Haircut One Hundred

(This page covers both Haircut One Hundred and Nick Heyward as a solo artist.) Haircut One Hundred (sometimes written as Haircut 100) were a British jazz-funk/pop band formed in London in 1980 by vocalist and guitarist Nick Heyward and bassist Les Memes. Eventually becoming a six-piece, the band enjoyed commercial success with their first releases in the early 1980s and had a Top 3 album and four Top 10 singles in the UK. Heyward left the group in early 1983, while Nemes remained with the band for their second album, which was released in 1984. The album was a commercial failure and the band then broke up. Heyward had allegedly left the band due to physical and mental stress (not revealed at the time) although returned as a solo artist in 1983 and enjoyed a string of hit singles as well as a Top 10 album, continuing to record and release records throughout the eighties and nineties. Haircut One Hundred have reformed several times since 2004 and a live recording of their debut Pelican West album performed in its entirety was released in 2011. Heyward released a new solo album in 2017 entitled Woodland Echoes.

Links to Peel
Peel played the group's debut single Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) on its release in October 1981, introduced by the comment that the only subject of conversation between young people in London "seems to be their favourite shirts, which brings us to Haircut One Hundred". A reason for selecting the single may have been that it was produced by Peel session producer Bob Sargeant. Haircut 100 were aware of his work from producing The Beat: "We loved Best Friend, Mirror in the Bathroom and stuff like that," recalled Heyward in 2016, "When we signed to Arista, he had just produced them. And he was John Peel’s producer at the Beeb". Haircut 100 themselves however did not get to do a session for Peel although did record at the BBC for both Richard Skinner and Kid Jensen, their material being more suited to the early evening audience. A copy of their debut album Pelican West is in the Peel Record Collection (H037), again possibly due to the Bob Sargeant connection. Peel introduced both the group and Heyward as a solo artist on Top of the Pops. On the Christmas Day 1982 show he commented: "That’s Haircut 100. You know, underneath all that make-up they’re covered in spots!" The group were not particularly noted for wearing make-up. Peel was presenter on the shows which featured Heyward's first and final TOTP appearances. On introducing his debut solo hit "Whistle Down the Wind" in March 1982 he commented that it was "a rather futile activity in my view." Heyward then famously 'forgot' to mime to the opening line of the song.

Shows played
Haircut One Hundred Nick Heyward
 * 15 October 1981 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) - 7" Arista
 * 25 December 1982 (TOTP) - Love Plus One
 * 23 March 1983 (TOTP) - Whistle Down the Wind
 * 06 October 1983 (TOTP) - Blue Hat For A Blue Day
 * 22 November 1984 (TOTP) - Warning Sign