Song:You Keep It All In
Album:The Best Of The Beautiful South: Carry On Up The Charts
Like Paul Heaton's previous group The Housemartins, The Beautiful South were very successful in England but had limited success in the US. You Keep It All In was probably their best known song in the US. It was never clear why Heaton broke up The Housemartins in 1988 but he inmmediately started The Beautiful South with Housemartins drummer Dave Hemingway as co-lead vocalist. Bassist Sean Welch was a Housemartins roadie. Guitarist Dave Rotheray was with The Velvetones and drummer Dave Stead was with Vicious Circle. Singer Briana Corrigan was in The Anthill Runaways. Heaton and Rotheray wrote all the songs together. It seems that Heaton was looking to match his working class viewpoint with a more adult oriented R & B influenced sound and that's what Rotheray provided. Like The Housemartins, The Beautiful South were on Go! Discs. Their 1989 debut Welcome to the Beautiful South was produced by recording engineer Mike Hedges. The album reached #2 on the British charts and went platinum. The first single Song For Whoever reached #2 on the British charts and the second single You Keep It All In reached #8 but it actually got airplay in the US College market and reached #19 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Like a lot of Heaton's songs, it's a jaunty little number with cynical lyrics about abuse. Subsequent albums and singles didn't do as well in England until this comp was released in 1994 and topped the British album charts. It's actually their best selling album and a good intro to their music. Briana Corrigan left in 1992 because she wasn't impressed with some of Heaton's songs and was replaced by Jacqui Abbot. Corrigan released a solo album in 1996. Abbot left in 2000 and was replaced by Alison Wheeler. The Beautiful South split up in 2007 and Hemingway, Stead & Wheeler formed The New Beautiful South which is now called The South. Heaton released a solo album and Rotheray leads the band Homespun. The Beatiful South are worth checking out if you missed out on them back in the 90s. Here's the video for You Keep It All In by The Beautiful South.
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