Nick Heyward and Haircut One Hundred

Here's a review of the reunion show:

These days, an album that sells 300,000 in the week of release is a news story. By doing that with Pelican West in 1982, Haircut 100 established themselves as a group whose popularity briefly scaled Duran Duran proportions. With all of that in mind then, why the empty seats at this, the group’s first proper show in 28 years?

The answer? It really wasn’t that sort of reunion. There had been no adverts, no newspaper listings. Announced through singer Nick Heyward’s Facebook page as a solo show, the news that there would be a Haircut 100 set came weeks later.

Many of the seats seemed to be occupied by Heyward’s chums. By the end of an opening solo set — which featured his 1983 hit Whistle Down the Wind and a yearningly sparse rendition of 1993’s Kite — the relaxed, bespectacled 48-year-old had said hello to most of them. To one he paid tribute in song. “Helen Ball,” he improvised, “is married to Graham Ball/ Who loves Status Quo/ And has a ball/ Cos he’s with Helen Ball.”

The solo songs could be painful to play, he said, because they were rooted in real life. By contrast, he pointed out that “the Haircut stuff” was a joy to play because little of it was rooted in direct experience. And so it proved. Now in a suit, Heyward wore his guitar as high as ever and tore into the finger-shredding funk of the group’s debut hit Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl). The percussionist Mark Fox and the saxophonist Phil Smith were absent, but the bassist Les Nemes and the guitarist Graham Jones belied the lengthy hiatus with an ease that suggested that they may have played along to those old records in more nostalgic moments. Blair Cunningham, the drummer, sounded better than ever on the choppy, locomotive dance-pop of Kingsize and Snow Girl.

Inevitably, it was the group’s biggest hit, Love Plus One, that put space between the crowd and their seats. Given the circumstances, Fantastic Day selected itself for the encore, Heyward grinning manically as he turned the mike towards an obliging audience. Ever eager to please, he folded the setlists into paper aeroplanes and dispatched them towards the balcony. It wasn’t just Graham Ball who had a ball.

 

Great stuff! Wish I'd known about it and been there, they sound fan-bloody-tastic. What a band!

 

Nick has an easier time playing the Haircut 100 material as opposed to his solo stuff. It seems that his solo material cuts too close in an emotional sense!? He had some cracking good tunes so It's a crying shame that he has trouble when playing his solo stuff.........

 

Regarding Pelican West, I have a question and a comment. The question: I'm listening right now to my ancient Arista cd, made in W. Germany, titled "Haircut One Hundred Plus", that has the 5 bonus tracks. There's a major dropout in the very beginning of "Lemon Firebrigade". Other than that, I think this cd is fantastic.
Was there other versions of this cd, like on Camden, etc. that were inferior?

The comment is that the American Beat Records reissue that came out in 2007 is fantastic! I started another Haircut 100 thread where I championed this rerelease, it may be OOP by now.

Nope:
http://www.amazon.com/Pelican-West-...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1265516926&sr=1-2

All I can say is that it is really good, and inexpensive.

Found the previous thread:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=107978&highlight=haircut

Found most of the rare stuff mentioned above on various blogs, by the way.
Some good, some just OK, but all worth hearing. Nice to see Nick and company getting some attention here. I still think "Pelican west" is a stone pop classic album.

 

Another good Pelican West thread here.

 

I don't own the 12", but a substantially longer version is on Living in Oblivion Volume 2.

Also, the version of Favorite Shirts on Now That's What I Call Music--Smash Hits is a very different mix. Not longer, just different.

 

There was a lot of talk about how inferior/superior the "Plus" was on the other thread. Me, I love it. I'd forgive a lot just to have all that rare stuff tacked on the end. I don't think the quality is bad at all and sold my Arista CD immediately after I got it.

 

When my friend Stu gave me a copy of From Monday To Sunday back in '94, I was (and am) so grateful; else I would have never known. This record and the two that followed, plus the EPs from Apple Bed (like "Stars In Her Eyes") are primary reasons why the 90's will likely be as much a source for nostalgia for me as the 60's. A great decade for modern-yet-classic style pop, if one knew where to look. (Weller, Newell, XTC, Penn, Greys, Falkner etc., I've said it all before no doubt. Even the Beatles had a couple of tunes in the 1990's!)

I'm sure Oasis were exposed to Nick's stuff when they were in the Creation office; and I'm equally sure they'd never admit to being envious of Nick's pop abilities.*

Nick had something that put him apart from his peers of the last two decades: an utter lack of irony or guile. Emotional vulnerability, and an honest sentimentality. A quality that speaks to me; I certainly preferred it to the (mostly) dark spirit evident in much "alternative" music of the time.

I should probably get Pelican West, although I'm wary of 80's pop generally...which of the earlier (pre-90's) Nick albums have that modern/classic pop thing going on?


*In a Q (or Mojo?) review of The Apple Bed, the reviewer stated something like "compared to Nick, Noel Gallagher doesn't like the Beatles at all."

 

Pelican West is a brilliant confluence of Brazilian percussion, Anglocentric pop and refined production courtesy of Bob Sargeant producer of The Beat's Special Beat Service. I highly recommend it. As for the Gallaghers and their rancid form of fourth generation Beatlemania, they never had a thing on Heyward. Even though I'm not a Beatles fan, I appreciate their songcraft. And one of the true heirs of their musical tradition without being entirely imitative is Nick Heyward.

I Love You Avenue and Postcards From Home are excellent albums BUT sound very much of their time. North Of A Miracle is his masterpiece. With contributions from bass player extraordinaire Pino Palladino and a crack session team produced by Geoff Emerick, producer of Elvis Costello's Imperial Bedroom and Beatles engineer . Quite simply put, it is a melange of jazz, British pop and is quirky enough to be distinct from what was being released at the time.

 

That's what I was trying to say. I just re-read my sentence, and the syntax of it may suggest to some that I was saying they had no fear of competition from Nick in that department. But Noel, whatever his other faults, knows a good pop song when he hears it...and he surely would've been gobsmacked by Tangled (which came out around the same time as Morning Glory.) I'm a big Oasis fan but, as fun and important as they were in getting Britpop going worldwide, not a patch on the more obscure modern pop artists of the 90's that were mentioned in post #33.

Just thought I'd mention here...one needs the Stars In Her Eyes EP. Wonderful.

 

B, as you could probably tell I'm not a fan of the Gallaghers. I like the first Oasis album BUT when their Beatles' obsession came into greater focus...I dropped them like the proverbial hot potato.It was one thing when Badfinger played the role of the ersatz Beatles BUT a 4th generation band? Noel did like some good music BUT to quote Paul Weller,his mentor( in a humorous sense) I don't hear the blues in his music! NG can be a wanker, so he probably made a smart remark about Heyward all the while admiring him, so I suppose we agreed on some level,mate!

 

I have japanese Arista/BMG pressing of Pelican West, no bonus tracks, 1995 mastering.
I'm quite happy with it.

 

The very first CD I ever found of HC100 was a compilation released by Arista/BMG in 1989 called "The best of...", decent quality but A/Bing one track ("Take the Situation") with the Arista/BMG copy of NOAM shows that it not only runs slightly fast but's also a fair bit quieter (about -2.5db) so it's worth keeping but not really essential.

Anyone know what the current UK compilations sound like?

 

Which is crazy since it was a digital recording! Maybe the tape was damaged/decayed, etc.

 

Not sure, but it's not very good IMHO anyway.

 

I heard that a few years back. Isn't it a little bit longer too?

For what it's worth, what is listed as the 12" mix of Favourite Shirt is not the same as the mix on the original 12".

 

1) Have you got the promo 12" (I can't recall the title - Pelican Dance?) I've not compared all the tracks, but Captain Autumn has a different intro without the sound effects that are at the beginning of the album version.

2) I agree: it's surprisingly consistent to the sound of the 1st album considering the dominent songwriter of the band had gone.

 

Is that the UK comp from way back? I recall that having a different version of Ant Music on it as well.

 

Came out September '87 on Lp/MC/CD on EMI/Virgin

 

Yeah, I have noticed it on Love Plus One - the trumpet solo drops out
(and that was the best part...)

 

That's the bad boy! Ant Music had a proper ending IIRC which I haven't heard on the 7" or the LP...

 

wow! Thanks for that info, Mike. Glad I held onto that collection. It's just a very cool car set.

 

The 12" mix of "Marine Boy" is pretty cool too.

 

The part-reunion of Haircut 100 proves dreams can come true. Nick Heyward is unique artist and a genuinely down-to-earth and fascinating guy, and together as a unit they gel fantastically well. As many know, the band splintered due to abysmal management and the pressure on Nick to deliver the goods on demand, the time-line of it all is incredible. Things started going wrong for the band around the time Nobody's Fool was a hit (see the attached TOTP appearence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHTL2MdZrF0&feature=fvst
Throughout the remainder of 1982 the band attempted to record the second album (scheduled for release by Arista for that christmas!) with Nick in the midst of a nervous breakdown, Marc Fox sacked and reinstated several times with the final split occuring in January 83. Just over TWO MONTHS later the visibly still-unwell Heyward was pushed into launching his solo career (see TOTP appearence below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrvBVEuyqPE
with the rest of the band carrying with Marc Fox given the job of writing and singing obviously Heyward-esque songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW0BqlwPlI0

When you see here just how good they were it makes you wonder how they have carried their regrets through the last 28 years, this is from November 1981 and sheer magic as you can see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMKZm_IQrvo&feature=related

 

I'd like to see 2 x CD "Deluxes" of both Pelican West and North Of A Miracle,complete with the original 12" mixes and demos etc.