Month: November 2016

‘I smoked some Hawaiian grass and started freaking out. I thought the Devil was in our recording studio’ [Nick Heyward: July ’97]

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When I spoke to ex-Haircut 100 singer Nick Heyward in 1997, he had just signed to Creation and was gearing up for his new album, World’s End, which was renamed The Apple Bed when it came out later that year. He told me a great story about a particularly weird night in Camden…

In 1982, at the height of his fame, Haircut 100 frontman Nick Heyward was found wandering around a car park in Camden, late at night, stoned and wearing only his underpants.

“That was one of the reasons that Haircut 100 split up,” says Nick. “It was a particularly mental night. We were in the studio doing some overdubbing and playing a game where you had to take an item of clothing off if you didn’t do it right.

“I smoked some Hawaiian grass and started freaking out. I thought that the Devil was in our recording studio, so I hid in the car park. I was paranoid about everything. I woke up like it the day after and the day after that…”

That night, Nick pre-empted the intoxicated Camden antics of ’90s pop stars by more than 10 years, but, ironically, now he’s part of the current Britpop scene, as he’s signed to Creation – the same label as Oasis.

“Being on Creation has given me a new lease of life,” says Nick, who’s now 36. “You can’t be that creative in a major label situation. I feel like I’m surrounded by proper pop writers. I hear Teenage Fanclub and it makes me melt.”

Nick was asked to join Creation by its head honcho Alan McGee, who was impressed when he saw him play live in London. After that meeting, Nick threw himself into recording his brand new album, World’s End.  [It was renamed The Apple Bed when it was released in 1997].

The first single from the album was Today. Nick calls it ‘a heavy bastard’. It saw him exploring a new, rockier sound.

“World’s End is different from my last album, Tangled – I know that because I listened to it in the car the other day. I drove out of my way so that I could hear it all. I thought, ‘God, it is so different to the one that I’ve just done’,” he says.

“World’s End is more singer-songwriter/proper songs. There’s nothing throwaway. It’s more honest and musically more straight ahead.”

‘Being on Creation has given me a new lease of life. You can’t be that creative in a major label situation. I feel like I’m surrounded by proper pop writers. I hear Teenage Fanclub and it makes me melt’

Nick’s new album is an all-out pop record that oozes with melodies and combines the London-based, observational writing style of Ray Davies with the songcraft of The Beatles. There’s also more than a passing nod to Oasis. Highlights include the Penny Lane-isms of My Heavy Head, Nick’s very own Wonderwall – The Man You Used To Be – and the ode to summer that’s Reach Out For The Sun.

 

He says that World’s End  moves away from his older material, like Rollerblade – his 1995 Top 40 hit, which was inspired by a visit he made to San Diego, when the bus he was on was obstructed by a horde of mad rollerbladers.

“I’ve never done rollerblading,” says Nick. “It’s one of those things that although you hate it, you could suddenly find yourself doing. I haven’t been skiing before, but everyone says I’ll be bitten by it and that will be it… But it’s the whole thing that comes with it. Skiers tend to talk about nothing but skiing, and rollerbladers tend to belong in a certain gang.”

Aren’t singer-songwriters the same, though?

“Yeah – they’re a weird bunch – don’t go near any of them. What about singer-songwriter rollerbladers? They’re really weird…

“I’m always striving to write that one ultimate song. Songwriters are always inspired by the current climate. That’s why The Beatles’ Revolver was so good. There were some particularly crap songs in ’88 and ’89,  but there are some good tunes around now.

“I was talking to my girlfriend and she was saying that her upbringing was Billy Ocean. I’m so glad that I grew up with punk!”

‘I’m always striving to write that one ultimate song. Songwriters are always inspired by the current climate. That’s why The Beatles’ Revolver was so good’

Nick is confident that 1997 will be a good year for him. He’s tells me that he’s keen to record with other contemporary artists.

“I’ve got to push myself a bit more in that department. I’d like to work with lots of people. I did this radio thing the other day and Dubstar were on with me. Their singer Sarah is gorgeous. I wouldn’t mind collaborating with her – or even cohabiting!”

The original version of this article appeared in Splash! magazine in July 1997.

‘Britpop’s dead – it’s a rotten corpse lying on the floor’ [Sleeper: Feb ’98]

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Back in February 1998, it looked like it could all be over for Britpop band Sleeper. Their last few singles had hardly set the world on fire and some of their gigs had been cancelled, due to a lack of interest. But despite all this, when I spoke to frontwoman Louise Wener, she was adamant they weren’t splitting up… In fact, they called it a day a month after this interview…

Are Sleeper well and truly down the dumper?

Last month, rumours about the band’s demise appeared on the internet, and in the NME, a representative from their US record label hinted that there was tension between frontwoman Louise Wener and drummer Andy MacLure, who is also Louise’s boyfriend.

The rumours come as no surprise, though – Sleeper’s last two singles, She’s A Good Girl and Romeo Me, barely dented the Top 40 and two of the dates on their current tour were cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

Despite this, Louise is adamant that Sleeper aren’t about to disintegrate…

“We haven’t got any plans to split up. The press are evil little shits – that’s my response to the rumours,” she says, talking to me on the phone from London.

“We’ve got various problems with our American record company, but it’s not as bad as some people would have you believe.

“Things appear on the internet all the time. The thing about me and Andy splitting up was utterly made up by the NME. I was angry about it for half an hour, but I’ve got used to things like that.”

‘We haven’t got any plans to split up. The press are evil little shits – that’s my response to the rumours’

So, there are no plans for a Louise Wener solo album, then?

“I’ve done 10 solo albums already,” she jokes. “No. I’d have to fight it out with the other pop star called Louise. I wouldn’t know what to call myself. Send your answers on a postcard…”

So is the current mood in Sleeper a healthy one, then?

“Yeah – it is. We’re making plans for the next thing we do, which will probably be quite radically different. We’re pretty up about it – we’re still relevant.”

I ask her if she’s disappointed by the poor performances of the band’s recent singles and the lack of interest in their gigs.

“It was kind of our turn,” she says. “Every band goes through up and down phases. It’s just life and you have to get on with it. We think that we made a really great album [Pleased To Meet You]. You have to go forward with your own belief in what you do. Things just go up and down – that’s the nature of most bands’ careers.”

Ironically, Sleeper’s latest album, Pleased To Meet You,  is their best yet. Although by no means a classic – and it could hardly be described as a massive departure for the band – it’s more eclectic than their past offerings.

She’s A Good Girl touches on soul, Romeo Me is all-out, Pretenders-style guitar pop, Firecracker is Alvin Stardust-esque glam, and Breathe and Because of You are haunted by the ghost of trip-hop.

Does Louise think that Sleeper should’ve overhauled their sound more dramatically to fit into the current post-Britpop climate?

“Britpop’s dead – it’s a rotten corpse lying on the floor,” she says. “I think it’s good that it has gone and that everything’s changing. It’s really interesting to see what’s going to happen next. That’s why music’s exciting.

“Maybe we didn’t change enough to go with it. We kind of thought we’d come back and everything would be exactly the same. Maybe we lacked some foresight.”

Pleased To Meet You did see a big shift in Louise’s lyric writing. No longer was she penning observational songs about commuters and office workers – instead she addressed more personal issues.

“I couldn’t keep writing about other people, ” she says. “It [observational songwriting] was the essence of what Britpop was about, but that kind of life is alien to me now. It’s not something that belongs to me anymore.”

‘We might just get an Uzi and kill a few people’

This month, Sleeper are heading out on a national tour and, after that, there’s going to be some serious rethinking on the musical front.

“Me and Andy are planning to go and live in America for six months to write and do some other stuff,” says Louise.

“Whatever happens next, it will be quite different. It will be a good thing. We’ll be shaking ourselves up a bit.”

So what can we expect?

“We might just get an Uzi and kill a few people.”

 

The original version of this article first appeared in Splash! magazine in February 1998.