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Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott.
FORMER Housemartin and member of The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton, will once again team up with Jacqui Abbott to perform in the Gleneagle INEC Arena on February 24, 2023.
Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott’s new album ‘N.K-Pop’ is released on Friday, October 7 when tickets for the concert also go on sale.
Paul Heaton’s songwriting genius was recognised at the prestigious Ivor Awards 2022 where noted author/radio DJ Stuart Maconie presented him with a long overdue gong for ‘Outstanding Song Collection’.
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Heaton is one of the UK’s most successful songwriters with some 15 million album sales under his belt. He first came to prominence in the early 80s as front man of The Housemartins.
In ’88 Heaton formed The Beautiful South, who released 10 hugely successful albums. In 2001 Heaton took a break from The Beautiful South and released his first solo album ‘Fat Chance’.
The Beautiful South called it a day in 2007 citing ‘musical similarities’. Jacqui Abbott was lead vocalist in The Beautiful South from ’94 to 2000 and she sang many of their signature hits including ‘Rotterdam’, ‘Perfect 10’, ‘Don’t Marry Her’ and ‘Dream A Little Dream’.
Paul Heaton went on to release two further solo albums: ‘The Cross-Eyed Rambler’ (’08) and ‘Acid Country’ (’10). In 2011 Heaton wrote a musical called ‘The 8th’ based on the Seven Deadly Sins and asked Jacqui to sing one of the parts.
They have since released four acclaimed albums as a duo: ‘What Have We Become’ (’14), ‘Wisdom, Laughter and Lines’ (’15), ‘Crooked Calypso’ (’17) and ‘Manchester Calling’ (’20). In 2019 Paul released a career spanning compilation of his biggest hits entitled ‘The Last King Of Pop’.
2022 saw Heaton reach a significant birthday, which he celebrated in typically idiosyncratic style by putting £1,000 behind the bar of 60 carefully chosen pubs across the UK and Ireland, including Courtney’s Bar in Killarney, so that fans could have a drink on him.
They have already made two songs available from the new album – the poignant ballad ‘Still’ and the gospel pop song ‘Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two).
Paul & Jacqui’s previous album ‘Manchester Calling’ went straight to No 1 on its release in March ’20. Tickets for the Killarney gig will be available at 10am on this Friday, October 7 from Ticketmaster.
