PULSE - Music and more, with Mark Woodhouse

THE BEAUTIFUL South have outgrown their bedsit land roots and can now boast that one in every seven households owns a copy of their greatest hits album, Carry On Up The Charts.

Although you probably wouldn't pick them out from a crowd, Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray are now officially the most successful British songwriting partnership since Lennon and McCartney. But if they are high up in the unit-shifting stakes, they are still an angry young band, judging by their lyrics.

Along with mega success comes the inevitable move to stadium gigs - hence next year's tour of arenas like Nynex, Wembley and the Albert Hall.

And - shock, horror - the most down-to-earth band in the world will have to resort to video screens to bring their performance to the masses.

"It's either use these or do a lot of smaller venues," the band's 'third' singer Dave Hemingway told us. Blackburn's King George's Hall is one of the more intimate venues they would play more often if they had the time.

Dave admits the recent success of Hull's finest export has been a little difficult to take on board.

"It's always a surprise when the records sell," he said. "You can never take things for granted because it's an ever-changing audience." "A lot of our success is down to Paul. He's a very underrated songwriter and he comes up with some very strong material."

America has so far resisted the Beautiful South charm but Dave doesn't put this down to the band's typically English, idiosyncratic lyrics.

"The trouble with America is that there's such a wide range of radio stations and charts that they don't know where to pigeon hole us. I don't even think the last album was released over there."

The last single, Rotterdam, written by Paul Heaton in - surprise, surprise - Rotterdam, highlights the vocal talent of Jacqui Abbott who was plucked from working in a supermarket to join the band.

Dave said: "Paul saw her at a party in St Helens and a year and a half later when we were looking for a new singer he remembered her and that was it. We didn't even bother with auditions. She was stacking shelves in a supermarket at the time.

"She's a real find, there's no doubt about that. When Paul heard her something must have stuck. It was lucky for all concerned. She has done really well, especially since she had never sung in public before."

The current album Blue Is The Colour captures the band's melancholy, reflective side. "At the time Paul was going through a bad patch and it is a downbeat album," said Dave, whose own musical faves include Elvis Costello and Squeeze.

"That's not to say the next album will be like that. "

The band share the profits of their success equally but don't aspire to the showbiz lifestyle.

"Paul still lives in the same house in Hull he has had since 1983," Dave said.

However, with success has come the inevitable media intrusion, including a "made up" story about Paul and a girl which came to light just before the Blackburn gig.

"They are scumbags," said Dave of the gutter press. "They don't consider what effect they are having on people's lives."

Politics and social observation are something The Beautiful South are known for and it's a good job they all share the same left-wing views.

Dave said: "It would be good to see a Socialist Labour government but New Labour is really Old Tory. There's a lot of injustice around but I could go on and on about it and bore you to tears. I'm not a big fan of religion either. . ."

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