Nick Heyward has opened up about reuniting Haircut One Hundred after 40 years to celebrate their debut LP ‘Pelican West’.
The group debuted in 1982 with their No. 4 hit Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl), charted one place higher with Love Plus One, and did one better still with their album ‘Pelican West’.
More hits followed with that same album’s Fantastic Day and one-off Nobody’s Fool, both of which peaked within the Top 10, but shortly afterwards the vocalist departed and pursued a successful solo career over the decades that followed.
However, the original quartet has remained friends throughout the years and the foursome got back together in 2004 to perform Love Plus One and Fantastic Day on VH1’s ‘Bands Reunited’ TV show, then did the whole of their debut album at Indigo at The O2 in London in 2011.
In addition to their upcoming gig at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Nick tells RETROPOP’s April 2023 issue he, Les and Graham are in the very early stages of making a new album together, sharing: “Who knows what will happen but there’ll be lots of creativity going on. That’s the band: it’s the strong bond between Les, Graham and I. In the beginning we lived together above a flower shop in Gloucester Road and we loved each other. We were such great mates and we still are.”
Since working together again, they’ve never discussed Nick’s solo success and whether there was any jealousy there. “We haven’t talked about it. It’s like when guys don’t talk about things that have happened with ex-girlfriends and stuff like that,” he insists. “I know guys who can play golf together for years and never talk about the fact one of their wives left them for the other one.
“There’s loads of unanswered questions but as Les says now, ‘I just let everything go,’ and I agree with that. It’s a much better place to be in when you let everything go. We’ve moved on and when we get together now it’s always great.
“It’s not just for Christmas or whether we do one gig together. We are bandmates even when the band isn’t active. We turn up somewhere and we’re dressed the same. There’s an alchemy there, an innate way of sticking together. Les, Graham and I have now said, ‘This is it now, friends for life’.”
‘Pelican West 40’ is out now via Demon.
Read the full interview in the April 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
