Jack Hayter is a British musician. He was a multi instrumentalist with Hefner, and is a folk singer-songwriter.[1] Hayter also played with alt-country band Spongefinger and acclaimed folktronica band Dollboy. He is also frequently used as a session pedal steel guitar player in the London alternative scene.
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Jack Hayter first made a mark in the UK with the Alt.Country group Spongefinger who released two well received albums but he only really came into prominence when he joined Hefner. In Hefner, Hayter recorded and released several albums, singles and EPs for the Too Pure label. They had several top 75 singles and recorded a number of sessions for John Peel and Steve Lamacq [2].
Since Hefner went quiet in 2001, Hayter released his debut solo album "Practical Wireless" on Absolutely Kosher Records and notably recorded and toured with ambient rock band Dollboy. He also contributed the music to the short film by the director John Hardwick titled To Have And To Hold which starred Susanne_Lothar and had poetry published in the second Tall Lighthouse poetry review "Automatic Lighthouse" (ISBN 1 904551 24 6).
Though Hefner haven't fully reformed, Hayter and Darren Hayman toured in 2008 playing Hefner songs [3] and Hayter has contributed to various post-Hefner recordings/projects from both ANT and Hayman.
Since 2008 He has also worked extensively with the British Film Institute on various educational film projects made with children in North Kent.
Hayter has played pedal steel and other instruments on a large number of records from musicians as diverse as Tram, Mark Mulcahy, TV Smith and The Wildhearts. As a solo artist he has opened for artists like KT Tunstall, Martin Grech, Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern, Benjamin Shaw, Fighting Kites and fellow Absolutely Kosher alumni The Mountain Goats.
Through the encouragement of Benjamin Shaw, Hayter signed with UK independent record label Audio Antihero and released a new EP called "Sucky Tart" in January 2011. The EP was well received by press with isthismusic? giving it 5/5[4], The Organ naming it their 'thing of the day' and calling it "his finest moments yet"[5] and The Line Of Best Fit praised him for having "the imagination to break from the usually tough (and boring/overdone/tiresome) grasps of folk"[6].
Tom Robinson also played opening track "I Stole The Cutty Sark" prior to release on his BBC 6 Music show[7] and "A Doll's House" was subsequently played by Tom Ravenscroft[8][9] (whose father John Peel had been a notable supporter of Hefner). Hayter promoted the release with sessions for regional stations like Resonance FM, X-Stream East and Dandelion Radio.