The Beautiful South were an enormously successful British band. Formed in Hull in 1988 by ex-Housemartins singer Paul Heaton and drummer Dave Hemingway, The Beautiful South completed their line-up with the arrival of guitarist David Rotheray, bassist Sean Welch and drummer David Stead. Hemingway abandoned the drums to become co-frontman with Heaton and Dave Rotheray became Paul’s songwriting partner. Many of their classic songs also featured a female co-vocalist.

Their sound was subtle and sophisticated, sometimes soul influenced jazz-pop, sometimes piano based ballad. They combined dark twisted lyrics with beautiful melodies and harmonies. In their near 20 year run they had an astonishing 34 hit singles including ‘A Little Time’, ‘Song For Whoever’, ‘Perfect 10’, ‘Rotterdam’, ‘Don't Marry Her’, ‘You Keep It All In’, ‘Old Red Eyes is Back’ and many others. They had 13 hit albums, 4 of which held the number one spot. Their singles compilation album ‘Carry On Up The Charts’ (1994) sold over 2.5 million copies in the UK, legendarily, one in every seven households had one.

They split up in 2007 due to ‘musical similarities’ having sold nearly 7 million albums worldwide.