Haircut 100
Encyclopedia
Haircut One Hundred are a British pop group formed in 1980 by Nick Heyward
. The band had four UK Top 10 hit singles between 1981 and 1982, including "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)
" and "Love Plus One
".
A bidding war from the labels ensued, but it was Arista Records that won their signatures. They entered Chalk Farm’s Roundhouse studios to record their debut single ‘Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)’. Its jazz funk sound, Talking Heads style guitars, Latin percussion and a 'rap' section gave them their first hit single. The single eventually reached number 4 in the UK charts and earned them their first appearance on Top of the Pops
.
For the recording of their debut album, Blair Cunningham replaced Pat Hunt on drums. Their second single was ‘Love Plus One,’ giving the band their second UK Top 10 hit, shortly followed by the released of their debut album, ‘Pelican West,’ which reached number 2 in the album charts.
The band headed out on tour with sold out shows everywhere they went in the UK , Europe, North America and Japan. In addition, they found time to return to the UK for further appearances on Top of the Pops for two further Top 10 singles, ‘Fantastic Day’ and ‘Nobody’s Fool’.
Heyward became psychologically unwell and Mark Fox took over vocal duties with the band as songwriters. Heyward departed at the end of 1982 after, in effect, being sacked. Their follow-up album, ‘Paint & Paint,’ was released in 1984 but the momentum was lost and the album didn’t fare as well. The band called it a day soon after.
In 2009 the band rekindled their friendship via Facebook and Heyward invited them down to perform as Haircut at one of his solo gigs. The band enjoyed themselves so much they played London's indigO2 on 28 January 2011 performing Pelican West in its entirety. This is the first time the band have done this, and it was recorded as a live double album
.
Nick Heyward
Nick Heyward is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the frontman of the early 1980s band Haircut One Hundred, and also had a briefly successful solo career after he left the band in 1983.-Haircut One Hundred:Nick Heyward formed Haircut One Hundred after the...
. The band had four UK Top 10 hit singles between 1981 and 1982, including "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)
Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)
"Favourite Shirts " is a 1981 debut single by British New Wave band Haircut One Hundred. The song appeared on their 1982 debut album Pelican West. The single was backed by the track "Boat Party". It reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart in October 1981....
" and "Love Plus One
Love Plus One (song)
"Love Plus One" is a 1982 song by New Wave band Haircut One Hundred from their debut album Pelican West. This was their only hit in the United States, peaking at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart....
".
Career
Formed from a band ‘Moving England’, Nick Heyward and Les Nemes met guitarist Graham Jones to form a new band. Musically their influences ranged far and wide with Nick inspired by the Beatles, Talking Heads and Jazz, Les by Funk, The Faces, The Jam and Reggae and Graham with The Clash, Surf and Hot Rod music, Sex Pistols and Dub. This infusion of styles along with Heyward's lyrics gave birth to Haircut One Hundred. Joined by drummer Pat Hunt and manager Karl Adams the band recorded some demos. They asked Phil Smith to help with saxophone on the session. This worked well so he was asked to join the band for gigs. Needing something else, Smith’s university friend Marc Fox joined to add Brazilian percussion.A bidding war from the labels ensued, but it was Arista Records that won their signatures. They entered Chalk Farm’s Roundhouse studios to record their debut single ‘Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)’. Its jazz funk sound, Talking Heads style guitars, Latin percussion and a 'rap' section gave them their first hit single. The single eventually reached number 4 in the UK charts and earned them their first appearance on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
.
For the recording of their debut album, Blair Cunningham replaced Pat Hunt on drums. Their second single was ‘Love Plus One,’ giving the band their second UK Top 10 hit, shortly followed by the released of their debut album, ‘Pelican West,’ which reached number 2 in the album charts.
The band headed out on tour with sold out shows everywhere they went in the UK , Europe, North America and Japan. In addition, they found time to return to the UK for further appearances on Top of the Pops for two further Top 10 singles, ‘Fantastic Day’ and ‘Nobody’s Fool’.
Heyward became psychologically unwell and Mark Fox took over vocal duties with the band as songwriters. Heyward departed at the end of 1982 after, in effect, being sacked. Their follow-up album, ‘Paint & Paint,’ was released in 1984 but the momentum was lost and the album didn’t fare as well. The band called it a day soon after.
In 2009 the band rekindled their friendship via Facebook and Heyward invited them down to perform as Haircut at one of his solo gigs. The band enjoyed themselves so much they played London's indigO2 on 28 January 2011 performing Pelican West in its entirety. This is the first time the band have done this, and it was recorded as a live double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
.
Band members
- Nick HeywardNick HeywardNick Heyward is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the frontman of the early 1980s band Haircut One Hundred, and also had a briefly successful solo career after he left the band in 1983.-Haircut One Hundred:Nick Heyward formed Haircut One Hundred after the...
- born Nicholas Heyward, 20 May 1961, BeckenhamBeckenhamBeckenham is a town in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It is located 8.4 miles south east of Charing Cross and 1.75 miles west of Bromley town...
, KentKentKent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. - Les NemesLes NemesLes Nemes is an English bassist. His first band was Haircut One Hundred, who went on to enjoy success in the early 1980s and spawned a number one album and four top five singles in the UK. The records also charted in the US, where the band were starting to enjoy the beginnings of major success but...
- born Leslie Nemes, 5 December 1960, CroydonCroydonCroydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, SurreySurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
- bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
. - Graham Jones - born 8 July 1961, BridlingtonBridlingtonBridlington is a seaside resort, minor sea fishing port and civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It has a static population of over 33,000, which rises considerably during the tourist season...
, East YorkshireEast YorkshireEast Yorkshire could be:*East Yorkshire Motor Services*An alternative name for the East Riding of Yorkshire*East Yorkshire , a former district of Humberside*East Yorkshire...
- guitar - Patrick David Hunt - ShaftesburyShaftesburyShaftesbury is a town in Dorset, England, situated on the A30 road near the Wiltshire border 20 miles west of Salisbury. The town is built 718 feet above sea level on the side of a chalk and greensand hill, which is part of Cranborne Chase, the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset...
, DorsetDorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
- drumDrumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s (left before first album was completed) - Phil Smith - born 1 May 1959, RedbridgeRedbridge, LondonRedbridge is a district of Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge in north-east London. It is home to Redbridge Institute of Adult Education and Redbridge Football Club.-Etymology:...
, EssexEssexEssex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
- saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846... - Marc Fox - born 13 February 1958 - PercussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, vocals - Blair CunninghamBlair CunninghamBlair Cunningham is a drummer who has played with Haircut One Hundred, The Pretenders, Paul McCartney, Alison Moyet, Sade, Paul Rutherford, the Indigo Girls, Roxy Music, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Mick Jagger, Ray Davis, Andy Taylor, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, Kevin Rowland and The Big Dish...
- born 11 October 1957, HarlemHarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
- drums
Singles
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
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| 1981 | "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)" | 4 | 32 | - |
|
| 1982 | "Love Plus One Love Plus One (song) "Love Plus One" is a 1982 song by New Wave band Haircut One Hundred from their debut album Pelican West. This was their only hit in the United States, peaking at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.... " |
3 | 22 | 37 |
|
| "Fantastic Day Fantastic Day "Fantastic Day" is a 1982 single by British New Wave band Haircut One Hundred, from their debut album Pelican West. The song reached #9 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1982.-Other uses:*Gillingham Football Club plays the song at home matches, after a win.... " |
9 | 29 | - | ||
| "Nobody's Fool" | 9 | - | - | ||
| 1983 | "Prime Time" | 46 | - | - | |
| "So Tired" | 94 | - | - | ||
| 1984 | "Too Up, Two Down" | - | - | - | |
Studio Albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
SWE Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
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| 1982 | Pelican West Pelican West Pelican West is a 1982 album by the new wave band Haircut One Hundred. It featured their hit singles, Love Plus One and Favourite Shirts...
|
2 | 12 | 29 |
British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... : Platinum |
| 1984 | Paint and Paint Paint and Paint Paint and Paint is the second album by British 80s band Haircut One Hundred. It was their first and only album released after lead singer Nick Heyward's departure from the group, and features Mark Fox as lead vocalist.-Track listing:#"Fish in a Bowl"... Polydor Records Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone... |
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