T Party Express: No More Tears

It was a dark and stormy weekend, but the T Party Express is chugging full steam ahead toward the light at the end of the tunnel. If you have a little time, we have a little comic relief.

The Beautiful South was a pop British outfit that formed on the cusp of the 1990s from the Housemartins, a 1980s new wave band. TBS featured three distinctive singing talents – Paul Heaton, Dave Hemingway and Brianna Corrigan – who shared rotating lead vocals. Their lyrics were informed by a common sense of self-mocking irony and biting wit. In the modern era, the British music charts have always been more diverse and tolerant of multiple genres than ours in America and TBS enjoyed their share of 1990s singles success.

My Book from 1990 purports to tell the singer's life story with vocals by Heaton and Corrigan. Can these lyrics really be autobiographical?

This is my life and this is how it reads
For every chapter, a thousand memories
A murder, a mystery where everybody bleeds
A fantasy, a thriller with romance and disease

Diary entry 9th of May '62
We've had some ugly babies but none were quite like you
Diary entry '62 end of May
It looks as if the nose and chin are definitely here to stay
They're here to stay, they're here to stay

If my lips start smiling and my knees start a-knocking
I'm a failure
You are, you are
And if I seem half-hearted, it's because I'm broken hearted
And I'm a failure
You are, you are, you are (I am)
You are, you are, you are (I am)

This is my life and this is how it reads
A documentary that nobody believes
Albert Steptoe in 'Gone with the Breeze'
Mother played by Peter Beardsley, father by John Cleese

Diary entry '68 end of the year
A cardboard Apollo 6 has given the all clear
11th December '68 Captain's log
Proposed trip to Mars is cancelled due to fog
It's due to fog, it's due to fog

If my lips start smiling and my knees start a-knocking
I'm a failure
You are, you are
And if I seem half-hearted, it's because I'm broken hearted
And I'm a failure
You are, you are, you are (I am)
You are, you are, you are (I am)

This is the play, it was I who wrote the script
Terry meets June in 'Tales from the Crypt'
It was going to be a film but the camera person slipped
They later found him scolding a banana

Diary entry 10th of April '89
The world is going mad but me I'm doing fine
I'm doing fine

Back to bed, back to reality
Just fine.

A Little Time, also from 1990 and their only #1 hit, documents the breakdown of a marriage from each spouse's conflicting perspective as Hemingway and Corrigan split the vocals.



Previous stops:

Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars (2005).

This Woman's Work by Kate Bush (1989).

Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division (1980).

Reptile by the Church (1988).

Accidents Will Happen by Elvis Costello (1979).

Tears Run Rings by Marc Almond (1987).

Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen (1984).

Love Lies Bleeding by Elton John (1973).

Last Time Forever by Squeeze (1985).

Conjure Me by the Afghan Whigs (1992).

Debonair by the Afghan Whigs (1993).

Hallelujah by Jason Castro (2009).

Total Recall by the Sound (1985).

Fly by Jars of Clay (2002).

Train in Vain by the Clash (1980).

It's My Life by Talk Talk (1984).