Haircut 100

• Genre: New Wave
• Hometown: Beckenham

About

In interviews Haircut 100's Nick Heyward would often boast of the bands distinctly non-rock'n'roll backgrounds in graphic design, advertising and media. Videos portrayed the band (Heyward, guitar/vocals; Les Nemes, bass; Graham Jones, guitar; Phil Smith, saxophone; Mark 'Ilford' Fox, percussion; Blair Cunningham, drums) basking by cricket pitches sporting chunky-knit jumpers and hiking boots. All of which was distilled into the Haircuts' peculiarly 1980s pop vision: clean, cute, fresh and about as far from the hoary clichés of rockism as it's possible to get. If their music and image owed as much to the Beatles of a A Hard Day's Night as the burgeoning jazz-funk scene headed by Level 42, Heyward's surrealist bent (he once told a bewildered Smash Hits his ideal home would be "inside a huge transparent stone") ensured their sole album, Pelican West, remains a delight of jangling guitars and country-club funk.

- Paul Moody