Public Servant Lifestyle

The Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton goes it alone for his solo debut.

Fat Chance by Paul Heaton

It’s that moment when your dad removes the stabilisers from your bike, and you wobble off into the distance. It’s the day you start coming home from school on your own or learn to tread water without swallowing the swimming pool. It’s the time when you finally cut life’s apron strings and go it alone.

Paul Heaton has been writing hits and selling albums in their millions since the mid-Eighties, when he emerged straight outta Hull, with The Housemartins - the band that spawned Norman 'Fatboy Slim' Cook, The real Sounds of Africa and, of course, the chart-topping outfit The Beautiful South.

Heaton’s second group subsequently became a national institution, a northern soul revue band, whose pithy kitchen sink dramas subsequently gripped the nation by the short and curlies for over a decade. Now, at 39, after 16 years in the music business, Paul Heaton has side-stepped a mid-life crisis and written his first solo album, Fat Chance.

Previously available on a strictly limited-edition basis, last year, under the moniker 'Biscuit Boy', the album Fat Chance, will now be released under the name Paul Heaton. Due to huge public demand, Paul will be doing a series of solo shows in the UK in July. A single entitled The Perfect Couple precedes the album release.

Biscuit Boy

“I am Biscuit Boy,” he declares. “I am full of sugar. But I am good for you.”

Fat Chance though is no mere snack, it’s an eleven course banquet, a big-hearted expression of one man’s fears, dreams and prejudices wrapped up in rich melodies and presented with a clean, modern edge. No, he hasn’t gone all Fatboy Slim, but the songs have a looseness not usually associated with his regular bandmates.

We chat to the man Heaton about his solo record - and life away from the Beautiful South

Q: So why the late solo run into the penalty box?

A: “I’d been writing lyrics, and I noticed some of them were becoming a bit more individual, so I started to separate them out from ones for the band and ones for me,” he says. “I ended up with enough for a solo album so I thought it was time to have a shot at it.”

Q: So was the template Robbie or Smokey?

A: “Dusty (Springfield) actually. There’s no megalomaniacal plan for world domination, but there’s a suggestion that you get taken more seriously if you’re solo and it’s your name that appears on the record like Elvis Costello or Van Morrison. It rings true to the blues. I don’t have an overwhelming desire to be treated differently, it’s about wanting a bit of respect maybe...The idea was to create something a bit rawer and more rootsy, sort of ‘this is what he sounds like without his pop clothes on’,” says Heaton, baring all.

Q: What was it like not having the comfort blanket of a band around him?

A: “It was worrying to begin with, because the scaffolding I had around me for all those years had been removed, but I enjoyed it in the end. There’s no one to blame really when you’re solo, no one you can point your finger at which is a bit disconcerting. All the fingers point back at you if something’s wrong.”

Q: So, Biscuit Boy, what kind of biscuit are you? A Jammy Dodger perhaps or maybe a Custard Cream?

A: “I’m the ones with orange and pink icing, you only find in family assortment tins. You have to make them last.”

Fat Chance began as a wish list of talents to collaborate with, that included Joe Strummer and Lionel Richie, but which dwindled rapidly, when none could meet the tight deadline. Strummer kindly suggested the duo of Martin Slattery and Scott Shields, currently his sidekicks in The Mescaleros. Slattery has featured in Black Grape’s line-up, and produced Catatonia, while Shields has worked with Johnny Marr.

The initial results of their collaboration were so encouraging, the line up became fully integrated into the project, as co-writers/players and producers, with The Beautiful South’s regular studio man Jon Kelly occupying the padded leather executive producer seat.

Recording took place in just four weeks at Townhouse, Olympic and Battery studios, contributing to the album’s relaxed, more spontaneous sound. Paul’s old mucker David Rotheray helped pen one number, the single Mitch, and The Beautiful South’s pianist Damon Butcher worked on two others (Last Day Blues and Man’s World).

Fresh female vocalists were invited on board and feature on three tracks in the shape of a folksy Zoe Johnston (Bent, Faithless), Sharon Eusebe (formerly of Eusebe, now solo) and Becky Byrne (currently keyboardist and backing singer with Catatonia). No L.A. songwriters or Vegas sessionmen were required.

Fat Chance sounds like a Paul Heaton solo album should. The songs bear his bold, soulful stamp, the lyrics still come dipped in salt and vinegar.

One bite of Heaton’s packet, and you’ll have to finish it off.

Fat Chance is out now on Mercury Records.

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