Last Orders at the Liars’ Bar

Last Orders at the Liar's Bar Book Cover

Mike Pattenden’s Last Orders at the Liars’ Bar (The Official Story of The Beautiful South) is much more the biography of Paul Heaton than the title (although perhaps not the cover picture) suggests. He’s the architect and driving force behind both The Housemartins and The Beautiful South. Last Orders charts the rise and break-up of the former and the enduring presence of the latter on the album charts – all the way to the release of their seventh album, Quench.

Pattenden does seem to get under the band and the talent behind the world’s Perfect Ten, Rotterdam, and Song For Whoever. In places it does seem a little (although not overly) sycophantic, but it reads well and provides interesting detail on life behind the scenes, and in the pub, with The Beautiful South. Reading it a couple of years after it was published will leave you wanting more for you will know where the band went next – they definitely did not stop recording – which is a little disappointing although hardly the fault of the author.

On this day…