Abbott proves why she’s such a good counterpoint to Heaton – her voice perfectly meshes with him, and duets like You’re Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two) demonstrate their musical chemistry perfectly. Who Built The Pyramids is another highlight for Abbot, a big duet about unlikely romances. Baby It’s Cold Inside may derive its title from the rather problematic Christmas song from the 1940s but is actually an incisive takedown of sexual predators and serial harassers. Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbottrelease their fifth studio album ‘N.K-Pop’today (7 thOctober ‘22) on EMI. ‘N.K-Pop’adds another clutch of deliciously barbed pop songs to Heaton’s Ivor award winning song collection. The album has been chosen as ‘Album Of The Week’ on BBC Radio 2 next week and Paul & Jacquiwill be performing on Later With Jools Holland on 15 th October.

Paul Heaton - Wikipedia Paul Heaton - Wikipedia

Closing in on four full decades since his first hit, Heaton remains the go-to chronicler of the Everyman condition, but let’s not underplay Abbott’s vital contribution as both equal-billing foil and relatable conduit of female perspectives in these songs. Plays not just for today, but for weeks, months and years to come.READ MORE: Paul Heaton on buying everyone a pint and why “the Royal Family is the one thing worth privatising” Do you think musicians and bands are more reticent about being overtly political nowadays than they were in the 80s and 90s? HilsLM He continued: “It has to be good to talk to people outside, because otherwise that loss can overwhelm you. I can’t say that’s wrong, because grief has strange ways of shaping and defining you. As a song, Still had to be quiet, meditative, and simple in it’s arrangement, to hopefully reflect and understand those emotions.” N.K-Pop adds another clutch of deliciously barbed pop songs to Heaton’s Ivor award winning song collection.

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott: ‘As we can see from the Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott: ‘As we can see from the

Too Much For One is another example of a great conversational/argument songs between yourself and Jacqui. How would you define the chemistry the two of you have? 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. In 1989, the band released an album, Welcome to the Beautiful South. The band's biggest success to date is the single "A Little Time", released in 1990; it reached number 1 on the UK chart. Jacqui, have you had the opportunity to perform other people’s songs outside your partnership with Paul, and if not is that something you’d consider? AlanCambourne Paul Heaton sits comfortably in a roll call of literate pop writers to emerge in the 80s, alongside such articulate wordsmiths as Lloyd Cole, Roddy Frame and Paddy McAloon. What sets him apart from those contemporaries is prolonged commercial success: a remarkable run of 16 albums to make the Top 10, with The Housemartins, The Beautiful South and, since 2014, in tandem with Jacqui Abbott.Heaton At school everyone started drinking and smoking and I always said I’d wait till I was older. I’d write it all down: start smoking aged 28, take drugs aged 29, start driving at 55. All sorts of mad things. I smoked for 15 years then got bored of it, but gradually I had to scrap the list because I didn’t want to die. John Murphy of musicOMH found that "While much of N.K. Pop is firmly in the tradition of radio-friendly pop, it's the lyrics that give these songs their extra dimension", concluding that "There are songs on N.K. Pop that stand squarely alongside some of Heaton's best" and that the "famous fire of his shows no sign of being extinguished". [3] Reviewing the album for Record Collector, Terry Staunton opined that there is "wry humour throughout" the album and that "Heaton remains the go-to chronicler of the Everyman condition" with Abbott providing "a vital contribution as both equal-billing foil and relatable conduit of female perspectives in these songs". [7]

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott - N.K Pop - Vinyl LP Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott - N.K Pop - Vinyl LP

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". [7] 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. On Sunday 29 June 2014 they appeared live on BBC Two at Glastonbury Festival performing acoustic versions of second single "Moulding of a Fool" and a cover version of Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton's " Islands in the Stream". During the summer of 2014 Paul and Jacqui performed at a series of festivals across the UK and Ireland including Glastonbury Festival, Latitude Festival, V Festival and Festival N°6. Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbotthave already made two songs available from ‘ N.K-Pop’– the poignant ballad ‘Still’, which was described as ‘ beautifully heartbreaking’ by Dawn French, and the gospel pop song ‘Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two). I once saw the Beautiful South support Pere Ubu on Morecambe Bay. Any chance of playing live on sand again? LeeBirch

Barton, Laura (6 June 2012). "Happy hour again: Paul Heaton tours UK pubs on his bike". The Guardian . Retrieved 31 August 2014.