CityLife

Paul Heaton @ Academy 2

THE crowd shout: "Hea-ton, Hea-ton!" and you would be forgiven for thinking that a Liam Gallagher-alike was stepping onto the stage.

For many at the Academy on Friday night, this ex-Beautiful South/Housemartin front man is a demigod.
An unassuming figure, standing like Roy Cropper at a nightclub, donning a zipped-up jacket on a boiling hot night steps onto the stage, humble at the applause, yet keen to showcase his new solo album, The Cross Eyed Rambler which is out on Monday.

Heaton could have stuck to the magic Beautiful South formula of ironic lyrics, catchy choruses, chipped in sarcastically by a female counterpart.

Humour

But instead, he has crafted an album which explores contemporary issues but with enough trademark humour to stop it becoming a whinge-fest.
The stripped back sound of this 'boy done good' solo album is tailor-made for the live gig, and Paul really does give it some welly, sounding much stronger vocally than he does on record.
When he performs new single Mermaids And Slaves, he jokes that if everyone downloads it or buys it from a shop, they could "get it to 100."

But many of the audience have clearly been to his MySpace page as they sing along to the lyrics, regardless.
Crowd-pleaser

I particularly like Everything Is Everything because it is Grumpy Old Men meets Billy Bragg, as Heaton bemoans the fact that "the thin are getting thinner and the big are getting bigger."

The result is a real crowd-pleaser but never a Daily Mail reader's anthem, thankfully.
Most of the fans stand dancing or simply staring in awe at how close they are to their hero. But the odd few have clearly taken the lyrics to Happy Hour literally and talk loudly throughout the gig, whilst drunkenly swaying to semi-acknowledge they are at a gig.
Two men next to me hug and repeat their drunken mantra of "I love you man" during the brilliant God Bless Texas, oblivious that Heaton is bravely selling them new wares.

It's a real shame that they were obviously hankering for the material of old, when Paul has an album full of songs as classy as this.

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Click here to read a review of the LP.