10th November 2006 - The Beautiful South at The Fillmore, San Francisco (1/2) By Simon Robinson

(1/2), (2/2).

Hull's finest still sound Beautiful

As The Beautiful South file onto stage they are greeted with rapture. Launching straight into catchy new album opener The Rose Of My Cologne the appreciative throng sways to the Country guitar riff. With the opening bars of second number Old Red Eyes is Back the audience really bursts into life. From that moment on we're all putty in the hands of Heaton et al., singing along as Hull's finest roll back the years and treat us to a near two-hour greatest hits compendium.

What's amazing about the atmosphere and enthusiasm of both band and audience is that this isn't some preach-to-the-converted homecoming affair. We aren't oop North, or even in Britain. In fact, we are some 6,000 miles west of Hull, at The Fillmore; San Francisco's famous live music venue. Here, ostensibly to promote new album Superbi, the official line is that TBS have never really cracked the US market. Could've fooled me.

True, a quick straw-poll among my music aficionado buddies confirmed that TBS don't enjoy anything like the cult-like status that the The Housemartins achieved Stateside in their late 80s heyday. TBS's record label didn't even bother promoting their albums in the US until Carry On UP The Charts did exactly that back home, and stayed there to help establish Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray as the UK's most successful songwriting duo since that other famous twosome from the other end of the M62.

But TBS remain a relatively unknown act in the US; strange considering their lyrics cover a broader range of universal themes than did the 'Martins' angst-ridden rebellion against Thatcher's Britain. Maybe they're just too brim full of Northern quirkiness to make a solid audience connection on this side of the pond. But new album Superbi - the band's eleventh -- may challenge this notion.

It's perhaps the alt.country album of which Heaton has always conceived. It's also a welcome return after a six year hiatus (since the last studio album, 2000's lukewarmly received Painting It Red), punctuated only by 2004's iffy covers record Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs, which took quirkiness to new heights with reworkings of such pop music gems as S-Club 7's Don't Stop Moving. Americana, by way of East Yorkshire, here we come.

Given the strong American country influence evident on Superbi, perhaps this is why TBS have decided to embark on a nation-wide tour that stretches from New York to San Diego, and many major cities in between. But aggressive self-promotion is not TBS's stock in trade. We're here to promote our new album so I suppose I should mention it ... there, it's been mentioned, offers Heaton apologetically.

One aspect of TBS's rabidly loyal fan base back home that holds true Stateside is their sheer diversity. Drunken, sweaty, middle aged blokes (and girls) are pogo-ing alongside uber-cool SanFran hipsters.

Continued..... Next Page (2/2).

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