To think The Beautiful South...

[RuudVanWrinkleBreath]

were...bloody amazing!?

AIBU to think this band might be the most underrated band in the UK...EVER!?

I have just blasted out their greatest hits whilst wrapping presents and had a nostalgic sing-along. So many wonderfully written songs, great singers too. Criminally underrated in my opinion.

AIBU?

"I love you from the bottom of my pencil case...". Ten words that completely sum up early teen crushes. It is up there as one of my favourite song opening lyrics. I saw them in Bridlington in the 90s. I've seen many, many bands and that might well be in my top 10 favourite gigs.

Paul Heaton still tours - I saw him at Greenwich 02 last year.

Lol i saw them in the late 80s at brixton and they walked off for some stroppy reason. went right off them. :(

So glad to see other people hate them too!

They were wonderful. But I also LOVED the Housemartins. His VOICE.

Oh I love them! Grew up with my mum listening to them and I just carried on into adulthood. Amongst some of the most played on my playlist.

I'm afraid you would have to pay me a very very large sum of money before I voluntarily listened to anything by that shower.

My impressions are entirely based on the songs they wrote that enough numpties bought to put them in the charts. I did not like what I heard. Why on earth would you seek out even more stuff by a band you detest?

Yes this. Eeeew.

Perfect 10 is shite, but the rest of these objections are cobblers.

The high pitch of the vocals is a lot of the appeal for me, as a high-pitched singer myself, whose voice breaks just where most pop songs require a belt (Wuthering Heights is my karaoke number).

I answered a question on a repeat of Counterpoint yesterday with Housemartins and Paul Gambaccini said The Beautiful South. I said to myself why did I come up with the Housemartins, what would I know. Well now I do know! MN to the not much needed rescue again 😍

I’m not sure I suggested you seek out more stuff? I’m simply stating that their lyrics are far from ‘twee’ as other posters have claimed in many of their songs.

You can listen to what you want, funnily enough I don’t really give a shit what your opinion on this band is.

Paul Heaton was great at Glastonbury. Rianne Downey a perfect replacement for Jacqui. And for those worried about twee lyrics listen to Woman in the Wall.
At last it seemed that he was really winning
And he felt that he had some sort of grip
But all of his new life was sent a-spinning
When the rotting wall began to drip

They're what I call weed-pop. Them, Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera ... urgh, make me shudder, the jingly-jangly lot of 'em.

I was about to mention Woman in the Wall. Brianna who predated Jacqui was amazing.

My wedding song was Prettiest Eyes (DH can't dance - we sort of shuffled about).

Beautiful South aren't jingle jangle pop ?

Beautiful south and Texas. Both bands I always enjoy when stumbling across them, yet rarely seek them out.
They are great

I loved them until Don't marry her. I hate that song.
I loved The House martins and my bf at the time (I was 14) dumped me because of my Housemartins obsession. Apparently.

They are to me! It's clear from this thread everyone hears them very differently ...

Paul Heaton is brilliant….I’ve seen them him so times at Glastonbury and this year saw him at Kendal calling with his new (ish) female vocalist ….who was great too

Paul Heaton's lyrics are anything but twee- quite the opposite! I think he deliberately sings his songs in what at first listen might be a twee sounding song in order to juxtapose the challenging topics he writes about. Those catchy poppy tunes which often sound like love songs really aren't.

I love Woman in the Wall!

I saw them live many years ago and they were indeed terrible , definitely not the worst I’ve seen but not good

I dumped my boyfriend (partly) because he loved the Housemartins!

Agree with this. I just can't stand them. Beyond irritating.

I absolutely can’t stand them

Not going to quibble, she says quibbling, but the instrumentation, production values and beat are all wrong for jingle jangle.