‘Singing live takes some beating’ – Belfast-born Beautiful South singer Briana Corrigan on return to live music – The Irish News

“Singing to people really takes a lot of beating, you know?” enthuses Briana Corrigan of her decision to return to live performance after over a decade away from the music scene.
“When it’s going well, it’s such an amazing feeling. These recent tours have re-affirmed to me that nothing comes close to the feeling of being in a room with people and experiencing performance and music together.
“So it’s been really fantastic – I’m so glad I did it.”
Nothing comes close to the feeling of being in a room with people and experiencing performance and music together
As you’re doubtless already aware, Briana Corrigan was the original Belfast-born female voice of The Beautiful South, singing back-up and duetting with ex-Housemartins band founders Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway on the group’s first three albums.
Welcome To The Beautiful South (1989), Choke (1990) – which I got on cassette for Christmas that year and subsequently played to death – and 0898 Beautiful South (1992) were all top five records which spawned top 10 singles like Song For Whoever, You Keep it All In and A Little Time, the latter topping the charts in October 1990: it remains the group’s only number one hit.
After leaving the band in 1993 due to disagreements over some of the band’s lyrical content – chiefly the single 36D, an ill-considered musical dig at ‘Page 3 girls’ that really hasn’t aged well – and the desire to write and perform her own songs, Corrigan eventually released her solo debut When My Arms Wrap You Round in 1996.
While it was recorded with Beautiful South producer Mike Hedges, the pop/folk sound of the album was a sonic sidestep away from her former outfit which showcased the singer’s distinctive vocals in a whole new way.
A single, Love Me Now, was released, and while this and its parent album were critically acclaimed, commercial success did not follow – not least thanks to a lack of record company promotion: 16 years would pass before her next record, 2012’s Redbird.
“I really didn’t want it to just be ‘The Beautiful South without Dave and Paul’, you know?” explains Dublin-based Corrigan (59) of how she approached her ill-fated solo debut, after which she stepped away from music altogether to concentrate on family matters.
“A lot of [record company] people just wanted that, to set you up with writers and all the rest of it.
“But I was like, ‘If I’m leaving such a brilliant band, I’m doing it to write my own stuff -otherwise, what is the point?‘.”
“I’m actually trying to get [When My Arms Wrap You Round] back off the record company so I can release it on vinyl.
“I’d really love to do that, because I’ve met a lot of love for that album on these tours, which has been amazing.”
Having returned to touring in 2023, Corrigan has indeed been feeling the love for her back catalogue alongside recent singles Sweet Songbird and The Young Dublin Rose, choice covers and Beautiful South classics.
You can find out exactly what’s on Briana’s current setlist when she performs with her guitar and cello trio at Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy on April 25 and Belfast’s Fitzroy Church on April 26.
“It’s been really good fun working with guitar and cello,” enthuses the singer-songwriter, who recently contributed guest vocals to the new single by Leeds pop punks Apollo Junction and is set to record a brand new album this summer.
“It’s been really good craic putting Beautiful South songs into that kind of frame. Revisiting those songs, you kind of remember just how good they are – and the musicians I work with really enjoy playing them.”
Having sung in the school choir at Dominican College in Portstewart, it was while Briana was studying Theatre and Creative Performing Arts at Northumbria University in Newcastle Upon Tyne that she joined her first band, a cowpunk outfit called The Anthill Runaways.
“Some of the music students were forming a band and they asked me to sing. I was delighted – the idea of being in a band had just appealed to me forever.
“I’d always kind of written songs, but that’s when I first started writing ‘to perform’. I was really into cowpunk, Lone Justice, Nancy Griffith, that kind of country vibe.
“I have a natural sort of break in my voice and I just kind of found myself leveraging that – completely unknowingly, to be honest – to get a sound.”
While the Anthills quickly gained a local following, creative tensions were already at play within their unusual (for the times) three girl, two boy line-up.
“It was really great, because we had three women in the band – me, the drummer and the bassist, and then the two lads.
“The lads just wanted to be cool indie stars, whereas I just wanted to be Maria McKee, but it meant we had some really interesting flavours in the music.
“I actually just found a demo cassette in the loft the other day – my first ever recording session.”
It wasn’t long until Briana’s distinctive vocals caught the ear of Jona Cox, head of A&R for Go! who was working on the as-yet unnamed new musical project from ex-Housemartins Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway.
“He played our demo to Paul, who really liked my voice and said ‘come for an interview’ – which was really just us sitting in the pub with pints,” she explains of being ‘headhunted’ for The Beautiful South.
Soon, Briana was invited to join the recording sessions that would become Welcome To The Beautiful South, which were taking place in Milan.
“It was definitely a baptism of fire,” she recalls.
“My only recording experience at that point had been making that cassette in some tiny little studio in Newcastle – suddenly, I was in Milan in working with one of the biggest producers in the world, Mike Hedges.
“We didn’t know about imposter syndrome then, but I definitely had it.”
A few hits soon put paid to that: Briana became a full-time member in 1990 and within a year had helped the band to the top of the charts with A Little Time, also starring in the accompanying Brit Award-winning music video.
“I was the only one who in the band who enjoyed doing the videos,” she laughs.
“The lads would be like, ‘Oh videos are so s***‘, but I loved them. And I think they still stand-up today – although I’m not sure about the shellsuits in We Are Each Other.”
As well as being her hometown, Belfast is also where Briana decided to launch her return to live music in 2023.
“My very first gig back was at The MAC in Belfast,” she recalls of the show which helped her to decide to start touring again.
“That was amazing – it sold out with four weeks to go. I was like, ‘What?!‘. It was such a great gig for me, and quite emotional. Lots of my family came and stuff.
“I’m really looking forward to playing Fitzroy Church, it’s supposed to be really an amazing venue.
“Playing in churches is a beautiful thing, especially with these instruments.”
Insert your own line about the ‘voice of an angel’ here.
Briana Corrigan trio, April 25, Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy / April 26, Fitzroy Church Belfast. Tickets via musiccapital.org (Belfast) and seamusheaneyhome.com (Bellaghy).
Come see us!! pic.twitter.com/TbusCogEST
Full coverage, half price. For expert insights, analysis and commentary, subscribe to The Irish News today. Get full access for just £7.49/month. Offer ends 28th April.
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
@2025 The Irish News Ltd

source