One of the hottest and most popular artists from the 80s and front man of teen-pop sensations Haircut 100, Nick Heyward will be jetting in from his home in Florida to headline 80s Day at this August’s Jack Up The Summer festival.
Riding the post-new romantic funk wave, when Haircut 100 burst youthfully onto the scene in 1981, the pop world was primed for their innovative, funky and uplifting sound. Loved by every teenage girl in the land, this wholesome group of chaps tucked their Aran jumpers into their trousers and innovatively blended Chic with the Monkees.
In the early 80s Haircut 100 had four UK Top 10 hit singles; ‘Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)’, ‘Love Plus One’, ‘Nobody’s Fool’, and ‘Fantastic Day’.
The band burnt briefly and brightly. They were the ultimate group of pals who, within a year, had hit the big time. As fully fledged pop stars they were splashed all over 1980’s press, TV and radio every day. The band released their Platinum certified debut album ‘Pelican West’ in 1982, which zoomed to number two in the UK album chart, and hit the US chart at number 31. Their final offering was 1984’s ‘Paint and Paint.’
It finished as quickly as it began; the band parted ways and Nick’s first solo album, ‘North Of A Miracle’, recorded with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, was released in September 1983 and went gold. Nick went on to amass more hit singles as a solo artist in his own right when Haircut 100 split up, and added two more top ten singles to his repertoire, ‘Take That Situation’, ‘Whistle Down The Wind’ and ‘Blue Hat For A Blue Day.’
His career continued through the next decade and a half – supporting Wham! at Wembley at their farewell shows; his first two solo albums of the 1990s, ‘From Monday To Sunday’ and ‘Tangled’ slotted in snugly with the trend of the time; Brit-pop.
Speaking of the 1980’s glory days Nick said:
“I like the way someone once described Haircut 100’s sound as ‘Percolated pop funk’. Percolated is a nice word. It did sound mixed up, sounded colourful; bits cut from everywhere. That’s the joy of a band; everybody brings their bits. The bits were all over the place, and it didn’t sound like one thing, it sounded like lots and lots of things. As a band, it worked. I’d say it sounded like six people learning their craft; six young people coming together and it just happening naturally.”
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Organiser’s of Jack up the Summer have said:
“As front man of pop group Haircut 100, Nick Heyward was an integral part of the 1980’s pop explosion as such we couldn’t be more delighted to have secured him as our 80’s day headliner. Nick will be appearing live on stage on Saturday 10th August alongside hugely iconic 80s electro-pop band Heaven 17, one of the country’s best loved reggae acts Aswad, with many, many more great names still to be announced”.
A strictly limited number of Early Bird Weekend and Day tickets are now available online at www.jackupthesummer.co.uk.
