637 Hello The Beautiful South - Song for Whoever

Chart  entered :  3  June  1989

Chart  peak : 2

Number  of  hits :  32

Now  I  could  have  introduced  some  of  these  guys  a  lot  earlier  but  as  this  would  have  required  two  extra  posts  for  Paul  Heaton  and  Dave  Hemingway  and  I've  already  covered  the  Housemartins  here , I  thought  that  was  unnecessary.

Singer  Paul  was  in  The  Housemartins  from  the  start. Dave  joined  in  1987  after  their  first  album,  replacing  future  axe  maniac  Hugh  Whittaker. When  the  band  split  in  early  1988,  he  decided  to  stick  with  Paul  in  his  new  venture  though  as  a  co-vocalist  rather  than  a  drummer. New  guitarist  Dave  Rotheray  had  been  in  a  couple  of  local  bands  with  Dave  H  before. Drummer  Dave  Stead  had  been  in  Luddites  who  put  out  a  couple  of   ordinary  Goth  rock  singles  "Doppelganger"  and  "Altered  States"  in  the  mid-eighties. He  was  also  in  Vicious  Circle whose  recorded  output  was  restricted  to  a  single  track  on  an  EP  in  1986, "This  Is  Pantomime"  which  has  more  of  a  Killing  Joke  vibe. Completing  the  line  up  was  Sean  Welch  on  bass  who'd  previously  been  a  roadie  for  the  Housemartins. Any  of  these  latter  three  guys  could  walk  into  your  local  and  you'd  be  none  the  wiser.

The  omens  were  not  particularly  propitious  as  the  Housemartins'  farewell  single  "Always  Something  There  To  Remind  Me" had  been  a  conspicuous  flop, turning  tail  at  number  35  in  April  1988. Though  far  from  their  best, you  would  still  have  expected  it  to  go  Top  20. So  it  remained  to  be  seen  whether  their  frontman's  new  outfit  would  fly.

"Song  For  Whoever"  was  their  first  single. Paul  wrote  the  lyrics  as  an  attack  on  songwriters  who  use  girls'  first  names  in  songs  to  help  them  sell  records. It's  hard  to  know  who  exactly  he  had  in  mind  ; after  all , if  you  accepted  the  proposition  that  it  was  a  bad  thing  you'd  have  to  make  so  many  exceptions  it  would  soon  be  obvious  that  it  was  worthless. To  drive  the  point  home  about  music  biz  cynicism,  the  song's  video  had  execs  drooling  over  a  blancmange  in  a  laboured  reference  to  a  wonderful  KitKat  advert  of  the  time  which  had  a  Cowell-esque  Svengali   telling  a  young  outfit, "You  can't  sing, you  can't  play, you  look  awful.....You'll  go  a  long  way ."

However  Paul  and  Dave  R   wrap  the  thing  up  in  a  sugar  coating  with  Dave  H  singing  sweetly  over  some  gorgeous  piano work  by  unofficial  member  Guy  Butcher. Paul  sings  the  litany  of  names  in  the  chorus  and  harmonises  at  all  the  right  points.  It's  very  easy  to  sing  along  to  even  if  you're  not  convinced  by  the  argument  and  it's  no  real  surprise  it  did  so  well.