Saturday, May 28, 2011

Manchester International Festival 2011: Paul Heaton confesses all

Former Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton has written one of the longest pop songs ever, about the 8th deadly sin

It's like doing a really massive jigsaw," explains former Housemartins and Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton of his ambitious new project, the 8th. What began as Heaton's attempt to write the longest pop song in history ? the current record stands at 69 minutes ? has blossomed into a elaborate stage show involving a cast of singers, an orchestra and a preacher-style narrator. Just don't call it an opera. "There's not going to be any acting," states Heaton, firmly.

Cheshire-born Heaton might be playing with people's expectations when it comes to song length, but in terms of content, he's sticking to what he knows best: social commentary with a strong moral compass. The 8th plays out in a downtrodden, unnamed American city. "Usually in most rough areas, unholy alliances are formed between different people, maybe between a prostitute and a pimp, or a drug dealer and a drug user," says Heaton of the backdrop to the piece. Into this iniquitous scenario is dangled a new, thoroughly modern sin ? the 8th deadly one.

As to the precise nature of this sin, Heaton remains tight-lipped. What he can tell us is that the 8th is a story of multiple betrayals, all presided over by the gravelly-voiced narrator, played by Reg E Cathey from The Wire. Playwright Che Walker was drafted in late last year to write the narrator's script. Handed the song's many sections by Heaton, he found that they were, "More thematically linked than dramatically linked ? My job was to try and weave something together." Inspired by Heaton's "extraordinary" collection of recordings of black American preachers, Walker got to work on crafting the narrative structure. "The most challenging thing was coming up with a story that could hold the song, because usually it's the other way around ? you think about the story, you create the characters and then you add the songs. But it's Paul's baby, so I had to get inside his head."

Signed up to sing the sins alongside Heaton are Kenny Anderson of King Creosote, Cherry Ghost's Simon Aldred, UK soulster Wayne Gidden, and Heaton's former Beautiful South sparring partner Jacqui Abbott, who'll be coming out of musical retirement especially for the project. Heaton's tactic for convincing people to appear in the 8th, and on the accompanying album, was simple. "We'd just get them to the studio ? our studio's above a pub ? and ply them with drink."

Heaton was keen to break new ground with the music for the 8th , which he's written with his former Beautiful South co-writer Dave Rotheray and Manchester-based producer Jonny Lexus. Employing a blend of live instrumentation and sampled beats, the opening section combines gospel and hip-hop elements, before moving into a nu-soul segment for which Heaton specifically asked Lexus to help make him sound like R&B star Maxwell. "It goes all over the place really," he says. "I didn't want it to just sound like a Paul Heaton record."

With stage projections representing the deadly sins designed by a range of Manchester artists, including Tash Willcocks, Stanley Chow and Glyn White (see his depiction of lust, opposite), the 8th is shaping up to be much more than your regular gig. "I'm really keen for it not to be a case of, 'Let's go to the bar and have a drink before we sit down'", says Heaton. "I'd rather people came in, sat down and waited!"


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/may/28/paul-heaton-music-project

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