Heaton pursued a solo career, which produced three albums, and in 2014 he released What Have We Become?, a collaboration with former Beautiful South vocalist Jacqui Abbott.

The British newspaper The Guardian described Heaton as "one of our finest songwriters: his music reveals an exuberant ear for melody, his lyrics a keen eye and a brilliant wit".

[1] AllMusic said: "The warm, mellifluous voice of Paul Heaton often masks the jagged satirical content of his lyrics.

[4] Whilst in Surrey he, with his brother Adrian, formed their first band "Tools Down" with friends John Box and Stuart Mair.

[7] After leaving Surrey, Heaton spent time hitch-hiking around Europe before moving to Hull in 1983, with his girlfriend Susan Lillywhite, and close friends Ray Barry (Trotsky)and Mathew Vincent, where he formed the Housemartins.

This band featured Stan Cullimore on guitar, Ted Key on bass and Hugh Whitaker on drums.

[13] The Housemartins' lyrics were a mixture of Marxist politics and Christianity (the inner sleeve of London 0 Hull 4 contained the mantra "Take Jesus – Take Marx – Take Hope").

The Beautiful South released two top ten singles, "Song for Whoever" and "You Keep It All In"; the latter featured Irish singer Briana Corrigan on vocals.

[16] On an interview with BBC Breakfast in July 2008, Heaton clarified this by saying that the Beautiful South had made similar-sounding albums for the past ten years.

[17] In 2011, the Manchester International Festival endorsed the writing by Heaton of an anthology of songs based on the 7 deadly sins, to be called The 8th.

The singers for the original piece were: Wayne Gidden, Aaron Wright, King Creosote, Simon Aldred, Cherry Ghost, Jacqui Abbott, Yvonne Shelton and Mike Greaves.

[19] Accompanying Heaton on the 2012 tour were Gareth Paisey of Los Campesinos!, Cherry Ghost, Wayne Gidden, Christian Madden of The Earlies, Yvonne Shelton, Mike Greaves, Aaron Wright, Simon Aldred, and Steve Menzies.

[20] Along with the live shows in July 2012, a recording of The 8th was released on a CD/DVD format, including tracks by Simon Aldred of Cherry Ghost, Aaron Wright, Mike Greaves, Yvonne Shelton, Jacqui Abbott and Heaton himself.

On 11 November 2014, BBC Radio 2 broadcast a world premiere of "Real Hope", featuring the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, from the deluxe edition of What Have We Become?.

On 16 November 2018, a career-spanning collection of Heaton's music titled The Last King Of Pop was released on the Virgin EMI label.

It featured 23 of the songs written by Heaton throughout his career in the Housemartins, The Beautiful South, his solo years, and his collaboration with Jacqui Abbott.

A television documentary covering Paul Heaton's life and career was broadcast on Wednesday 12 December 2018 on Channel 4.

Many songs by the Beautiful South, such as "Woman in the Wall", "Liars' Bar", "I May Be Ugly", "The Slide", "Look What I Found in My Beer" and "Old Red Eyes Is Back", have referred to alcoholism or drink-fuelled violence.

[25] In December 2011, Heaton purchased the lease of The King's Arms public house in Bloom Street, Salford, Greater Manchester.

He is a keen collector and has a diverse range of collections including football memorabilia, crisp packets, beer mats, postcards and comics.

[29] In 2022, unable to do another cycling tour, he sent money to 60 pubs across the UK and Ireland to enable them to give free pints to celebrate his 60th birthday.