The newest Haircut One Hundred reunion is “a present from the universe”, frontman Nick Heyward and bassist Les Nemes inform Traditional Pop – they usually’re loving each single second of it…
“I’ve simply been arrested!” says Nick Heyward, by the use of a gap gambit, as he arrives for his date with Traditional Pop in a Soho bar. “I had my rights learn to me and all the pieces,” explains the Haircut One Hundred frontman, his trademark full-beam grin undimmed by his brush with the legislation. “My Senior Railcard had expired. I didn’t know you needed to renew it. I didn’t even know you needed to apply for one – I believed the federal government simply gave you it. But it surely seems Sara [his wife and manager] had acquired it for me. And it had run out.”
How the powers-that-be may suppose so dimly of The Nicest Man in Pop™ is a thriller. However much more baffling is the thought of the eternally boyish Nick Heyward qualifying for such a concession within the first place – he’s 63 however seems 20 years youthful. Might he ever have imagined, as a fresh-faced teen launching Haircut One Hundred’s idiosyncratic model of carnival funk-pop on an unsuspecting world, that he may sooner or later be a pop star with a Senior Railcard?
“I hoped it’d occur – as a result of it’s one thing to goal for,” says Nick. “And now that we’re this age, we would like it to go on longer and longer. As a result of we’ve acquired our friendship again.”
This final remark is addressed to the person sitting subsequent to him, bassist Les Nemes, who nods his settlement. “He despatched me a WhatsApp simply this morning, saying, ‘Isn’t it pretty to be mates once more, and doing what we love?’” smiles Les.
“It’s a very intense friendship that the three of us had again within the late Seventies and early 80s, after we have been simply youngsters with a dream,” says Heyward, folding the band’s different full-time member, guitarist Graham Jones, into the circle of affection.
“In the event you’d requested me a 12 months in the past, ‘Would this ever occur?’ I’d have stated, ‘completely by no means’,” admits Nemes. “We hadn’t spoken for 10 years. However we’ve picked it up prefer it was yesterday.”
“That’s an actual friendship factor, although, isn’t it?” says Nick. “Time doesn’t exist if you’re actual mates.”
Love Plus Three
For a very long time, Nick, Les and Graham weren’t mates. Battling the strain to observe up their acclaimed debut album, 1982’s Pelican West, Heyward discovered himself ejected from the band, who themselves known as it a day following 1984’s belly-flopping Paint And Paint.
Within the a long time since, there have been occasional reunions however, as Nick instructed Traditional Pop in 2017, the onstage truce didn’t translate to an offstage relationship. So what modified? “Effectively, there’s nonetheless a few members caught prior to now – that’s the explanation,” says Heyward, pointedly. Saxophonist Phil Smith and percussionist Marc Fox haven’t rejoined the occasion, although drummer Blair Cunningham is on board as an affiliate member. “They’ve acquired points they didn’t need to discuss. However the remainder of us have moved on.”
“I instructed Nick, ‘I don’t care what occurred prior to now’,” says Les. “That’s gone, and the longer term isn’t right here. So the one factor that issues is correct now.”
“All of it evaporated, didn’t it?” says Nick. “All of the issues we thought we would have liked to speak about, they evaporated just about instantly. And on daily basis since has been a bonus.”
No-one is extra stunned than Heyward and Nemes to seek out Haircut One Hundred again onboard the pop carousel full-time. Initially reuniting for a present at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire to mark the fortieth anniversary reissue of Pelican West, they’ve since toured the UK and the US, performed Glastonbury, launched their first single collectively in 42 years, and are at the moment engaged on a brand new studio album.
“We thought the reunion present can be emotional, however it’s been getting extra emotional as we go alongside,” explains Nick. “It’s like a dynamo, like a motorbike – it’s choosing up pace and power because it goes on.”
“The mad factor was, we didn’t organize any of it – all of it got here to us,” says Les. “It was just like the universe stated, ‘Alright, I’m going to rearrange all the pieces, and all it’s worthwhile to do is flip up’. And that’s what we’ve been doing ever since – turning up.”
“The universe is a superb arranger,” nods Heyward. “I’ve requested it to start out taking care of my funeral…”
The universe acquired a serving to hand, although, from the late music promoter Melvyn Taub, who handed away from pancreatic most cancers in September. “If it wasn’t for Melvyn, none of this could have occurred,” says Nemes. “He organised all the pieces, pushed for all the pieces.”
“He was a lifelong fan of energy pop and pop-funk, who I’d met once I was youthful, and it was his dream for us to be again,” says Nick, eyes moistening. “A beautiful man. He’s the universe, actually.”
American Desires
Returning to the States as particular visitors of ABC and Howard Jones, greater than 4 a long time after their final US exhibits, was an emotional expertise for the band – and, it turned out, their viewers. “Some folks had flown a whole lot of miles, or accomplished a highway journey from Texas to Utah, or wherever,” says Heyward. “And so they introduced all these reminiscences with them – of discovering their companion or dropping them, or going via chemo… I keep in mind one evening watching a girl standing along with her husband, and throughout the first couple of bars of Love Plus One, she had began crying. And also you thought, ‘My god, what does that tune imply to her?’ By the top of the tour, we have been all dropping it.
“The exhibits additionally went to a different stage of authenticity. As younger indie aspirants from south London, we may solely dream of being so authentically Latin American, however on theseshows we had our Venezuelan drummer, Izzy, and Felipe Fournier, who’s a Grammy-winning percussionist from Costa Rica. These guys have been simply on fireplace, aiming for the hips. It was such a powerhouse of power – we solely performed six songs, however there have been standing ovations each evening.”
Was there a pure esprit de corps between the 80s survivors on the invoice? “We’ve all been via comparable issues, however having not accomplished it for 42 years, we have been in all probability processing it at a special stage to the opposite two,” displays Nick. “The exhibits have been so charged; I believe it type of ignited Martin Fry’s aggressive aspect. However Howard was way more chilled. He was identical to, ‘I really like this, let’s do extra.’”
Again dwelling, Haircut One Hundred crossed off one other bucket checklist merchandise after they made their Glastonbury Competition debut on the Avalon Stage. “It was wonderful,” smiles Les. “It was one other factor I’d given up on,” admits Heyward. “I believed, ‘That’s by no means going to occur’. But it surely did.”
Filtered Funk
Their summer season of affection now over, the band at the moment are knuckling right down to the enterprise of creating a brand new album. Late final August, they shared the primary – ahem – fruits of these classes with effervescent single The Unloving Plum – a jubilant, summery earworm (and Radio 2 Document of the Week, in addition).
“The tune is about that first relationship that makes you are feeling like anybody – and the primary that broke my soul into 1,000,000 items,” says Nick. “The unloving plum is a bit just like the Lotus flower – the place does it come from? It comes from the mud. However there’s that mild that comes from tasting it for the primary time. So it was simply constructed round wordplay from that.”
The opening line, ‘Cowl me in weight-reduction plan pop’ was, provides Nick, initially extra brand-specific. “It was, ‘Cowl me in Food plan Coke’. However Radio 2 and different stations stated, ‘Sorry, no product placement’. Although I observe that Addison Rae can get away with [recent hit] Food plan Pepsi, so it’s clearly completely different guidelines for her.”
The only arrived with a playful, Frankenstein-riffing video, directed by Tom Bailey (no, not that one). “Everybody instructed us movies aren’t a factor anymore,” says Nick. “But it surely’s a part of the artistic course of. We’re not going to cease making them, simply because they’ve gone out of favour.”
So how a lot else is within the can?
“We’ve acquired eight songs which are kicking round,” says Nemes. “After which we’ll search for one other two or three.”
Chatting with Traditional Pop final 12 months, Les favoured a return to the band’s early post-punk, Speaking Heads-influenced days. “That’s the place I’d have preferred it to go,” he says in the present day. “I noticed it with no brass – simply kicking again to the three of us and retaining it very uncooked. But it surely hasn’t gone as far that method as I’d envisaged. There’s nonetheless brass, there’s nonetheless percussion…”
“There are nonetheless funky ones,” Nick assures us. “There’s one known as Vanishing Level, which sounds a bit just like the theme to [70s TV show] The Streets Of San Francisco meets James Brown. It’s like a getaway automotive tune. And Dynamite is an enormous, funky disco tune, type of like Earth, Wind and Hearth.”
One other observe that’s at the moment in rivalry, Mudlarks, returns to the geographical location of Pelican West. “It’s concerning the Pelican Stairs [in East London], the place they used to hold folks,” explains Heyward. “It’s a really vital space for the band. But it surely’s additionally a social commentary on how far we’re regressing, as a tradition. Are we going again to Dickensian instances? Are all of us going to be mudlarking?”
Mixing New Wave guitars with jazz funk and Brazilian rhythms, Pelican West stays a really singular creation: the lacking hyperlink between Postcard Data and Nile Rodgers (through Nineteen Sixties Tropicália and Bruce Lee film soundtracks), it held a brace of Prime 10 singles – Favorite Shirts (Boy Meets Lady), Love Plus One, Implausible Day and No person’s Idiot – and sounds box-fresh in the present day. So are they feeling the strain to bottle lightning over again and keep away from what may (drawing a discreet veil over Paint And Paint) turn into the world’s most delayed case of inauspicious second album syndrome?
“Who wouldn’t really feel the strain?” says Nemes. Nick takes a extra phlegmatic view: “You simply do what you do. You may’t let that stuff get to you. I’ve acquired method over that time. You simply have to show up and be as artistic as you’ll be able to. It doesn’t work if you happen to’re consciously making an attempt to be Haircut One Hundred. You’ve acquired to let one factor result in one other.
“We’ve discovered a method of working that fits us, which is to play stay. We’ll begin doing one factor, and it’ll evolve into one thing else. Typically you need to permit it to come back via you. Then Les is my first port of name – if Les doesn’t get a bassline for it, it isn’t a Haircut tune. After which Graham has his filter, as a result of Graham’s a Conflict fan ’til the top of his days. In order that’s the method the songs get filtered via.”
Priceless Friendship
With the times of file firm largesse now a distant reminiscence, it’s additionally a query of logistics. “The trick is to maintain turning up and rehearsing and recording, as a result of we’re not minted,” says Heyward. “There’s no price range – we’ve simply labored an entire 12 months for hardly something. We’re doing it out of pure love.”
Nick takes out his cellphone and scrolls via the scores of tune sketches he’s recorded as voice notes. He performs one, wherein he sings: “If I haven’t acquired a pal, I haven’t acquired something”. “That’s what it’s been currently,” he says, beaming at Les once more. “We love our friendship being again. It’s even higher than it was. A strong factor.”
Playing cards on the desk: do they need they’d accomplished all this sooner?
“A couple of months in the past, Nick stated, ‘Why have we not been doing this for 42 years? That is so wonderful, why did we cease?’” says Les. “I believe remorse is simply too robust a phrase. However there’ssome disappointment, possibly.”
“There’s nothing you are able to do about it,” shrugs Heyward. “And a part of me wonders whether or not we’d have this sensible friendship we have now now, if we’d saved going.”
“There’s additionally the truth that placing it off one other 10 years wasn’t actually an choice,” admits Nemes, who not too long ago turned 64. “You’ve got levels of life – we’re in autumn.”
So as to add to that, Nick isn’t certain they’d have been greeted as such conquering heroes in the event that they’d accomplished it earlier. “Bands undergo life cycles,” he suggests. “And for 10 or possibly 20 years after your first success, you’re not very cool.
“There’ve been instances when, if you happen to didn’t get a file contract, you then didn’t exist. Additionally, if we’d accomplished this 20 years in the past, we’d have been a bit arsey about it. However if you grow old, the selfish aspect of you tends to evaporate. As you disappear from public relevance, you really really feel extra alive.
“Typically, you need to let go of the factor you need, with a purpose to get it. And now we’ve acquired it, we’re loving it. It hasn’t been straightforward to get right here, however now we’re right here, it’s simply… Wow.”
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