| Haircut One Hundred | |
|---|---|
Haircut One Hundred live at the indigO2 (2011) |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Haircut 100 |
| Origin | England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | New Wave |
| Years active | 1980–1984 2004 2009-present |
| Labels | Polydor, Arista |
| Past members | |
| Nick Heyward Graham Jones Les Nemes Phil Smith Mark Fox Blair Cunningham Patrick Hunt |
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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".
Contents |
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.
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[1] and Mark Fox took over vocal duties with the band as songwriters. Heyward departed at the end of 1982 after, in effect, being sacked.[1] 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.[1] 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.
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [3] |
NZ [4] |
US [5] |
|||
| 1981 | "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)" | 4 | 32 | - | |
| 1982 | "Love Plus One" | 3 | 22 | 37 | |
| "Fantastic Day" | 9 | 29 | - | ||
| "Nobody's Fool" | 9 | - | - | ||
| 1983 | "Prime Time" | 46 | - | - | |
| "So Tired" | 94 | - | - | ||
| 1984 | "Too Up, Two Down" | - | - | - | |
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [3] |
NZ [4] |
SWE [7] |
|||
| 1982 | Pelican West
|
2 | 12 | 29 | |
| 1984 | Paint and Paint
|
- | - | - | |