Sean Welch
FameRank: 4

"Sean Welch" was the bassist for The Beautiful South and previously roadie for The Housemartins.

During his childhood, he played in a number of school bands, but unlike many budding musicians he was dismissed for his lack of musical skill. By the time he was twenty years of age he was on the dole and wondered what to do with his life.

When he heard John Peel play "Flag Day" on the radio, he wrote to the Housemartins to ask them if they would play in Norfolk. Although his first reply said that they had never played there but hoped to, another reply shortly afterwards said that they would soon be playing in Norwich.

Welch often showed off his bass guitar/bass skills while working for the Housemartins, so it was no surprise that, when the Beautiful South was formed, he was one of the first to be asked to join.

Welch currently lives in Kingston upon Hull with partner, Lisa Hill.

More Sean Welch on Wikipedia.

He livened up the album. But we always do the same thing, really. It's not very interesting. That's why the more sarcastic and unusual songs stand out to people. But basically, we don't know how to make 'un-tuneful' music.

We don't feel or act like a hot-selling band. We lead simple lifestyles -- no yachts or anything like that. We just don't feel much different.

We've given up hope about being famous in the States. It doesn't matter to us, at this point. We can get by without it. We just never really worked that hard to make it in the States and I guess that's why we don't have a big following over there.

We hope the U.S. tour will introduce us to people who haven't heard of us, ... but we're not holding our breath that we'll really get a huge following. Mainly, we're just coming to take a nice vacation.

We enjoy playing music and being in each others' company. It's good fun. But the one thing we never discuss when we're together is the band itself or politics.