Coming South once more

17 August 2006

Beautiful South

AMID the young whippersnappers and just a couple of hours after Lily Allen, the original modern musical rentagob Paul Heaton, and his band The Beautiful South, will take to the V stage on Sunday.

But while Lily is just kicking off her career both as a singer and a mouthpiece, The Beautiful South are celebrating their 10th album in some 17 years at the top of the tree.

Now, ahead of their appearance in the JJB/Puma Arena at V, they are also celebrating that 10th album, Superbi, being acclaimed as one of the finest of their career.

And, thanks to new producer Ian Stanley, it boasts a couple of new directions for the Beautiful South, including some steel guitars that give it an alternative country, rather than bedroom soul, feel at times.

It is as near to rock as The Beautiful South have ever been, although Heaton said: "I'm still not rock. Although I have got a bit of a semi beard... but you have to be careful with that. The real painful part of people's career is when they don the leather jacket and get the motorbike."

Female vocalist Alison Wheeler is looking forward to playing outdoors in the dry.

For, while they will be playing in a tent, the weather forecast looks good - a far cry from their recent tour of UK forests, which saw them playing almost every show in the pouring rain.

She said: "It was great, actually. It sort of brought everyone together. We had them all dancing g around their picnic boxes in the rain.