Singer Alison Wheeler recalls bringing baby on tour in Derry with The Beautiful South
English pop band ‘The South’ are set to play in Derry during their Irish tour in September.
‘The South’, a band made up of former members of English pop band, ‘The Beautiful South’, will play in Derry this September at the Millennium Forum.
‘The Beautiful South’ broke up in 2007 and ‘The South’ later formed in 2009.
Singer Alison Wheeler joined ‘The Beautiful South’ in 2002, a huge challenge given the bands popularity.
Speaking to the Derry News, she said: “I was definitely nervous, obviously Briana and Jacqui are massive singers in their own right and have their own style of singing.
“ I naturally lean more towards Jacqui’s style of singing anyway, I often get called Jacqui when I'm singing, people just don't know the difference really, some people don't realise that Jacqui's no longer in the band.
“All the big hits tended to have females either centre as the main vocalist or shared duet, so it was really nerve-wracking.
“I was overwhelmed with how welcoming everybody was in the initial stages as well as some moments catching me out.
“I remember going on stage at the Manchester Apollo and the warmth and the excitement was so much that I just forgot my words to Rotterdam.”
Alison has fond memories of playing in Derry with ‘The Beautiful South’.
“One of my fond memories of touring with the band was doing a tour of Ireland and it was a bit of a blur.
“I was relatively new to having my first child, so I was a bit of shell-shocked from that.
“My mum and dad followed behind in a car with the baby while I was on the tour bus with the lads, and we toured around for a couple of weeks in Ireland. It was a lovely time.”
“It's like being on a school trip. When you're young and you're excited, that's what we feel like, going back to Derry and going back to do some dates in Ireland this September. We're all of the right age where we enjoy each other's company, and we all like a Guinness, so I'm sure the economy is going to do quite well out of us when we're there in September.
“It's a celebration of the back catalogue, so we're there to celebrate ‘The Beautiful South’, so it's all the big hits. We want to get people singing if they want to sing and dancing if they want to dance.
“For people who've not been to see us before, I ask them to go with an open mind because I can guarantee they leave the gig saying, ‘I had no idea I knew so many songs’.”
The South will play at the Millennium Forum on September 12th, they also have dates in Cork, Dublin and Belfast.