Born in Bromborough, Cheshire, on May 9, 1962, Paul Heaton grew up in Sheffield and Chipstead, Surrey, and took an interest in soccer before forming his first band, Tools Down, with one of his two brothers and two friends. After a trip through Europe, he settled in Hull, where he formed The Housemartins, a band that made its mark on the British indie rock scene in the 1980s with the albums London 0, Hull 4 (1986) and The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death (1987). His bass partner, Norman Cook, went on to fame as Fatboy Slim. A wryly humorous songwriter and composer, Paul Heaton survived the break-up of The Housemartins to form The Beautiful South, who recorded Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989) and nine other albums up to 2006, two of which reached number one. At the same time, the guitarist and singer embarked on a solo career under the name of his alter-ego Biscuit Boy with the album Fat Chance (2001), released the following year under his own name. After the break-up of The Beautiful South, he devoted himself to his music and continued his work with the albums The Cross Eyed Rambler (2008), Acid Country (2010), Paul Heaton Presents the 8th (2012). In 2013, he teamed up with one of The Beautiful South's vocalists, Jacqui Abbott. The duo recorded the album What Have We Become, which was released the following year and reached No. 3, followed by Wisdom, Laughter and Lines (2015, No. 4) and Crooked Calypso (2017, No. 2). 2015 saw the release of The Last King of Pop compilation, featuring tracks by Paul Heaton with The Housemartins, The Beautiful South and Jacqui Abbott. In 2019, the duo returned to the studio and recorded the album Manchester Calling, released early the following year.
