On their debut and only album with band founder Nick Heyward, “Pelican West“, the group display all the skittery beats, deep-voiced crooning, plus pop smarts while adding more funk and saxophone. That Haircut One Hundred scored a bigger hit than Orange Juice the band they so clearly idolized but it’s clear from even one listen through “Pelican West” that Haircut One Hundred were more than just mere copycats. “Love Plus One” is that aforementioned megahit, and it deserved to be a timeless classic. Nick Heyward knew how to write pop hooks, and the band fills them in with brilliant subtlety.
There are siblings to that song scattered across the record: “Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl),” “Marine Boy,” and the ecstatic “Fantastic Day” all have wonderfully snappy melodies and huge choruses; “Milk Film,” “Surprise Me Again,” and “Snow Girl” have a refined pop sound that skews a little less gleeful and a little more melancholy, but the bulk of the album is first-rate ’80s sophisti-pop. Though very much of their time. “Love’s Got Me in Triangles” and “Calling Captain Autumn” are both quite British, with a sort of awkward kind of funk that’s almost quaint in its un-funkiness. Heyward’s attempts at rapping on the latter achieve beat poet-meets-Captain Sensible levels of uncoolness that circle back around to coolness in the end somehow.
The entire record is a little like that. From their corny outfits to their lighter-than-air sound, Haircut One Hundred were never going to be dangerous or sexy. The best they could hope for was escapist but never mindless fun, and on “Pelican West”, they bury their arrows dead centre in the middle of that target. [Edsel’s 2023 reissue of the album does the 2016 release on Cherry Pop one or two better. It replicates the first two discs of that set, adding the same four bonus tracks on the first disc — single B-sides and the post-album release “Nobody’s Fool,” which pointed to a guitar-heavy, sax-solo-free future the group never saw — and a second disc made up of 12″ versions of album tracks, extended versions, and a live recording of “Fantastic Day.” What makes this reissue special is the full live set from 1982, where a clearly on-their-game band joyfully romp through their songbook, even doing “Love Plus One” twice.
The real find here, though, is the first official release of the songs that band recorded for their second album but never finished because Heyward left; some are unfinished instrumentals, some are fully mixed and ready to go. The former tracks point to what could have been a great record, as songs like “I Believe in Sundays,” “Sunny Boy, Sunny Girl,” and especially “Whistle Down the Wind” are leaps and bounds ahead — melodically and emotionally — from the songs on “Pelican West”. The instrumentals show the same amount of playful energy and, with the addition of vocals, could have wonderful. it’s a shame this version of the band imploded before they could deliver that second album, and good that their efforts to that end have finally seen the light of day. Their presence makes an already fine reissue close to perfect.
Haircut One Hundred’s 1982 album “Pelican West” will be reissued in February next year as multi-disc vinyl and CD box sets. The album featured three top ten UK singles in ‘Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)’, ‘Love Plus One’ and ‘Fantastic Day’ and reached #2 in the UK album charts “Pelican West” would be the band’s only album with frontman Nick Heyward. He left in early 1983 and the band released one further LP without him (1984’s “Paint and Paint“), without success.
The album has been remastered and expanded for a 40th anniversary reissue and 4CD and 4LP vinyl box sets will be available, initially with prints signed by all members of the band (750 copies worldwide).
The large format 4CD set offers the remastered album, a disc of 12-inch mixes and B-sides, the demos for their unfinished second album with Heyward (which was given the provisional title “Blue Hat For A Blue Day“) and a live set from Hammersmith Odeon from the spring of 1982. 24 of these 54 tracks are previously unreleased, including early versions of later Nick Heyward solo hits ‘Whistle Down The Wind’, ‘Blue Hat For A Blue Day’ and ‘Sunny Boy, Sunny Girl’.
The 4LP vinyl box offers the same content across four records minus the Hammersmith Odeon show. This 38-track offering features the album half-speed mastered (this is also available separately). This is newly mastered by Phil Kinrade and cut by Barry Grint at AIR Mastering. Like the 4CD box set the 4LP vinyl package is also available with a signed print (750 copies worldwide).
The 4CD set features a 44-page booklet with a new 10,000-word sleeve note featuring an oral history of the time with all six members interviewed by the set’s curator, Daryl Easlea. The booklet also
includes memorabilia and exclusive photographs from the personal collection of Haircut guitarist Graham
Jones and bassist Les Nemes. The vinyl set also offers the notes.
“Pelican West” will be reissued on 24 February 2023 via Demon Music. The signed editions are currently only available via the official Haircut One Hundred shop.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary, Nick Heyward, Les Nemes, Graham Jones & Blair Cunningham will be performing a very special one-off show at London’s O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on 12 May 2023.
The Fat Angel Sings 