Fantastic Days
If Orange Juice had grown up in a nice suburb in Kent instead of Glasgow then chances are they would have been Haircut 100. The sound of both bands had it’s roots in scratchy post-punk funk (“Favourite Shirts” is basically a rewrite of Talking Heads’ “I Zimbra” — have a listen to them together sometime) and both had the same fey schoolboy aesthetic that gave birth to twee indiepop, but on record OJ were all snark and jagged edges while the Haircuts were smooth and happy, singing sweet songs about Toblerones and Baked Beans. Nick Heyward was the boy who joined the Boy Scouts and did his homework while Edwyn Collins was the one sitting at the back of the classroom and smoking behind the bike sheds. My girlfriend at the time had a crush on both of them so their audiences weren’t mutually exclusive — I liked ‘em both too — but one band was clearly more Smash Hits than NME.
The designer Neville Brody recently stated that he thought Haircut 100 were responsible for the decline of British pop culture because, he said, once they got in the charts “it all became about how you were styled, what clothes you wore and not what you had to say” (as if it hadn’t before) which is a bit rich coming from the man who was art director of The Face at the time. If you have to draw a line somewhere between punk “authenticity” (zzzz) and 80s pop superficiality (you don’t) why not pick on Adam & The Ants instead? If anyone is responsible for the Smash Hits-ification of popular music it’s that lot who were in the charts first, sold cartloads more records, and had an even more contrived image. Any kid could dress in a chunky jumper, anorak, and deck shoes (and I, um, did) but Adam Ant was going around dressed as a bloody pirate. But it’s a rather stupid argument to making about any band really.
Besides, Haircut 100 made bloody good records which renders their image sort of a moot point. Though I do remember at the time that even after I’d bought and loved the 12″ of “Favourite Shirts” I thought that maybe they were a bit flimsy and wasn’t expecting great things from their album “Pelican West” (released the same year —1982 — as “You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever”) but was bowled over by how stuffed with cracking tunes and more enjoyable than a bucket of lollipops it was. It could have been the start of something very good but unfortunately Nick left the group to go solo after the one album and, as is often the case, without the band his records lacked some of the snap, crackle and pop Haircut 100 had. Still, if you’re only going to make the one album* it should be perfect which “Pelican West” almost is.
Download: Snow Girl – Haircut 100 (mp3)
Download: Milk Farm – Haircut 100 (mp3)
Buy: Pelican West (album)
Nick’s first solo single was gorgeous though, if only he’d kept up this standard.
Download: Whistle Down The Wind (12″ version) – Nick Heyward (mp3)
*Yes, I am aware that Haircut 100 made another album after Heyward left but I’ve never even seen a copy of “Paint and Paint” much less heard it.
Bought the LP in college. One of the few I ultimately re-purchased as a CD (with a bunch of unnecessary extra twaddle like German versions of some songs). I agree – an almost perfect pop album. I think you’re selling Nick a bit short on his solo career tho’ – there’s a lot of lovely stuff on “From Monday to Sunday” and “The Apple Bed”. He really has a knack for a tune, even tho’ he’s a little more than indebted to msrs. lennon and mccartney.
I like a lot of his solo stuff but, as I said, without the band it’s a bit bland at times.
Whoops – I may have unnecessarily gifted you with a song :) Sorry. As I said in the e-mail, give the man a set of pipes and he’d be great. I think the blandness comes from his voice more than anything…
Also – have you checked out Everything Everything? I don’t think their LP’s been released yet, but I think it might be something to chase away your record shop blues…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di2U1UZ9J0I
It took him a while, but this is peerless.
I can’t believe both Pelican West and You can’t hide your love forever came out in the same year and nobody wrote about it, until now.
That song by Nick Heyward ‘Laura’, I lurve that, me.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, lend an ear to Tangled. Someone lent me a copy, which after weeks of sitting untouched, got a ‘s’pose I should spin it before giving back play’ . Blooming blew me away. It’s a smasher from end to end
Thanks for that Mondo, just spotify’d Tangled and it’s great. Nick Heyward does write some lovely melodic guitar pop, but unlike similar artists, Stephen Duffy, Lloyd Cole etc, there’s always a faint whiff of naff about him which is unjustified. Pelican West is one of my favourite 80s albums but tell most people this and look at you kind of funny.
Nick’s solo album is one of my favourite 80s albums. It is a complete little cycle of songs with a beginning and middle and end. Fast pop, slow lush ballads, and one of the few albums ever probably to mix the Beatles with jazz funk…
What a great memory, I always considered Pelican West to be the almost perfect POP album, I loved it then and I do now, I actually saw them live at the Bristol Colston Hall and it was a bloody great show, just lots of fun, I went to a lot of gigs around that time and this really stood out as what a gig should be no bullshit pretension just a great sound and fun, fun, fun and Nicks first solo album was also fantastic.
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