Dave Hemingway, former vocalist with The Beautiful South, is back with his new group Sunbirds.
The musician, who was a member of The Housemartins alongside Paul Heaton before the duo formed the chart-topping group, had been touring his catalogue of material for the best part of a decade following their split, but in 2016 stepped away from the stage altogether.
However, it wasn’t long before a new opportunity presented itself, with collaborator Phil Barton offering up a selection of new tracks that eventually became the first Sunbirds album, ‘Cool To Be Kind’ (2020).
“Phil bought some songs for me and I thought, ‘Yeah, these are worth pursuing.’ In a way, it sort of ignited my spark again,” Dave tells Retro Pop’s January 2023 edition. “It was very much us doing it ourselves and paying for it – not being attached to a record company. Even down to the artwork, we did it all ourselves.
“You don’t know how these things are going to go; you don’t know if there’s gonna be a decent album or not ‘til you’ve finished and it’s out there. But I’m very pleased with it.”
The Beautiful South split in 2008 but Dave and Alison Wheeler continued performing their hits as The South for eight years, before the act became stale.
“It became, to me, almost like a tribute band – a tribute to ourselves,” he chuckles, “which was fine, but after a while I lost my drive and energy for doing it, and I think that showed. It wasn’t fair on the people in the band and it wasn’t fair on the people who came to see the gigs.
“So I decided, ‘OK, that’s it. I’ve had a fantastic run, I’ve been involved in some great bands, so unless something else comes along that’s it for me’.”
Having debuted during the pandemic, Sunbirds spent much of 2022 on stage, but behind the scenes they’ve been crafting material for their next long-player, featuring the new single Every Road.
“It’s not going to be radically different,” Dave insists of the new project, “hopefully it’s got the same feel in terms of the care that goes into the songs. So if we can record them as well as they deserve to be recorded, I think we can make a good album. That’s what we’re going to try and do.”
One thing that has changed for Dave, however, is his drinking habits, with the singer revealing he’s cut down his alcohol intake after realising it was becoming out of control.
“I stopped drinking properly about five months ago,” he reflects, “but I’m not in one of those camps that say, ‘No, I’m never going to drink again.’ What I’m gonna do is drink sensibly, have the odd beer now and again. But I wasn’t drinking sensibly; I was knocking back wine like there was no tomorrow. You think it doesn’t affect you, but obviously it does, and I was letting not just myself down, but other people down as well.
“It was pressure, it was anxiety, worry… I had a lot of problems – drinking wasn’t the only problem – but that’s the first one that people saw and it didn’t do me any favours at all. I’m totally aware of that now, but at the time you don’t see it.
“I’ve come up on the other side and this time around it’ll be the sober healthy me up there on stage,” he smiles. “I can give this band what it deserves, which is my full attention, trying one hundred per cent, and hopefully that will show. Plus, I’ve got my enthusiasm back, which is very important.”
With Sunbirds to keep him going, 2023 is looking like a busy year for Dave and the band, but 15 years since their separation, could The Beautiful South ever reunite – even for a one-off gig?
“I’d have to say no to that,” he insists. “I understand why people ask that and some bands can do that, but I’m pretty sure that that won’t ever happen with us. We’re happy with things as they are and people have moved on.
“Paul and Jacqui [Abbott] are doing fantastically well at the moment and we don’t need to go back. We had a great time as a band and it was brilliant, but that was then and this is now.”
Every Road, the lead single from Sunbirds’ forthcoming second studio album, is available now.
Read the full interview in the January 2023 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
