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Haircut 100: Pelican West 40

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What does it sound like?:

Pelican West has been in my life for all of its 40 odd year existence. For more than 30 of those years it’s become the album I turn to every year as winter turns to spring. It signals dark turning to light, a new beginning as welcome as the daffodils and as warm as the first proper rays of sun on your back. For someone like me it signifies a change in mood. Things will be better and Pelican West confirms all this. When the opportunity presented itself to review this reissued box set I couldn’t say no but let’s be clear there is little, no, there’s no chance of any objectivity. It’s Haircut 100, it’s Nick Heyward, it’s Pelican West which I first wrote about in 2016

1982 was an extraordinary year for music. Post punk, new wave, new romantics, electronica, reggae, Chas and Dave. All vying for a place in the charts. In amongst all of this a band formed in 1981 released an album as part of the South East jazz funk movement but it turned out to be much more than that. Where Linx » Continue Reading.

Haircut 100 – Pelican West

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What does it sound like?:

About this time every year I turn to Pelican West because for the last 34 years and hopefully many more to come it sounds like summer. Incredibly the only album the band in its full format ever made but one that stands the test of the years like few others. A group of young lads in 1980 from Kent, part of the short lived and fairly exclusive genre British Jazz Funk (Shakatak anyone) came up with a collection of songs full of life, happiness, funk and fun. They crashed through the fog of the post punk pre New Romantic era ignoring thrashing guitars and synths. They drew on early Stevie Wonder and Nile Rodgers to rule the already clogged up 1982 charts. It begins with the ultimate “getting ready” tune “Favourite Shirts” the line “Your favourite shirt is on the bed, do a somersault on your head” telling you all you need to know about this hyperactive masterpiece. “Love Plus One” next a pop tune so beautiful and made for Nick Heywards “eye, eye, eye, eye, eye” grin, who wouldn’t go down to the lake he fears? What comes next are 4 jazz funk » Continue Reading.

40 years on. Why still Sulk Dave?

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Another Associates post Dave? There are other bands you know. I know, I know but it was released 40 years ago today and try as I might I just couldn’t let it pass. It comes with an apology and no expectations of you reading or responding. It’s one of those I need to do to get it out of my head. Much like the album it’s pure indulgence…

So as much for me as for anyone who cares to read on I’ve been giving some thought to why this album is probably my favourite album of all time. It’s one of those questions that most of us have four or five go to answers for. I know I have. The answer depends on how I’m feeling when asked, what I’ve been listening to, what day of the week it is etc. However more often than not I’ll say it’s Sulk. I’ve already got three vinyl copies including the US version that has 18 Carat Love Affair and Love Hangover on it and I’ve ordered the 40th anniversary release which I really don’t need.

Why? I think it’s because it is so much of everything I’m not but wish I could » Continue Reading.

Gary Crowley and Nick Heyward

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Venue:

Twickenham Exchange

Date: 01/05/2022

Gary Crowley and Nick Heyward are two of my favourite people. They’re just both so nice. They both give their fans (and one amateur writer) more than just the time of day. So the opportunity to see them both at The Exchange in Twickenham on Sunday for an evening of music and conversation was too good an opportunity to let pass especially as my first post covid outing.

Gary and Nick go way back. We’d find out just how far in the first part of the evening when the two of them sat chatting like the old friends they are with a few hundred of us in their virtual living room listening in. How far do they go back? To 1981 when Gary was one of the very few to attend  a very early Haircut 100 gig at The Embassy in London. His usual enthusiasm overflowed as he talked about that experience and the impact this band had on him. This set Nick up for what came next. Nick is such an engaging interviewee with almost too many stories to tell, all fascinating.

Stories like. .. Arriving at the NME offices and asking to » Continue Reading.

Great Singles of 1979. Some observations….

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It is hard to argue 1979 was the greatest year for the “single” Has any other year been the centre of such a musical Venn diagram. Punk, disco, new wave, pure pop, soft rock, reggae, ska, the beginning of the electronic revolution and the first rap and hip hop. I’ve never noticed before how influenced by Chic Nick Heyward was. “I Want Your Love” could be a missing “Pelican West” track. Jimmy Pursey makes me laugh, for good reasons. The Police were very good. Disco is the best music to walk to. I bounced around my post round to “Ring My Bell” and “Born To Be Alive”. I wondered if any casual observers could tell what I was listening to. I like to think of myself as “The Disco Postman”. The Beat were wonderful. The intro to “Cars” is THE best electronic intro ever. Radio 1 just could not fail in 1979. Imagine doing your playlist for millions of listeners. I really miss Top of The Pops. I may have to concede that 1979 was better than 1982, maybe….

Any more?

Nick Heyward ” From Monday To Sunday”

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What does it sound like?:

It begins with “He Doesn’t Love You Like I Do” a slice of Del Amitri with a dash of The La’s so of course I’m hooked. “Kite” comes next which starts with a snippet of the intro to “Chain Reaction” then becoming a XTC inspired masterpiece showing that Heyward has lost none of his lyrical ability. “Into Your Life” is more melodic beauty and the we have “Caravan” which is pure Heyward. Lyrically pinching The Jams “about the new idea” line while dreaming of trips to Camber Sands where “she still loves to play The Jam” it could have been a single from “Pelican West”. “Ordinary People is a beautiful lament as is “How Do You Live Without Sunshine” which could be a biographical trip back to the days just after Haircut 100. The rest of the album is more of the same. The kind of melodic, lyrical upbeat pop that ticks all my boxes. It’s a 90’s album made by one of the 80’s great lost talents. I’m biased of course but this album belongs in The Afterword canon a glorious missed gem. I’ve even given you the Spotify link so all you » Continue Reading.

Take a deep breath and go “Laaaaaa”

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Dave Amitri’s Pelican West thread made me think of Favourite Shirts and the way Heyward sings the word “why”. He holds the note for seven seconds – which is quite a long time in that clippy, choppy song.

But this is nothing – nothing – compared to the 27 (TWENTY SEVEN) seconds that Shahin Badar holds one note from 3:46 to 4:13 in Prodigy’s toe-tapper, Smack My Bitch Up.

I am wondering if, in the world out there, there’s a two/three minute pop song where the vocal is entirely one note? Someone avant garde might have – you never know. Otherwise, has anyone out-warbled Shahin?

I Read A Lot

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I read a lot, I can’t put it down – Nick Lowe

Sometimes it’s easier to retreat into yourself, to shut up shop, “shut out that stealing moon” – as Thomas Hardy described it – and simply exist in a penumbra of your life. When I sense I’m becoming maudlin and self-absorbed or over-burdened with worries, both real and imagined, I read. Reading gets me out of the shadows and helps me re-engage with the world. I have always at least 2 or 3 books on the go but when I get into one of my prolonged dark moods I seek out an extra level of compensation from the written word. Years of reading has helped me to help myself when it comes to choosing a book or an author to revive a part of me that feels undernourished, overlooked or sadly lacking in vitality.

For example I’ve been reading classic Westerns by writers like Zane Grey, Larry McMurtry and Louis L’Amour. Their books help me escape from an insistent gut feeling that I’m chronically (as well as chronologically) out of step with the modern world and should simply accept it rather than fight it. There’s something liberating about » Continue Reading.