INTERVIEW: The Beautiful South

- Rey Roldan

The Beautiful South has always been one of those bands that should be big, like Tuscadero, David Gray, and Moxy Fruvous. But being one band in a major label's pot of simmering acts can be a disheartening thing. Originally signed to Elektra at a time when they had to compete with such label-mate luminaries as The Sugarcubes, The Pixies, and The Cure, their brand of smooth provincial pop was no match for the sales figures and indie cred that those bands had. In fact, Elektra had to resort to promoting the band by referring heavily on their previous incarnation, the seminal and very much respected Housemartins, to stir any interest instead of letting the music speak for itself (much like Elektra is currently doing with ex-Galaxie 500 Dean Warham's band, Luna).

"At first, we tried to steer clear of any mention of The Housemartins", says ex-Housemartins (natch!) drummer and currently one of the Beautiful South vocalists (they have three) Dave Hemingway. "We hoped people would take us on our own merit, but [our origins] kept following us."

The comparisons are hard to escape especially with ex-Housemartins singer and another current Beautiful South vocalist Paul Heaton and his unmistakable high octave bluesy voice. "I've come to embrace [the Housemartins] questions, and now I can look fondly on the band, not like before."

Currently sporting a new label (Mercury) and a greatest hits package Carry On Up The Charts (reviewed in a February issue of Consumable), which is the third highest selling album in UK history (behind only Michael Jackson and Phil Collins), The Beautiful South are ready to kick in their assault on the US.

"We've always had a good hold of the US, especially with our tours, but the sales figures have never been the best," he explains. "It seemed as if [Elektra's radio promotions department] didn't know what to do with us. Hopefully Mercury's will be able to figure it out."

Musically, The Beautiful South are an odd pop band. Chock full of three part harmonies, a solid rhythm section, and an energetic brass section, their brand of music would seem to attract more of a mellow 70s fanbase that one that is very much steeped in crunchy guitars and brash atmospherics. But the main difference is the ironic content of the lyrics. Sometimes blacker than pitch but often with a humorous ironic twist, a normal track listing for a Beautiful South record can speak about spousal murder, masturbation, and shoplifting all the while skipping to an easy-listening pop beat. "I've never really thought about all the murders in our songs," laughs Hemingway. "I guess there really is a lot, ain't there?"

While Carry On Up The Charts tends to focus on the more semi-innocent love songs like "Sail This Ship Alone" ("they said that if I burned myself alive/ That you'd come running back"), a general overview of their full-length albums betrays a sinister underbelly of slayings, from the tell-tale heart-esque "Woman in the Wall" ("Well he was very rarely drunk but very rarely sober/ And he didn't think his problem was his drink/ But he only knew his problem when he knocked her over/ And when the rotting flesh began to stink") from their debut Welcome To The Beautiful South to the serial murders of a lover's family of 0898's "Something that You've Said" ("So if you walk into your house and she's cutting up your mother/ She's only trying to tell you that she loves you like no other").

Through the course of a full record, whole communities of characters are slayed, maimed, or are so emotionally wounded that they might as well be dead for all intents and purposes. "I guess you can say we're serial character killers," he laughs. "I guess you can say that I'm fascinated by serial killers, but I don't really follow them. Just recently, a couple in Gloucester [Fred West and his wife] were convicted of killing over ten people. However, he hanged himself before he went to trial, and now his wife is on trial for ten murders, even though the actual number is closer to thirteen."

A common thread along the Beautiful South discography is violence against women, namely wives and lovers. "I Should've Kept My Eyes Shut" from the album Choke follows a daughter who witnesses her father strangling her mother. The aforementioned "Woman in the Wall" has a husband kill off his wife and then proceed to bury her in the wall.

"We don't just kill women in our songs," he corrects. "We kill a lot of men too. I don't want people to think we're misogynists, because we're not. We are, in fact, feminists," he states unflinchingly. "One of the problems Briana [Corrigan, former female vocalist] had was the focus of the lyrics. She found offense with a number of our songs, and many times we've changed lyrics when we realized that she was right."

One of the last straws unfortunately was the catchy single "36D," from 0898 (which is the UK equivalent to a 1-900 sex line). With a refrain of "36D, so what?/ Is that all that you've got?", the song reeks of women-as-objects sentiment. "Briana took offense to the lyrics to that song, and she ended refusing to sing on that song," he replies. "But the misogyny of the song was not intended at all. She misunderstood the point of the song. And now looking back at it, I sometimes regret that the song was released at all."

Fortunately, Hemingway and band are sidestepping many controversial subjects these days and focusing more on La La Love songs. "The violence of the lyrics was reflective of Paul [Heaton]'s state of mind back then," Hemingway says. "For a while, Paul was writing very violent songs because he had a lot of pressure that he needed to release. But recently, he has been writing love songs. Lately, his domestic situation has been really nice, with his girlfriend and stuff."

So now instead of blood-spewing across lyrics sheets, there are titles such as "Prettiest Eyes" and "One Last Love Song," and a faithful cover of Harry Nilsson's number one hit of 1969 "Everybody's Talking." But it's not all shiny, happy love songs skipping to a smiley beat. Interspersed amongst the heart-pounding romance is the trademark Beautiful South black humor. "Paul's attitude and songwriting may change unexpectedly any minute," Hemingway warns.

Who knows, the next song title Paul scrawls across his songbook may just be "Everybody's Talking about Her One Last Prettiest Eye."