13 December 1986
My main takeaway from ‘Caravan Of Love’ at the time was the bit in the video where each of The Housemartins took down their hoods to reveal a crucifix shaved into their heads. Was this a thing now, or even allowed? Impressionable as I was, I didn’t have the nerve or inclination to try it myself.
Of all the ’80s acts you could dismiss as being singing haircuts, The Housemartins wouldn’t come to mind. However, my initial young impression speaks to how dull and edgeless this Isleys cover is. Clearly a pitch at a Christmas number one, though falling short in the UK, its a cappella arrangement no doubt had an ear to The Flying Pickets’ festive chart-topper ‘Only You’ but just doesn’t deliver the same variety or novelty. Paul Heaton is no more a soul singer than Mick Hucknall, so maybe we should be thankful his comparative lack of ego stops him totally spoiling this with any pseudo-soulful wailing. Heaton’s next band, The Beautiful South, will prove to be the off-licence, married-with-children older brother of Simply Red’s cocktail bar lothario act, and ‘a more tolerable Mick Hucknall’ is the epitome of faint praise. Shaving a crucifix into his head may well be the most memorable thing Paul Heaton ever did.
