"THE HOTEL BAR WAS WELL-PLACED FOR WRITING
SONGS - THERE WAS A DESK NEXT TO IT..."
Paul Heaton confirms our suspicions about the conception of the new Beautiful South album...
You’re reportedly in the habit of sticking little bits of sellotape in funny places on aeroplanes, so if you get on the same plane in the future, you’ll know if you’ve been on it. Is that true?
"Yeah. People never comment on it, cos I do it very discreetly. Do I do the same thing on trains? No, I don’t. I should do. The thing is, I haven’t actually found any bits of sellotape on planes I’ve got on - but I’m looking forward to it happening. It’s bound to."
You and Dave Rotheray wrote the Miaow LP by going to Spain for two weeks. Did you leave the country to write this one?
"We did, yeah. I wrote the lyrics in Holland, in Eindhoven and Rotterdam and The Hague. I was sort of... err... moving house and not comfortable in Hull at the time, and I fancied going somewhere where they could speak English, in case I got desperate. I was commuting: leaving Monday morning and coming back Friday night. I liked Eindhoven best. The hotel bar was very well-placed for writing songs - there was a desk next to it.
"After that, me and Dave went to Gran Canaria, the same resort as last time, and spent two weeks there and did one a day. We ended up with 12. We didn’t go out as much as last time, cos we weren’t very well. That’s probably why the album sounds a bit low".
Was it your intention to write an LP full of sad ballads?
"They weren’t meant to sound quite as melancholy as they do, but erm... yeah, the lyrics were already there, from my time in Holland. And they were pretty sad. I was summarising a year-behind-me sort of thing. I’m fine now. I’m not going to go into one of those "I got it all out of my system onto vinyl and CD" things, but it’s part of history now".
Dave Hemingway, the South-er you taunt for being "short", is more audible on this record than Miaow. Was he getting uppity?
"No, no. Some of the songs suited his voice better than mine. I didn’t actually realise I did all the lead vocals on Miaow at the time (laughs), but it got pointed out in angry letters. We were besieged by letters from small people.
Do you think the air of unrelenting misery on this LP could put off some of your fans?
"No! Misery sells (laughs). I don’t know... it depends how self-pitying we sound. I think self-pity sounds awful. But there’s not much on here. I think people’ll like it".
Looking back now, were you shocked at how many the Greatest Hits sold?
"We were surprised when it went to Number One. Everything after that, when it gets down to Tory figures, doesn’t affect us. You know one in 15 households, one in every five dog kennels - it doesn’t mean anything".
Where did all the money go?
"I’m bringing it down to spend on a drink for you that’ll keep you quiet. It’s all in a big case! I’ve tended to spend the money on things I liked when I was young. I still haven’t got a car, and I’ve still got the same house. But I do have a mobile phone. And I took five of me friends round Spain for three weeks. I’m not going to move into a big house until I have kids and that".
Is your version of "Some Might Say" ever going to come out?
"I don’t know. We did it when we supported REM in Huddersfield, cos we were substituting Oasis. It was for all their fans. I’m not sure whether it was recorded".
How many marks out of ten would you give Noel as a songwriter?
"Mmmmm... seven. Yeah, seven.