Nick Heyward and Haircut One Hundred

Hello,

are there good sounding CDs from Nick Heyward and Haircut 100?

I know that "North of a Miracle" has been reissued a few years ago in the U.K. by Camden/BMG (together with "Pelican West" and "Postcards from Home") with bonus tracks. But I don't know if they've been digitally remastered. All I have now is a compilation called "Greatest Hits" (1996 Camden) with 16 tracks (5 by Haircut One Hundred and 11 by Nick as a solo artist) often presented in their twelve inches mixes... The sound quality is very uneven (the songs from North Of A Miracle sound quite good, crisp, not too bright, with full bass; "Over the Weekend" sounds terrible, as if it was recorded and mixed underwater).

Is there a hope that Sony BMG will release an updated compilation in the future, maybe an "Essential" set, even as a single disc retrospective? Next year it will be Pelican West's 25th anniversary, and there has never been a career-spanning comp so far. The current "The Very Best Of Nick Heyward and Haircut 100" (always on Camden) doesn't include anything from "I Love You Avenue" and Nick's albums from Sony, not even "Kite".

Thank you.

 

I have the original "North Of A Miracle" cd on Arista and it sounds pretty good - remastered by Bill Inglot (of Rhino fame). The first US issue of "Pelican West" (without bonus tracks) sounds good also.

 

Is the original "North of a Miracle" cd on Arista, remastered by Bill Inglot, the same edition that was sold in Japan? Or are they different mastering jobs? Unfortunately, the album's quite hard to find in Europe.

 

Avoid the Camden version of Pelican West (named Pelican West Plus). It has serious drop outs and even loses a channel at one point. An absolute disaster.
There is a serious lack of anything worthy of a mention soundwise for both NH and Haircut 100. One of England's great lost songwriters.

 

You've made my day starting this thread.

Nick Heywood is great singer/songwriter who deserves more respect.

My CD of Pelican West is Pelican West Plus but is the 1992 Arista issue. That's pretty good. I don't think it came out in the 80's on CD over here but they might have been an issue on a label like Bellophone in Europe.

I usually listen to North of A Miracle from the Arista LP which is really good. It was a favorite of mine in '83. I love the production on that album. The advertising had the tag line "An astonishing album" and it is. Check out Atlantic Monday - it's a busy track but gels beautifully. The CD is more 'okay' but if you can track down the original CD which quickly went OOPS in the late 80's, I'm sure it will be better sounding.

The original Arista CD of Postcards is excellent when replayed on a decent CD player but Over The Weekend may sound brash on certain 'edgy' players like the entry Sony models. It's well worth owning it.
The re-issue is a little flat sounding but not disasterious but my mine gripe is the poor quality copying of the original booklet which shows pictures of two NH 12" singles and some classic albums.

Regards,

 

By the way, I've just discovered that Nick is also in MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/nicholasheyward

Well... I know that Camden is a budget-priced series on BMG, a bit like Disky Communications (Holland), or Spectrum/Karussell on Universal Music (I've heard generally poor sounding compilations from Spectrum, and sometimes they even manage to exclude the biggest hit from a particular band/artist and put obscure b-sides instead). So it does not surprise me that the sound quality and the covers are not top-notch, but the sad thing is that there's no alternative at the moment. Now I see that some re-issues of RCA and Arista titles are made by the reliable Legacy Recordings; I've just sent a suggestion for an "Essential" set.

I think they could *at least* compile all the hits and key album tracks from "Pelican West" and Nick's solo albums in a double CD-set (like Arista did with the excellent compilation "Ultimate Hall And Oates", later re-issued as The Essential Daryl Hall and John Oates) starting from the original master tapes - when possible.

I agree, "North of a Miracle" is an astonishing album, and I would like to have it on CD.

Thank you!

 

Neither the US Arista CD nor the Camden/BMG are any great shakes and both in uniquely frustrating ways. The Arista would probably do but rolls off some of that great Geoff Emerick bottom end and sounds a bit grainy. The Camden reissue is very bright and sounds no-noised, but you get the bonus tracks.

If you have a 'table, best way to go is the UK or German LP (with gatefold cover. Canadian and US Arista LP's sound nice too.

 

Do you have:

From Monday To Sunday
Tangled
The Apple Bed

All from the 90's - these are essential, IMHO; a big step in a Beatlesque direction.

Cheers,
Bruce

 

No, I don't have them; I only own the song "Kite" because it's on a various artists compilation I purchased.

Thank you for the advice

 

The original West German Arista pressing of "North of a Miracle" is the one to own (I have 4 variants of this CD). Inglot's is a close second. I found this disc in '84 or early '85 just after buying my first player and discs (of any kind) were hard to find. Spotted it in a closed used disc shop.. waited for it to open and grabbed it. One of those "finds" where you can almost remember every detail of the day, which makes the disc all the cooler!

 

Actually after a long time searching I recently came by all three in space of a week and half! Just like buses, eh?
You're right, they're beatlesque and the guitars as well as real drums are back.
Regarding sound quality From Monday To Sunday is the better of the three with wide dynamic range whereas parts of Tangled suffer from the the prevalent UK trend toward the 'loud sound'.
My copy of Apple Bed was brand new complete with the Creation post card and the other were used but mint.
Thanks for that post and for anyone who hasn't gotten those albums please do track them down cos they're infectious and you won't want to be without them.

 

According to his myspace page:

Nick Heyward is currently in the studio making a new album available on the 18th of December 2009.

Looks like this will be his first solo album since 1996! He's done a couple of collaborations in the interim, neither of which really interested me. Keep an eye out for this one.

http://www.myspace.com/nicholasheyward

 

I only have The Apple Bed of that group, but it is indeed a great record. Love it.

 

From Monday To Sunday and The Apple Bed can be bought for next to nothing. Tangled, on the other hand, seems to be relatively rare. Seems bizarre considering it was a Sony release(AMG shows Epic as having issued it as well).

 

Sonically songs like 'the day it rained forever' and 'whistle down the wind' are great. Musically there are so many high spots in the Heyward pop career. 'Over the weekend', is pure 80s, Laura is another piece of great power pop and 'On a Sunday' is a gem and it sounds brilliant. 'Rollerblade' with the great Tony Rivers on b/vs is another power pop classic. 'Chelsea Sky' from Apple Bed is also great, despite it being about London's worst football team!

 

Just wish the Haircut 100 2nd album demos would be released officially. Quite good to hear the band versions of the songs that ended up on Heyward's 1st solo album. The guy's very underrated. That Creation album has some seriously good guitar on it.

 

Anyone know if the 12 inch version of Love Plus One has ever been issued on CD?

 

Well I was going to go to the car and grab my CD of Pelican West, but the cars are buried in snow. Guess I will just spin the vinyl. A real desert island disc for me.

 

From Monday To Sunday is one of the sunniest pop albums ever made. Indie in vibe, universally infectious in overall sound. Great melodies, and a CD that stays in my car all summer long.

Tangled introduces a harder, power-chorded edge, but the essential melodic elements remain. Oasis, perhaps, make their influence felt via the Les Paul/Marshall guitar sound. Key track: "London".

The Apple Bed, as the title suggests, is certainly redolent of the Beatles in spots (check out the "Penny Lane" trumpet bit in "My Heavy Head"); consolidates the gains made in Tangled. Key track: "Chelsea Sky".

On these three albums Nick sort of runs on a parallel track to Paul Weller - making modern music that's suggestive of the great Sixties UK music scene, without doing pastiche or being imitative. One needn't feel self-conscious about waving the Union Jack here. Along with people like Martin Newell, Michael Penn, XTC, Aimee Mann etc., a great example of why the Nineties was my fave decade for pop music after the Sixties.


Any more word on a new album?

 

Man, I always thought that Pelican West sounded amazing. The drums, horns & rhythm guitar on 'Favorite Shirts' are all 'in the room'. Was one of my go-to demo discs back in the day. Been awhile, may have to give it another spin.

 

B , I have all the Nick Heyward albums BTW. And I'm doing the Style Council and the Solo Weller Threads. In doing the Style Council thread I thought of certain artists that deserved the self- same treatment. I wanted to do a Nick Heyward album to album thread but was worried about the interest. Maybe this is just the impetus to do so.

With regards to Weller vs Heyward, Paul really went Dadrock to the nth degree. I had a friend over my house when Stanley Road came out and put on the LP and I told him the album came out now (95). He was incredulous! It sounded retro in every way, songcraft wise and in terms of production. Nick had the classic rock/pop influences BUT the records sounded very of their time. I'm a big Weller fan so don't take this the wrong way BUT Weller always has been nicking, stealing ,borrowing and paying homage to various artists since day one. Heyward wasn't doing it as flagrantly as Wellie was or had been.Tangled had Jesus and Mary Chain and Britpop influences on it. It was much harder in tone than From Monday to Sunday which was nearly pop perfection. And Postcards from Home had its moments of brilliance here and there even though it was almost his most obscure and/or most forgotten album . In essence, Heyward has an uncanny knack to produce an unforgettable melody. He's one of the most underrated artists of all time in that regard.

 

No,nor has the 12" version of "Fantastic Day" which has the sound of a steam train as an intro.

 

Love Nick/HC100!

Nick & HC100 got back together late last year for a one off gig but it looks as if more shows will be played in 2010.

In terms of CD pressings, please try to avoid the JPN Mini-LP releases of Pelican West, North of a Miracle and Postcards, the packaging is lovely but the CDs are just brickwalled version of the UK CDs.

There are still quite a bunch of B-Sides/Mixes that haven't come out on CD yet, I've got all the 7",12"s for Pelican West and North of a Miracle but I've got no turntable at the moment so no way to needle-drop them but there were 12" versions of Ski Club, Boat Party, Love Plus One, Calling Captain Autumn, Fantastic Day plus a lot of alternate version from North of a Miracle.

There's the 2nd unreleased album (with Nick) which was iirc supposed to be called 'Blue Hat for a Blue Day' and although some of the songs were played live (I Believe in Sunday, Haley's Heart, Coming Home (an early 'When it started to begin' ) and the album was, from what I've read, finished and ready to roll, I've never come across the audio and never heard it. Would love this to get a release.

Then there's the 2nd album (without Nick) called 'Paint on Paint' which, although not a great album, has a couple of good songs on it.

Nick's one of my fave songwriters and massively under-rated. Can't wait to see them live this year with any luck.

 

Mark Fox and Phil Smith didn't show up BUT the rest of them did!

Some of the Reunion tunes:

Kingsize:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg4N-MZdziQ&feature=related

Love Plus One:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M85bKCwjpG8&feature=related

Favourite Shirts:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Q4rq1SHQU

Fantastic Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxnrpHzhs7E&feature=related

 

The 2nd album tracks I've got are :-

Brookfield Girl
Haley's Heart
I Believe In Sundays
Sunny Boy,Sunny Girl
Club Boy At Sea
Cheek to Cheek (Instrumental)
Maytime Moments (Instrumental)
Steambus Junction (Instrumental)
Blue Hat For A Blue Day (Instrumental)
Coming Home (Instrumental)

Also,don't forget :-

"Nobody's Fool" - Flexipop demo version
"My Pure Lady" - Japanese Single B Side
"Moving Back" - Moving England single

Also have a few live gigs from 81 - 82.