Cool things dress in black: Johnny Cash, Ninjas, Marks & Spencers Christmas Temps, and now Paul Heaton. He has that haircut too, and against the dingy backdrop of the Rescue Rooms' stage he looks like a Stealth Northerner. If he was going to kill anyone with two fingers I would nominate Peter and The Wolf's drummer, her Effortless Indie annoyed me so much I plucked my chin hair in frustration.
Anyway, back to Paul. The Beautiful South Silvery Haired Saxophone Bloke-- was there, but in the crowd. Onstage, Heaton is joined by strangers; helpfully, they are just as motionless, wear pretty much the same clothes and exactly the same expressions as The Beautiful South. The songs, true to the band's Myspace category of all things, do have a rockabilly quality to them. The Kids These Days hops around like a Housemartins album track before changing tempo for no apparent reason, but She Rolled Her Own preserves Heaton's rhyming couplets at the expense of any real tune. Finally, and this is important, the pee joke in The Pub is not funny. Peeing in pubs in general is not funny, it is an art of timing and concentration.
The solo tunes should grow on me, I just hope they have a chance to. Of the people I spoke to, progressively drunk as I was, I do recall all of them chalked up five Beautiful South gigs or more, we were the hardcore. Can acts that start with a devoted minority move on to bigger things? Because in a sense Heaton is working backwards, we aren't a select few hiding a musical secret from the masses, we are the ones left after his Band of the People split. Rose tinted talk of reunions calls into question how far fans will truly support The Sound Of Paul Heaton, but as I say, the songs are nice enough. What else matters?
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