on drums and Housemartins former drummer Dave Hemingway, now in the role of joint lead singer and frontman.

The writing partnership of Heaton and Rotheray proved very successful.

The Beautiful South released two top ten singles, "Song for Whoever" and "You Keep It All In"; the latter featured Irish singer Briana Corrigan on vocals.

He then formed The Beautiful South, whose debut single and album were released in 1989 to commercial success.

In 1989, the band released an album, Welcome to the Beautiful South.

They had a series of hits throughout the 1990s, including the number-one single "A Little Time".

The band's biggest success to date is the single "A Little Time", released in 1990; it reached number 1 on the UK chart.

The band went on to release eight more albums, including two (1996's Blue Is the Colour and 1998's Quench) that reached the number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, as well as releasing the best-of compilation Carry on up the Charts, which also reached number 1 and achieved platinum status, before the band split up.

In 2001, Heaton released a solo album using the persona of Biscuit Boy (a.k.a. Crackerman).

This double name, including the parenthetical a.k.a., was the official project name on all early releases.

They disbanded in 2007.

After a band meeting on 30 January 2007, they decided to split.

They released a statement on 31 January, in which their reasons for splitting were "musical similarities".

On an interview with BBC Breakfast in July 2008, Heaton clarified this by saying that the Beautiful South had made similar-sounding albums for the past ten years.

He subsequently pursued a solo career, which produced three albums, and in 2014 he released What Have We Become?, a collaboration with former Beautiful South vocalist Jacqui Abbott.

As of 2022, he has recorded four more albums with her: Wisdom, Laughter and Lines in 2015, Crooked Calypso in 2017, Manchester Calling in 2020 and N.K-Pop in 2022.

British newspaper The Guardian has described Heaton as "one of our finest songwriters: his music reveals an exuberant ear for melody, his lyrics a keen eye and a brilliant wit".

AllMusic said: "The warm, mellifluous voice of Paul Heaton often masks the jagged satirical content of his lyrics."