ONCE there was The Beautiful South, until the Hull band split in 2007.

Now there is The South, still a northern band, still playing The Beautiful South's hits and adding their own material with a line-up led by singers Dave Hemingway and Alison Wheeler, with lifelong members Damon Butcher, keyboards, Gaz Birtles, saxophone, and Tony Robinson, trumpet, as part of a nine-piece line-up that came together in 2009.

They are on tour this autumn, playing the Grand Opera House in York tomorrow and a home-city gig at Hull City Hall on December 6, both shows starting at 7.30pm.

Once the drummer in The Housemartins, before he and Paul Heaton reunited in The Beautiful South, Dave Hemingway has been a constant presence, most memorably singing lead vocals on the band's first number one, A Little Time.

And yet he would never consider himself a natural frontman. "But I've always sung with the band; I sang a cappella with The Housemartins and three-part harmonies behind Paul as well. It wasn't my idea to be one of the singers when Paul took a few months to decide what to do after The Housemartins and we formed The Beautiful South," says Dave, who lives in Crewe these days.

"You feel a bit emperor's new clothes going up and singing lead... and I'm still not comfortable. But once you're up there and you get over the trepidation, everything falls into place, and you play a good set."

Box office; York, 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york; Hull, 01482 300300 or hullcc.gov.uk/hullcityhall