Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott release their fifth studio album ‘N.K-Pop’ today (7th October ‘22) on EMI.
‘N.K-Pop’ adds another clutch of deliciously barbed pop songs to Heaton’s Ivor award winning song collection. The album has been chosen as ‘Album Of The Week’ on BBC Radio 2 next week and Paul & Jacqui will be performing on Later With Jools Holland on 15th October.
Paul & Jacqui’s previous album ‘Manchester Calling’ went straight to No 1 on its release in March ’20.
Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott have announced an autumn UK tour playing some of the biggest shows they have ever done as a duo. They have also announced a tour of Ireland in early 2023. The full list of forthcoming shows is:
NOVEMBER
26 SWANSEA Arena
27 LLANDUDNO Cymru Arena SOLD OUT
28 BLACKPOOL Opera House SOLD OUT
DECEMBER
1 BRIDLINGTON Spa SOLD OUT
2 GLASGOW OVO Hydro
3 STOCKTON Globe SOLD OUT
5 PORTSMOUTH Guildhall SOLD OUT
6 NOTTINGHAM Motorpoint Arena
8 BIRMINGHAM Resorts World Arena
9 SHEFFIELD Utilita Arena
10 MANCHESTER AO Arena
17 LONDON The O2
FEBRUARY 2023
17 DUBLIN 3 Arena
18 GALWAY Leisureland
19 BALLYBOFEY Balor Arts Centre
21 DERRY Millenium Forum
22 BELFAST SSE Arena
24 KILLARNEY Gleneagle INEC Arena
Tickets for Paul & Jacqui’s UK tour are available here: http://gigst.rs/PHJA22; the Irish shows are here: https://www.ticketmaster.ie/
Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott have already made two songs available from ‘N.K-Pop’ – the poignant ballad ‘Still’, which was described as ‘beautifully heartbreaking’ by Dawn French, and the gospel pop song ‘Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two).
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’. 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 (the same group that gave us Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook). The Housemartins released two albums ‘London 0 Hull 4’ (’86) and ‘The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death’ (’87). In ’88 Heaton formed The Beautiful South, who released 10 hugely successful albums – ‘Welcome To The Beautiful South’ (’89), Choke (’90), ‘0898 Beautiful South’ (’92), ‘Miaow’ (’94), ‘Blue Is The Colour’ (’96), ‘Quench’ (’98), ‘Painting It Red’ (2000), ‘Gaze’ (’03), ‘Golddiggas, Headnodders & Pholk Songs’ (’04) and ‘Superbi’ (’06). 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 so that fans could have a drink on him.
