Paul Heaton

Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriting genius Paul Heaton will be performing songs from throughout his career including classic tracks by The Beautiful South and The Housemartins, with the help of guest singer Rianne Downey.

One of the UK’s most successful songwriters, with five No.1 albums and some 15 million album sales under his belt, the Wirral-born, "Sheffield-bred, Surrey-fed", Manchester-living pop icon first came to prominence in the early 80s as front man of Hull band, The Housemartins, who topped the charts with "Caravan of Love" and reached no.3 with "Happy Hour" among other hits.

In 1998, he would go on to form The Beautiful South with Housemartins drummer Dave Hemmingway and roadie Sean Welch, while bandmate Norman Cook would go on to restablish himself as electronic dance DJ Fatboy Slim.

The Beautiful South would score ten very successful albums and the Top 10 hits, "Perfect 10", "Don't Marry Her", "Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)", "Song for Whoever", "You Keep It All In", and the chart-topping "A Little Time," before calling it a day in 2007 citing "musical similarities".

Paul Heaton would release three solo albums and a musical for the 2011 Manchester International Festival, called "The 8th". Based on the Seven Deadly Sins, it featured Beautiful South singer Jacqui Abbott with whom he would reunite as a duo, scoring five Top 5 albums, including the chart-topping "Manchester Calling" and "N.K-Pop".