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The Housemartins

<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: #f9f9f9;">The Housemartins:The Housemartins
From left: Dave Hemingway, Paul Heaton, Norman Cook, Stan Cullimore</td></tr><tr><th>Origin</th><td>The Housemartins:England Hull, England</td></tr><tr><th>Years active</th><td>1983 – 1988</td></tr><tr><th>Genres</th><td>Indie rock, College rock</td></tr><tr><th>Labels</th><td>Go! Discs</td></tr><tr><th>Members</th><td>Paul Heaton (vocals)
Stan Cullimore (guitar)
Norman Cook (bass)
Dave Hemingway (drums)</td></tr><tr><th>Past members</th><td>Ted Key (bass)
Chris Lang (drums)
Hugh Whitaker (drums)</td></tr>

The Housemartins

The Housemartins were an English alternative rock band that was active in the 1980s.


Contents

Career

The band was formed in 1983 by Paul Heaton (vocals), Stan Cullimore (guitar), Ted Key (bass) and Chris Lang (drums). The band's membership changed quite a lot over the years. Ted Key was replaced by Norman Cook — the future Fatboy Slim — and drummer Chris Lang was replaced by Hugh Whitaker, former drummer with The Gargoyles, who in turn was replaced with Dave Hemingway.

The band often referred to themselves as "the 4th best band in Hull," referring to Kingston upon Hull, the city in England where the band formed in 1983. (The three bands that were "better" were Red Guitars, Everything but the Girl, and The Gargoyles.)

In 1986, the band broke through with the single "Happy Hour", which reached No.3 in the UK charts helped by a claymation animated pop promo of a type that was in vogue at the time. At the end of the same year, they narrowly missed out on the Christmas No.1 single with a cover version of Isley Jasper Isley's "Caravan of Love", when it was knocked off the top spot by Jackie Wilson's "Reet Petite" on 23 December.

They released three albums: London 0 Hull 4, The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, and the greatest hits Now That's What I Call Quite Good.

The Housemartins lyrics were an odd mixture of Marxist politics and born-again Christianity, reflecting Paul Heaton's beliefs at the time.

The band split in 1988, but the members have since remained friends and worked on each other's projects. Norman Cook has enjoyed significant success with both Beats International and then as Fatboy Slim, while Heaton, Hemingway and roadie Sean Welch formed The Beautiful South. Despite repeated requests from fans, they have never reformed.

In 1993, former drummer Hugh Whitaker was convicted of assault after attacking his business partner James Hewitt with an axe. Whitaker has since been released from prison and now resides in Leeds, where he occasionally drums with local band Percy.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Compilations

Videography

(does not include "live" appearances on TV programmes)

Categories


English musical groups | Indie rock groups | Peel Sessions artists

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