Haircut 100 On Releasing Their First New Album In Over 40 Years

Haircut 100 (L-R): Graham Jones, Nick Heyward, Blair Cunningham and Les Nemes.

credit: Andrew Cotterill

In an alternate universe, the British group Haircut 100 might have been a 1970s progressive rock band like Yes or Genesis had they not been better known for their unique hybrid of funk, pop and New Wave during the early 1980s. During that period, the group — whose present lineup includes singer Nick Heyward, bassist Les Nemes, guitarist Graham Jones and drummer Blair Cunningham — were huge in the U.K. through their debut album Pelican West and hit singles “Favourite Shirts,” “Love Plus One” and “Fantastic Day.” But then Heyward left the band in 1983, and the group broke up shortly after. It would take more than four decades for Haircut 100 to formally reunite.

“It took some planning,” Heyward says recently. “We tried desperately to not be together for the 44 years. We originally planned for a 45-year break because we wanted to be super prog. What’s the most prog thing we could ever do?’ Let’s not be together for 44 years.’”

“We joke about the prog thing, but I’m actually serious,” says Nemes. “I want the band to start acting its age. I don’t mean that in a negative way. But we’re mature gentlemen now.”

Since the reformation from about three years ago, Haircut 100 has toured the U.S., and they will do so again this summer as part of a bill with Squeeze and Adam Ant. This time around, the live dates will coincide with Boxing the Compass, the group’s first new album with Heyward in nearly 45 years.

“It’s been a natural progression, “ says Heyward about making the new record. “It’s almost like the beginning, unplanned, but we do have a goal, and that’s just to be the best band and be in a band. To have a band is to be in a band. And it’s a very simple mathematical equation. It’s like really 1 plus 1 equals 279,000.”

“Personally, it’s the most natural thing to do,” Nemes recalls being in the recording studio again with his bandmates. “Anything to do with that band, I feel 100% confident and comfortable with.. It’s never awkward. We always write and record the same way because it works for us, regardless of whether we’re prog-rocking or funking. It’s always the same process, more or less.”

On Boxing the Compass — which recalls classic Haircut 100 and more — the band collaborated with Sean Reed (Dexys), who witnessed firsthand the chemistry between the four members in the studio. “So Blair’s in the drum booth,” Heyward recalls. “Les, Graham and I are in the control room next to Sean. And he was like going, ‘Oh, I get Haircut 100 now.’ We’d spent a while in rehearsal studios that summer chewing things around and getting pop moments together.”

He continues: “Some songs were easy. Some songs were more lyrically. I think “Come Back to Me” — I spent that whole summer on those lyrics trying to get something. But it came from a little moment when we smiled together. It was a little guitar riff, a little bass line, and a big drumbeat, all happening at the same time. And we all smiled at each other.”

Haircut 100 first teased new music in 2024 with the standalone upbeat-sounding single “The Unloving Plum.” It is now on Boxing the Compass, but that track could’ve also been on 1982’s Pelican West album, along with many other horn-powered funk-inspired songs such as “Vanishing Point,” “Soulbird” and “Sunshine.” And yet some songs find the group branching out, like the anthemic rockers “Come Back to Me” and “Raincloud,” and the tropical Latin-tinged love song “That’s a Start.”

Another standout from the new record is the funky “Dynamite.” ”It took a while to make that,” Heyward recalls. “But once there was a moment,[Les] came up with that bassline in the chorus. And then it’s like, ‘Yes, this is something. This is Haircut.’ Because it’s not Haircut until that moment happens….and then it fits. And when it fits, it’s like this thing happens, and then it turns into Haircut 100.”

Fittingly, the album closes with the sublime and lovely “A Wonderful Life,” which could also be a metaphor of Haircut 100’s career at this late juncture. “Sometimes you’re forced into making them autobiographical, even though they’re not always,” Heyward says. “I mean, everything’s always autobiographical. Every bassline that Les plays is autobiographical. It’s never not going to be. So everybody ever does, I suppose, is a bit autobiographical, but sometimes it’s literal.”

At the peak of their popularity circa 1982, Haircut 100 had hits on the British pop chart (“Love Plus One” remains their sole U.S. top 40 hit) and appeared on the popular U.K. music television program Top of the Pops. But as they were about to record Haircut’s follow-up album, Heyward left the band in 1983. Following the release of the group’s second album, 1984’s Paint and Paint, with percussionist Marc Fox on lead vocals, the group split up. Meanwhile, Heyward forged on with his solo career, although there have been the occasional Haircut 100 reunions.

“We’ve been having attempts to get back together for 44 years,” Heyward says. “And that’s why on this one, we all didn’t want to get our hopes up — you get back, and then you can’t get it together… But we didn’t have a say so much in this. It was like, ‘Listen, it’s now or never, and the powers that be are going to make it happen because a lot of people wanted it.’ So that’s what helped us.”

In addition to the joint bill with Squeeze and Adam Ant this summer, Haircut 100 will also embark on a U.K. tour later this year with Culture Club and ABC. “We’ve only got a certain amount of time on stage, so we’re quite spoiled for choice this time around,” Nemes says. “But the last time, I loved the whole ‘hit-it-and-quit-it’ thing — just get on, hit them with six funk songs, and leave the audience going, ‘Oh, my God. What was that?’ ‘That was Haircut 100.’”

With the release of Boxing the Compass, it seems like Haircut 100’s career has finally come full circle. But the way that Heyward and Nemes talk about the band today is more in the future tense, like their story isn’t finished yet.

“It always was an open book for me,” says Nemes. “It was never resolved. The last few chapters were never resolved. And the book was open all the time. And then after a while [following the breakup], I personally just closed it and thought, ‘That’s it. Nothing will ever happen now.’ And then the universe stepped in. It’s weird. When you really want something and ask the universe, you’re waiting forever. Then when you think, ‘Oh, I don’t want it anymore,’ that’s when it comes. It’s really strange. And I don’t think it’s full circle yet because I think we’ve got so much more to do.”

Not feeling the pressure to write and record hit pop songs as they did in the 1980s, there still might be time for Haircut 100 to do that long-awaited prog project. Says Nemes: “If you want to do a three-and-a-half-minute intro to a song, then just do it. Have a seven-minute song—who cares? It’s not 1982 anymore, and we don’t have to limit it to three minutes. I’d rather just be Yes and go into the studio, spend six months recording everything, and then pick out what’s good and what isn’t.

“Everybody loves an anthem, don’t they? We never had an anthem. So I want to do that. I think once we do that, then for me, it will be complete because we’d have moved on and we’d have caught up with our actual physical age.”