N.K Pop [Amazon Signed Exclusive]

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Heaton and Abbott have already previewed the forthcoming ‘N.K-Pop’ with the singles “Still” and “Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two)”. With the former song, the pair aimed to “raise awareness for folk who have lost a child, whether by miscarriage, stillbirth or in infancy”. I’m really inspired by everyday people,” he says. “I know it sounds corny, but I’m just naturally inquisitive about people. I like stopping and talking, especially to older people, because they often won’t know who I am. I find it interesting sharing stories. No, absolutely never. I would say that’s because I'm writing... not all the time, but I just wander around and ideas come into my head and I write them down, so I'm fortunate in that way. I would perhaps argue there's been a fallow period where the tunes haven't been brilliant, or perhaps have been weakly produced and haven't blossomed properly, like maybe Acid Country – the tunes were all right, but we never worked properly on trying to get them to sound like singles. Maybe also [2008 LP] The Cross Eyed Rambler. But there hasn’t been a period when it's gone dry, so to speak.”

The colours in his music are as vibrant and multi-hued as they were three decades ago and, despite confessing that sometimes he “bends down for something, but then can’t get up”, he seems genuinely unfazed by his newly sexagenarian status. Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott will release their fifth studio album ‘N.K-Pop’ on EMI on 30th September 2022. ‘N.K-Pop’ adds another clutch of deliciously barbed pop songs to Heaton’s Ivor award winning song collection. Paul & Jacqui’s previous album ‘Manchester Calling’ went straight to No 1 on its release in March ’20. Well, it's the first time I've been given any award for songwriting at all. My first words when I got up to accept it were ‘I could have died, it's so late!’ And it's sort of true – I'd just turned 60 – so it meant a lot and it was really nice to experience it with the people I'm close to. In my Beautiful South days I would probably have just taken it in with a pinch of salt and said, ‘Thanks a lot, ta,’ and walked off, so I'm glad they waited because I appreciated it more. Same as having a No.1 whenever it was, 2020? That felt special as well.”

About

The song There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved contains the album’s thesis: that what we want most can be rendered impossible by our own inaction. Anywhere But Here charts the perils of miscommunication amid love, desire, and loss.

I was amazingly surprised, but I had dipped my toe in the water on The 8th, a musical I wrote about the seven deadly sins and [Abbott] sang a little bit on that. And when she sang live, the whole room lit up. Clearly, people had really missed and loved her voice, and that's still the case. They do like me – I do get paranoid that they only like Jacqui! But she's got a voice that connects with people.” I didn’t want to make it particularly about any stage in the birth or after – or even an infant, I just wanted to write about loss.” Heaton That was Womad in 1989. We were quite a weird set of people and that was the first gig we played where we didn’t smash our gear up, so three of us rolled an enormous, 10ft wheel on stage during Pere Ubu’s set. They were screaming: “What are you doing?” We went “It’s part of the show!” Then suddenly we were ushered off [laughter]. I hadn’t liked them when they supported the Clash in 1978, so it was silent revenge.He’s owned a pub, The Kings Arms in Salford, and for his 50 th birthday underwent a pub tour, cycling 2,500 miles over 40 days. “I suppose it’s microcosm of society, isn’t it? A pub is a weird mix of characters that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. And people are quite frank in the pub. I like that.” We started off with about 21, 22 songs for this album,” Heaton tells us, “but some of them didn’t sound right or they’ve been ignored because somebody in the band doesn’t like them, and then they drop away and you’re left with your favourites.” Abbott After we did The 8th [a Heaton show turned solo album with guest singers], Aaron Knight invited me to sing with him in Edinburgh, which was a lovely experience. I wasn’t in a covers band when I was younger. I kinda got prompted to sing by a friend when I was a bit drunk. When I joined the Beautiful South they told me not to worry, that we were doing a low-key warmup gig to just 650 people. I was like: “What? I’ve not even performed in front of my family!”