Paul Heaton interview

Lancashire Post

The Lancashire Post speaks to legendary singer-songwriter Paul Heaton of Housemartins and Beautiful South fame about playing in Lancashire, singing with Rianne Downey, and the importance of his music

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name's Jack Marshall, I'm a digital reporter with the Lancashire Post and recently

00:05I was covering BBC Radio 2 in the park in Preston and I got the chance to speak to legendary

00:11musician and artist who's been in a number of bands from the House Martins to the Beautiful

00:15South, Paul Heaton. Now he spoke about a number of things, he spoke about the kind of honour

00:21of playing in Preston at such a big event, his history of playing in countless venues

00:25across Lancashire and his kind of new musical team-up with new singers and performing with

00:32new people, so here's what he had to say.

00:34How do you find the whole experience of playing here in Preston today?

00:38Good, yeah, I mean obviously we're in the middle of a big field and as I can see from

00:45your feet it's muddy out there, but you know, fortunately for me there's always songs that

00:53seem to brighten people's days a little and I'm lucky to have those and so after a while,

01:00after maybe the first couple of songs, the weather matters less, should I say, doesn't

01:07it? I wouldn't say it doesn't matter. So I suppose my job is to just take them away

01:11from the weather for 30 minutes and make sure that they forget where they are, so to speak.

01:17But yeah, lovely, lovely.

01:19Excellent stuff. And what's it like being part of something like BBC Radio 2 in the

01:23back of a big event, kind of like a nice pleasure to be here?

01:26Yeah, it's a bit like Glastonbury in the sense that you don't know how big it is until you

01:33see it, if you know what I mean. Like Glastonbury, if you're not there and you're not performing,

01:37and particularly if you're not on the main stage, it sort of goes away in history and

01:42it just becomes a poster from the past, whilst if you're there on the day and if you're here

01:47today, you realise the big build-up, a lot of people are texting you saying, oh I didn't

01:51know you were on such and such a day. So yeah, it's an enormous pleasure and privilege obviously

02:00to be, I'm 62, and although I'm not the oldest artist here, I do feel as though it's foolish

02:07not to enjoy it, isn't it, at your age. I was talking to Shred 7 before and obviously

02:12they've got their second chance at it and they're really, really enjoying themselves.

02:17Same here with me.

02:18It is a lot of fun and it's also sort of gratifying knowing that they've not all come to see me,

02:27like maybe a few of them have, a few of them haven't, but they know my songs and they associate

02:33my songs with maybe things that happened in the past and most of them are sort of pleasantly

02:40surprised that they're seeing it. And I'd be the same, I might not know every Pet Shop

02:45Boys song, but if I was in the audience, I'd be like, bloody hell, they did this, they

02:49did that, you know. And I think that's one of the good things about playing in front

02:53of an audience who aren't totally yours, you can see them gradually come on site, which

02:58is nice, which is sort of worth it.

03:00It became clear at some point, I won't go into the details, but Jackie wasn't going

03:05to sing. And I always have my eye on artists, male, female bands, everything, I can constantly

03:12listen to. And I saw her doing something in lockdown, she did a cover of Rotterdam on

03:17YouTube, and I sort of clocked that. She was very young then, she was perhaps only 18,

03:2419 then, but she sounded young. And I thought, well, I'll give it a go and see if she's like

03:29to sing some of the songs, maybe come on for a couple. And then it just developed from

03:33there, now we've recorded an album with her and a few singers. I didn't want her to look,

03:37although today was different, I didn't want it to look, at least in terms of promotion

03:41and release, like, oh yeah, Jackie's gone, we've got this person in. But as it's gone

03:45on, she's become more and more available. She has got her own solo stuff to do, but

03:49she's been available, and we'll just have to take it from there. But she's brilliant,

03:53you know, and she's very confident. If she can sing the song, she'll say, I can do it.

03:58And if I say, Glastonbury in front of 100,000 people, yep, like that. And it's not arrogance,

04:03it's having that, that's my opportunity, I'm going to take it, you know.

04:07I've been to Atkinson's Ground to watch Stockport County, Preston. Yeah, do you know when I

04:13actually said it out loud, I suddenly had a, have you got a place called the Guildhall

04:17in Preston? I've got a feeling I've played there at some point, and I've sort of opened

04:23my, but generally, I don't think, we've certainly not played more than once. I like Lancashire,

04:28I like all parts of the world. You know, like, yeah, I deliberately wound people up by mentioning

04:37Blackburn, and Burnley, and Blackpool, because I knew, and I was going to make a reference

04:43to the empty stand at the back, you know, in the rain, and say, is that Deepdale? But

04:48I thought, don't push it too far. But, yeah, I mean, I like playing everywhere, and weirdly

04:55enough, the Beautiful Self always play, we always play, was it St George's Hall in Blackburn?

04:59King George's Hall. King George's Hall, sorry. Which is a great venue. And Lancashire, and

05:05also parts around Manchester, like Warrington have got a lovely power hall, a lot of them

05:10have got really nice places, which we kept on coming back to. So yeah, and I think through

05:16years of probably touring from the house markets through to Beautiful Self to now,

05:21we've definitely got a connection with northern counties, without a doubt. So yes, yeah.

05:28I suppose if you've had a hit, and you've had a few hits, what I've found is people

05:33don't necessarily connect me to the same hits, weirdly enough. But, yeah, if you've had those

05:38on radio, and people have bought them at the time, and they are timeless, because I listen

05:45to radio, and I just think, you know, when I hear an old song, oh, isn't that nice to

05:50hear, you know, sometimes. I listen to new stuff and old stuff, but, yeah, I can't help

05:55that they're timeless. That's sort of been a stamp put on them. And they're also no longer

06:02my songs, if you know what I mean. They're sort of a gift. It starts off as your little

06:08baby, and you release it as a single, and if it becomes very, very big, it's no longer

06:13my songs, which I like. And that's why I don't like using my songs in adverts, because

06:17I've sold it to people once, and I don't want to sell it again. It's theirs, not mine, and

06:22I'm not going to cheapen it, or cheapen any of those memories.

06:24Yeah, I see what you mean, yeah.

06:26Which is, I think a little bit, yeah, and it's yours now, so I'm not going to do anything

06:31with it other than...

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