Paul Heaton Returns to Utilita Arena Newcastle to Celebrate Brand-New Album
Paul Heaton has today announced a huge October/November UK tour including a show at Utilita Arena Newcastle on Thursday 29 th October 2026. Paul will be performing songs from throughout his career including classic tracks by The Beautiful South and The Housemartins. Special guests on all dates will be Lightning Seeds.
Paul Heaton will release a brand new album ‘Jenius’ on 21st August ‘26 featuring new single ‘Favourite Kind Of Idiot’ (out now). Produced by legendary producer Ian Broudie of Lightning Seeds and recorded at Blueprint Studios in Manchester, ‘Jenius’ features 15 new original songs, performed by Paul and his band + his regular live vocalist Rianne Downey.
Heaton is one of the UK’s most successful songwriters, with five No 1 albums and some 15 million album sales under his belt. He first came to prominence in the early 80s as front man of The Housemartins (the same group that gave us Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook). The Housemartins released two albums ‘London 0 Hull 4’ (’86) and ‘The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death’ (’87). In ’88 Heaton formed The Beautiful South, who released 10 hugely successful albums - ‘Welcome To The Beautiful South’ (’89), Choke (’90), ‘0898 Beautiful South’ (’92), ‘Miaow’ (’94), ‘Blue Is The Colour’ (’96), ‘Quench’ (’98), ‘Painting It Red’ (2000), ‘Gaze’ (’03), ‘Golddiggas, Headnodders & Pholk Songs’ (’04) and ‘Superbi’ (’06).
In 2001 Heaton took a break from The Beautiful South and released his first solo album ‘Fat Chance’. The Beautiful South called it a day in 2007 citing ‘musical similarities’. Paul Heaton went on to release two further solo albums: ‘The Cross-Eyed Rambler’ (’08) and ‘Acid Country’ (’10). In 2011 Heaton wrote a musical called ‘The 8 th ’ based on the Seven Deadly Sins and asked former Beautiful South singer Jacqui Abbott to perform in it. Paul and Jacqui went on to record five acclaimed albums as a duo: ‘What Have We Become’ (’14), ‘Wisdom, Laughter and Lines’ (’15), ‘Crooked Calypso’ (’17), ‘Manchester Calling’ (’20) and ‘N.K-Pop’ (’22). 2024’s ‘The Mighty Several’ saw Paul back in solo mode (with various guest singers). In 2019 Paul released a career spanning compilation of his biggest hits entitled ‘The Last King Of Pop’.
Tickets for Paul Heaton at Utilita Arena Newcastle on Thursday 29th October 2026 are on sale from Friday 5th June at 9:30AM from www.utilitaarena.co.uk.
Image: Paul Heaton 2026 (C) Gus Gregory
