The newest Haircut One Hundred reunion is “a present from the universe”, frontman Nick Heyward and bassist Les Nemes inform Basic Pop – and so they’re loving each single second of it…
“I’ve simply been arrested!” says Nick Heyward, by means of a gap gambit, as he arrives for his date with Basic Pop in a Soho bar. “I had my rights learn to me and every part,” 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 assumed the federal government simply gave you it. However it seems Sara [his wife and manager] had obtained 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 concept of the eternally boyish Nick Heyward qualifying for such a concession within the first place – he’s 63 however appears 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 would possibly at some point be a pop star with a Senior Railcard?
“I hoped it would occur – as a result of it’s one thing to purpose 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 obtained 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 associates once more, and doing what we love?’” smiles Les.
“It’s a extremely intense friendship that the three of us had again within the late Seventies and early 80s, once we had 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 whenever you’re actual mates.”
Love Plus Three
For a very long time, Nick, Les and Graham weren’t mates. Combating the stress 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 advised Basic Pop in 2017, the onstage truce didn’t translate to an offstage relationship. So what modified? “Nicely, there’s nonetheless a few members caught up to now – that’s the explanation,” says Heyward, pointedly. Saxophonist Phil Smith and percussionist Marc Fox haven’t rejoined the get together, although drummer Blair Cunningham is on board as an affiliate member. “They’ve obtained points they didn’t wish to discuss. However the remainder of us have moved on.”
“I advised Nick, ‘I don’t care what occurred up to now’,” says Les. “That’s gone, and the long run isn’t right here. So the one factor that issues is true 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 day-after-day 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 presently engaged on a brand new studio album.
“We thought the reunion present could 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 vitality because it goes on.”
“The mad factor was, we didn’t prepare 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 every part, and all you have 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 begin taking care of my funeral…”
The universe obtained 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 is able to have occurred,” says Nemes. “He organised every part, pushed for every part.”
“He was a lifelong fan of energy pop and pop-funk, who I’d met after 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 company of ABC and Howard Jones, greater than 4 a long time after their final US reveals, was an emotional expertise for the band – and, it turned out, their viewers. “Some individuals had flown a whole bunch of miles, or accomplished a highway journey from Texas to Utah, or wherever,” says Heyward. “They usually introduced all these reminiscences with them – of discovering their companion or dropping them, or going by means of chemo… I bear in mind one evening watching a lady standing along with her husband, and inside the first couple of bars of Love Plus One, she had began crying. And also you thought, ‘My god, what does that music imply to her?’ By the tip of the tour, we had been all dropping it.
“The reveals 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 had been simply on hearth, aiming for the hips. It was such a powerhouse of vitality – 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 by means of related issues, however having not accomplished it for 42 years, we had been in all probability processing it at a unique stage to the opposite two,” displays Nick. “The reveals had been so charged; I believe it sort of ignited Martin Fry’s aggressive facet. However Howard was rather more chilled. He was identical to, ‘I like this, let’s do extra.’”
Again residence, Haircut One Hundred crossed off one other bucket checklist merchandise after they made their Glastonbury Pageant debut on the Avalon Stage. “It was wonderful,” smiles Les. “It was one other factor I’d given up on,” admits Heyward. “I assumed, ‘That’s by no means going to occur’. However it 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 periods with effervescent single The Unloving Plum – a jubilant, summery earworm (and Radio 2 Report of the Week, as well).
“The music 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 gentle 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 loss program pop’ was, provides Nick, initially extra brand-specific. “It was, ‘Cowl me in Weight loss program Coke’. However Radio 2 and different stations stated, ‘Sorry, no product placement’. Although I be aware that Addison Rae can get away with [recent hit] Weight loss program Pepsi, so it’s clearly totally different guidelines for her.”
The only arrived with a playful, Frankenstein-riffing video, directed by Tom Bailey (no, not that one). “Everybody advised us movies aren’t a factor anymore,” says Nick. “However it’s a part of the inventive 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 obtained eight songs which are kicking round,” says Nemes. “After which we’ll search for one other two or three.”
Chatting with Basic 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 favored it to go,” he says right this moment. “I noticed it with no brass – simply kicking again to the three of us and conserving it very uncooked. However it hasn’t gone as far that means 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 automobile music. And Dynamite is a giant, funky disco music, sort of like Earth, Wind and Hearth.”
One other observe that’s presently in competition, Mudlarks, returns to the geographical location of Pelican West. “It’s concerning the Pelican Stairs [in East London], the place they used to hold individuals,” explains Heyward. “It’s a really important space for the band. However it’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 Information and Nile Rodgers (by way of Sixties Tropicália and Bruce Lee film soundtracks), it held a brace of High 10 singles – Favorite Shirts (Boy Meets Lady), Love Plus One, Implausible Day and No one’s Idiot – and sounds box-fresh right this moment. So are they feeling the stress to bottle lightning once more and keep away from what may (drawing a discreet veil over Paint And Paint) grow to be the world’s most delayed case of inauspicious second album syndrome?
“Who wouldn’t really feel the stress?” says Nemes. Nick takes a extra phlegmatic view: “You simply do what you do. You possibly can’t let that stuff get to you. I’ve obtained means over that time. You simply have to show up and be as inventive as you possibly can. It doesn’t work in the event you’re consciously attempting to be Haircut One Hundred. You’ve obtained to let one factor result in one other.
“We’ve discovered a means of working that fits us, which is to play reside. We’ll begin doing one factor, and it’ll evolve into one thing else. Typically it’s important to enable it to come back by means of you. Then Les is my first port of name – if Les doesn’t get a bassline for it, it isn’t a Haircut music. After which Graham has his filter, as a result of Graham’s a Conflict fan ’til the tip of his days. In order that’s the method the songs get filtered by means of.”
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 finances – we’ve simply labored a complete 12 months for hardly something. We’re doing it out of pure love.”
Nick takes out his telephone and scrolls by means of the scores of music sketches he’s recorded as voice notes. He performs one, by which he sings: “If I haven’t obtained a buddy, I haven’t obtained something”. “That’s what it’s been recently,” 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 just too sturdy a phrase. However there’ssome disappointment, perhaps.”
“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 good friendship we now have now, if we’d stored going.”
“There’s additionally the truth that placing it off one other 10 years wasn’t actually an possibility,” admits Nemes, who just lately turned 64. “You may have phases 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 perhaps 20 years after your first success, you’re not very cool.
“There’ve been instances when, in the event you didn’t get a file contract, you then didn’t exist. Additionally, if we’d accomplished this 20 years in the past, we would have been a bit arsey about it. However whenever you become older, the selfish facet of you tends to evaporate. As you disappear from public relevance, you truly really feel extra alive.
“Typically, it’s important to let go of the factor you need, with the intention to get it. And now we’ve obtained 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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