"I didn't know how to deal with being a frontman"

In 1981, Haircut 100 came bursting out of Beckenham, all Argyle sweaters and sou’westers, purveying a new kind of jangly, poppy Britfunk, equal parts Monkees and Earth, Wind & Fire. Face and NME darlings, they soon matched critical respect with the screams of teenage fans, but already by summer ’82 the wheels had come off, singer and songwriter Nick Heyward was suffering a nervous breakdown and he left the band in acrimonious circumstances. In the 90s he enjoyed a period of solo success, with hits in the States and a period of late affirmation when he signed to the Creation label. Now, though, all hatchets have been buried and the Haircuts have reunited, with live dates and talk of a new album. “Till death us do part,” Heyward tells Adrian Thrills

- By Adrian Thrills

Heyward circa 1981: “We were part of a new British funk movement”

There was something about the teenage Nick Heyward when he walked unannounced into the NME offices in Carnaby Street in March 1981. Having charmed his way past reception, he thrust a demo tape into my hands and began telling me, a staff writer with an interest in new bands, about Haircut 100 (sometimes Haircut One Hundred). A graphic artist who had left school in Beckenham at 16, he convinced me to check out his band live at The Ski Club Of Great Britain, where his parents ran the bar, and it was there that his admirable bravado began to make sense.

The band – singer and guitarist Heyward, bassist Les Nemes, guitarist Graham Jones and drummer Patrick Hunt – played fast, chunky pop with its roots in funk. Heyward sang in the highly-strung manner of Talking Head David Byrne, and their music chimed with the moment. Bands such as ABC, Funkapolitan, Stimulin and 23 Skidoo were independently mining a similarly funky seam, while one of the singles of the year, made by i-D co-founder Perry Haines, was What’s Funk? Haircut 100 had timed their arrival perfectly.

“A Haircut above the rest… they might just be the cream of the crop,” I wrote in an NME piece, unable to resist a cheap pun. I introduced Heyward to Nick Logan, editor of style bible The Face, and put together an introductory piece for the June 1981 issue of that publication, too.