​Ex-Beautiful South singer's Sunbirds want to make this A Life Worth Living as they come to The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea

Following the Beautiful South’s end in 2007 – they split due to “musical similarities” – he formed The South with that band’s last female vocalist Alison Wheeler. They released one new album, but when it became clear to Dave that most of the others were more interested in playing the old band’s songs than writing new material he walked away.

After leaving music for “about five years”, it was The South’s guitarist Phil Barton who tempted him back into the game.

Sunbirds released their debut Cool To Be Kind in 2020 and are now preparing their second, A Life Worth Living. With their blend of Americana, ’70s pop and folk, the band are now on a UK tour which comes to Portsmouth later this month.

"The South became a sort of tribute band, which is fair enough,” Dave explains of Sunbirds’ origins. “We did an original album which I thought was quite good and I wanted to go more along that path with the band, but they didn't want to.

“They wanted to earn a living doing all Beautiful South songs, which is all fine, but I felt I had another album or two of new stuff in me, so I took some time out.

“Luckily Phil Barton came along with some songs, we did some demos and I got my spark again – I thought it was worth doing. But I did take about five years out, and that could have been a permanent thing.

“Thankfully the songs came back and I'm really enjoying it now.

“It is like starting again, but we're doing everything as best we can and paying for everything ourselves. We haven't got a record company, so it is very much like starting out again, playing smaller venues and all that, but it's good fun, like it should be when you're in a band. You tend to forget that sometimes, maybe I do anyway, that being in a band is supposed to be fun as well as everything else.”

When we speak the band are putting “the finishing touches” to the new album. Since the debut, they’ve brought multi-instrumentalist Chris Offen into the fold, and co-vocalist Laura Wilcockson has stepped up – indeed, she takes the lead on recent single Make Up Your Mind.

“What I've really liked is the fact that we are a band, we're not just a backing band for me or something like that. We are definitely evolving as a band with everyone contributing.

“Chris is a brilliant musician and he's got a couple of singing tracks on the new album, and Laura probably has more leads than me on the album, which is fine. I'm really happy about that because I never wanted it to be me and a band behind me. It was always planned to be a proper band and that's definitely what we're evolving into, so the more the merrier, it's great!”

And Dave is mindful of the legacy of his past endeavours.

“I'm very, very proud (of The Housemartins and Beautiful South). I consider myself lucky to be involved with two great bands and great songwriters and to put music out there people like. I am very fortunate and privileged to have been in them.

“For me to do a new band and new songs, it's quite a legacy to live up to, so they had to be right, otherwise what's the point? But I think we're having a fair stab at it, I'm proud of these songs as well!”

The new album’s title, A Life Worth Living, follows the debut’s positive sentiments. Was this coincidence or intentional?

"I did think of putting a question mark on the end of it: is it a life worth living? But no, it's more important to be positive about it and affirmative about life.

“And that's what the songs are about – trying to be positive in these dark times, and they are dark times as far as I'm concerned, I think we're in a horrible situation as a country – we're going back to medieval times! We're trying to put a positive spin on things and saying it's not all bad. Music, of course, is very important to a lot of people and it is to me."

Sunbirds are at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea on Saturday, October 21, doors 7.30pm, supported by Conor Clements. Tickets £15. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.