— Ian Birch
Where do we go from here?
Nick Heyward's goofy yet handsome face ("Everyone keeps saying to me I look just like their brother") graced the cover of Smash Hits on three occasions. The first time was alongside fellow members of his band Haircut One Hundred just as stardom beckoned. A few months' later he had returned but this time he was on his own and he was busy formulating plans for further notoriety and success. It would be more than two years' later by the time he'd be back for a third cover and this time he was now searching for advice on how to move forward when everything had imploded in on him.
Nick Heyward only enjoyed a brief period near the top — and all at an age in which he may not have fully appreciated it. He was still in his early-twenties when he began to go down the dumper, a place he has managed to more or less remain in ever since. And, yet, he has maintained a career as one of pop's finest songwriters. Few have managed to reside in the dumper with their dignity still intact.
In a talk with former Hits staff members David Hepworth and Mark Ellen (who wrote the first two profiles on ver Haircuts in the top pop mag), Heyward has stated that he spent his youth soaking up musical influences, in large part due to his older brother's own pop music aspirations. From the boozy hard rock of Montrose and Status Quo to Yes's intricate progressive rock adventures, the adolescent Nick was open to all of it. Unwilling to disavow prog and jazz fusion, he found punk appealing because he was able to play it. It was then that he began tripping on some of the more musically accomplished new wave acts, particularly Talking Heads and XTC.
I previously had "Love Plus One" down as his own "Listen to What the Man Said" but I think that was at least in part down to the use of soprano sax on both. Yet, the Paul McCartney influence weighed heaviest on Heyward. His gift for ear-catching melodies could not have come from any other source. Yet, this song is very much an amalgamation of his myriad influences.
Recency bias favours the work of David Byrne and Andy Partridge of brainiac groups Talking Heads and XTC respectively. The former is especially identifiable with jangly guitars that also manage to stutter, the use of unconventional rhythms and Heyward spinning an oddball tale that we as listeners are convinced must have some kind of meaning precisely because we have no idea what he's on about. There's certainly more than a little of that in Partridge's work as well (this very fortnight also saw the release of XTC's lone Top 10 hit "Senses Working Overtime", a song which one would assume to be a father to "Love Plus One" but for the fact that the two are far too contemporaneous for there to have been much influence in either direction) but it's probably a little closer to the compositions of Colin Moulding, someone Heyward acknowledges as being a major influence on his bass playing.
Heyward tells Ellen all about his theory of the changing tastes of your average pop kid (basically, it's preteen Beatles and Monkees, followed by rejecting them in favour of hipper acts, then a depressing jazz phase and ending with being resigned to a happy life of yet more Beatles and Monkees) while bassist Les Nemes admits to massive funk influences while disavowing the latent Brit-funk movement. All seems well in Haircut land — even if there are hints that his bandmates are as puzzled as anyone over the those lyrics — but there are already signs that there may not have been the required group unity to ensure a lengthy tenure. While Heyward spent the seventies absorbing his older brother's record collection, Nemes along with Blair Cunningham, Graham Jones and Phil Neville Smith had their own interests.
Quite what the rest of them were into six months later is anyone's guess. This time, it's just Ellen and Heyward discussing the state of the band and plans for a TV series. All that knitwear and those boating jackets was still a part of the group's distinctive look but the singer admits that a change is likely in order for the follow-up to their brilliant debut album Pelican West. A major change was certainly forthcoming, something that, again, is just hinted at by Heyward's ambitions being far beyond the scope of a mere pop outfit. He doesn't come across as arrogant or spoiled by fame, merely a young bloke who is just interested in making the most of his opportunity.
Finally, Nick Heyward is on the cover of ver Hits to interview erstwhile punk and sometime pop star Feargal Sharkey. That's correct, he made the cover as a glorified member of the Smash Hits editorial crew. (In fairness, he did have more of a face for magazine covers than the former lead singer of The Undertones) Both had departed successful groups and were struggling with what to do next. Both, Heyward reckons, have battled with that whole 'next Beatles' nonsense which he considers to be a "kiss of death". Hits or misses, prolific pace or keeping still for a bit, he learns from the Ulster vet that there's contentment to be had in writing and recording.
Where do we go from here? If not necessarily in the direction of the career young musicians set out for then the sort of career that individuals can look back upon with pride. What I wouldn't give to have Nick Heyward's talent for just long enough to compose one song, even if it's a poor cousin of "Love Plus One" or "Tell Me Why" or "Perfect Sunday Sun". There's a reason people like Heyward make songwriting seem so easy — and that's because it's so damn hard for the rest of us.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Robert Palmer: "Some Guys Have All the Luck"
As I observed the last time I blogged about "Love Plus One", this fortnight's singles are a thin bunch. Not necessarily in terms of quality, mind you; there's a solid selection of XTC, Joan Armatrading, OMD, a post-Hall/Staple/Golding Special AKA and Orange Juice up for consideration. (I also hinted that Ian Birch made the wrong choice for Single of the Fortnight but pay no attention to what I used to think) Robert Palmer was entering his prime years of soul, rock, calypso, lounge and overall tastelessness and his cover of The Persuaders' "Some Guys Have All the Luck" is a good primer on his skills as a vocalist. Never an easy guy to sing along with and this is one of his trickiest yet. While a generation of nineties divas chose to both astonish and frustrated listeners by hitting single notes for as long as possible, Palmer unleashes his incomparable range here with soulful, Marvin Gaye-like passages through to his ability to munch on sandpaper in song like few others, Not one of his absolute best (it's no "Clues" or "Woke Up Laughing") but "Some Guys Have All the Luck" is a tasty thing indeed — and one that far surpasses Rod Stewart's unconvincing cover. (I mean, seriously, does anyone think that Rod is envious of anyone else's dumb luck? The man has fallen upward more times than he can count)
(Click here to see my original review)
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