Nick Heyward’s efficacy for design spread to Haircut 100’s artwork. The sleeves of their singles featured a distinctive italic t ypeface – in Balmoral, font fans – with the covers also colour coded for anyone paying attention.
When Nick Heyward left Haircut 100 in 1983, his debut solo album North Of A Miracle was originally intended to be released under the band’s name.
In the years since Haircut 100 ended, Les Nemes, Blair Cunningham and Phil Smith have become session musicians, while Nick Heyward released his gorgeous ninth solo album Woodland Echoes in 2017.
“The stripes on our sleeve design arrived because our manager hung out with the lighting guy who’d done David Bowie’s stage lights,” laughs Heyward. “The guy didn’t know what to do with Bowie’s old lights, so our manager Carl did a deal.
The remaining members wanted to keep the name. A court case ensued, settled in favour of Heyward’s former colleagues. They joined Polydor, releasing the album Paint And Paint in 1984. Percussionist Marc Fox replaced Nick as frontman.
Marc Fox initially became a session percussionist, too, but moved into A&R, scoring his first No.1 signing with Ain’t No Doubt by Jimmy Nail in 1992. He has since worked with The Beloved, Natalie Imbruglia, The Spice Girls and Girls Aloud. “Musicians can be quite myopic,” says Fox of why more musicians don’t help other artists with their music. “They love the buzz of being on stage and the social life of being around other musicians. There’s also a stigma that record labels are all fat cats, and it’s not like that. It’s a different group of people who are equally impassioned about music.”
“The lights became the stripes at the back of the stage at our gigs. I wanted continuity from the gigs to our sleeves, which stripes gave us. Love Plus One had yellow and green stripes, for instance. Favourite Shirts just had to be pink stripes, because I wanted it to look like a gift bag – like you were buying the single from a girl in the tuck shop.”
“It’s musically fantastic, but we were trying too hard,” admits Les Nemes. “Marc did a good job, but he was very reluctant as singer, not as natural as Nick. We had no choice, and that shows on the album sometimes.”