Paul Heaton, the rambler returns

2:13pm Friday 18th July 2008

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POP legend Paul Heaton, 46, is perhaps best known for his involvement with shortlived ‘80s alternative rock group the Housemartins and, in more recent years, the Beautiful South, formed from the Housemartins’ ashes in 1988.

Penning hits like Rotterdam, Perfect 10 and One Last Love Song, the Beautiful South provided a wry, slightly cynical look at life and love, scoring a number one single in 1990 and three number one albums.

After 19 years together, the band split in 2007, famously citing “musical similarities” as the reason and Heaton decided to take a year out, steering clear of anything more musical than “sitting around downloading songs.”

“I started doing DJ-ing for a community radio station in Manchester and did that for about eight to 10 months,” he says.

“I spent close to a year without doing anything musically.”

But with new record The Cross-Eyed Rambler out in July and a raft of tour dates throughout the summer, his solo career looks set to start in earnest.

His first solo endeavour, an album entitled Fat Chance, was in fact back in 2002, but Heaton saw it as simply “testing the waters”.

“I quite enjoyed Fat Chance but I didn’t consider it part of my solo career,” he says. And as for the new album?

“I didn’t want it to sound like my thirteenth or fourteenth studio album,” he says, referring to the record’s stripped-back sound.

“I wanted it to sound like something earlier - most people who have heard it would say it sounds more like the Housemartins than the Beautiful South.”

Steering away from the polished sound of his most recent work, the new album is “pretty cheap and pretty raw” by comparison, says Heaton.

“If there was a criticism of the Beautiful South, it was that we were a bit too smooth and glossed over - we spent too long meddling,” he explains.

And now, without the overdubs and without the arena dates, Heaton’s new incarnation as a solo artist will begin with several smaller gigs around the country, working up to the likes of Oxygen, T in the Park and, of course, V Festival.

“I’m always optimistic about festivals because I think people tend to give you the benefit of the doubt early on in the day,” he says.

“It’s when the bigger artists get on that people get a bit impatient.”

And what about the other venues?

“These smaller venues are quite pleasing - you can hear what people are shouting out at you,” says Heaton.

“You get more feedback than you do elsewhere.”

Mermaids and Slaves was the first single to be taken from The Cross-Eyed Rambler.

“It’s a difficult song to describe,” Heaton says, enigmatically.

“It’s a promise to a woman of hedonism.”

The Cross-Eyed Rambler is out now.