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INDUSTRY REPORT # 44
Catching up With Nick Heyward &
September 12th, 2025 by Traci Turner
While they travel the US with Howard Jones as part of the Dream Into Action tour, Haircut 100 are gaining thousands of new fans with each stop. Granted, I was a fan already, but seeing them perform live after a 40-year break, I was even more impressed than I thought possible.
Original members Nick Heyward (vocals, guitar), Les Nemes (bass), and Graham Jones (guitar) appeared to have a total blast on stage with each other and their band – Mark Whitfield (drums), Felipe Fournier (percussion), Nick Gomez (sax), and Ben Caiazza (trumpet) – when we caught them in Nashville.
Since reforming in 2023 for the 40th anniversary of their debut album, “Pelican West,” they’ve done some shows in the UK and US, hit up the Glastonbury Festival, and even made a stop at the BBC for their Concert Orchestra 2023 Piano Room Month.
We of course know “Love Plus One” with its oh-so-familiar guitar intro that leads into the horns and xylophone. “Boy Meets Girl (Favourite Shirts)” instantly grabs us thanks to the another fast guitar intro and that “Whaa!”
Last year the guys released a new single, “The Unloving Plum,” which features an ‘80s essence, but is in no way dated – it’s fresh, poppy, cheerful, and of course, has some sweet horns.
The other new single they’ve been sharing is “Dynamite,” which received a very enthusiastic response at the show.
After their stellar Nashville performance, we chatted about what lies ahead for the “Love Plus One” gents. Let’s just say if the music gig does not work out, they need their own reality show.
Traci: First of all, fantastic show.
Nick: Oh, thank you.
Traci: You guys blew it away. You were just phenomenal.
Les: Bass playing was good, wasn’t it?
Traci: It was. My favorite part was the bass.
Graham: Especially the bass solo in the song called “King Size.”
Les: Yeah. That’s a great moment.
Traci: I cried.
Les: I’m not surprised.
Traci: In addition to you guys looking like you’re having fun together, your other musicians are also phenomenal. You guys got a good team together.
Les: We’re starting to slow a little bit, so they keep us on our toes. They’re younger, more vibrant, full of energy.
Nick: Mark hasn’t even broken a sweat yet. He’s like crazy fast on drums.
Traci: Well, other than your face Les, you looked like you were having fun. (Les had joked onstage about his cranky face.)
Les: Yeah. I can’t help it. It’s my face. I saw it in the mirror and now I know why people think I’m always miserable. Because it’s a miserable face.
Nick: It photographs well, though. On camera, it really looks good. You’ve got that down pat. That miserable face photographs really well.
Traci: No, you just look like you were focused.
Les: Because on social media, any photo that goes up, they said, “Why is Les is miserable again? Is he going to smile this time?”
Traci: No, you were concentrating.
Nick: He’s anchoring everything together.
Graham: He’s just working in his Les way.
Nick: Les is a right anchor.
Graham: And we’re just farting around, bucking about, and entertaining.
Traci: So I take it, it feels good after 40 years to come back together and play again?
Graham: How can you not have fun when you’re surrounded with musicians that we’re playing with and ourselves?
Nick: After being in rehearsals in the ‘70s, and various bands that we would make up; we have a different band every week! And then we lost our drummer and we had no drummer. When we started Haircut, it was just the three of us, and we had no drummer. We kept auditioning and never finding one, didn’t we? We got this Australian guy came in, but he didn’t bring drumsticks to the audition. So we had to get him some sticks from outside. (laughing) And he said, “Don’t worry, mate. I’ll play with my hands.” So it was just that. We never really got one. Then we got Pat for a while, didn’t we? He drummed on “Favorite Shirts.” And that’s why it’s so fast because he was really nervy. He couldn’t get it. It was getting faster and faster and faster. Those happy accidents that happen in music. It’s fast because Pat was really nervous.
Traci: When you guys started back in those early days, you had to hang up flyers, “come to our show.” I know you guys have been doing stuff this whole time – you have not been sitting around at home for the past 40 years. But now, together as a group, how is it to come back in a world with social media?
Les: We’re rubbish.
Graham: Yeah, pretty old school.
Les: Keep saying that we’re going to pay someone to do it because we’re rubbish. You look on Instagram and every other band, look at Duran Duran. It’s saturated with stuff.
Nick: It’s brilliant. It’s so good.
Traci: Well, I’m a Duran Duran fan…
Nick: Me too.
Traci: But I hide them because sometimes there’s too much. I like a gentle amount of content.
Nick: We post a lot when we’re on tour, I’ve noticed, because we’re spending a lot of time together, and we’re just sharing the brilliant images that we’re seeing, and you want to share it. I don’t want to share I’m sitting at home. I can’t share the kettle anymore. (laughing) We’re in the studio. We just think, “What can I do with this? It’s like a mixing desk. It’s a microphone. Okay, well, can I do another? In the studio here? I’m over to the toilet now. Now I’m moving over back to the mixing desk. Now I’m going down the house.” So when you’re on tour, you’ve got all these brilliant images. I mean, we can’t believe that we’re living this life, so we want to share it. It’s genuine. It’s like, we’re here in this place, walking upstairs with pictures of all our heroes, going upstairs and thinking, “We’re playing here.”
Graham: We’re better at the music bit.
Traci: Not only are you playing The Ryman, you’re on the Hatch print. (A limited edition, handmade poster for select Ryman performers.)
Nick: Are we?
Traci: Yes!
Nick: See, that’s in itself a dream because you go back to the rehearsal studios in South London when we were kids with a dream. Couldn’t even believe that.
Traci: I do get nervous when bands I like play here because I’ve heard Nashville can be a quiet or tough crowd. I did see a standing ovation though, which at the Ryman is a big deal.
Nick: Really? Oh, good job.
Graham: They were interacting in their own way. They were, even if they were just sitting there smiling, I could spot them. I was picking them out.
Les: Can you do an impression of one of them?
Graham: Can I do one? (makes a face) That’s like your mom. Yeah, there was a lot of that, wasn’t there?
Nick: There was a guy who kept putting his thumbs up every time! Well, we’ve got that support because they’ve seen that we’ve been like the Mary Celeste, floating around at sea, lost at sea or lost in space for 40 years. So they’re with us. They’re like, “This is great. You’re back together. You made it. Can’t get back with me ex-wife. How’d you do it, guys?” So it’s really good.
Traci: And you have new stuff?
Nick: Yeah. We finished an album, haven’t we?
Traci: Is there a word on the release date?
Nick: I think it’s May. Yeah, May next year because it’s now complete, being mastered. And yeah, we’ve got a “Bohemian Rhapsody” on one track. It’s eight minutes long! It’s the Haircut “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Les: There’s some surprising stuff on that.
Traci: Are you planning to come back and tour the US on your own?
Nick: Yes.
Graham: Always.
Traci: What do you like to do when you’re over here? Or what is something special about shows here?
Les: Enthusiastic audiences.
Nick: People.
Les: People who love the music.
Traci: Hopefully, you guys won’t get into any trouble while you’re here. If you do, I’ll bail you out.
Nick: Graham, you’ve been arrested. (laughing) No, we’re not going to joke about that because we had a pact because we go there with the jokey stuff. Some of it started to come true. Good and bad comes true. You got to watch what you say. It’s like both happens. So now we’re not joking about that so much. But yeah, he’s odd.
Les: He’s odd.
Traci: He does look like the troublemaker. (laughing)
Graham: Do I?
Traci: Well, what else do we need to cover before I let you head back to the bus?
Les: How handsome the bass player is.
Traci: Well, that’s my standard. I had my photographer here, so she got lots of pictures. I mean, we don’t care about these other two guys. I won’t keep you though, I know you guys are tired and got stuff to do.
Nick: Yeah, we haven’t slept a lot, but that’s touring. That’s the thrill of it all, isn’t it?
While I would have loved to spend hours enjoying their humor, for now, we must send them on their way to finish up the Howard Jones Dream Into Action tour.
SoCal residents catch them September 18th at House of Blues in Anaheim and September 20th in Del Mar at The Sound. If you’re East Coast, Haircut 100 will headline their own show September 24th in NYC at Sony Hall before they make their way back across the pond.
TO FOLLOW
SID 250910 | JIMMY ALVAREZ | EDITOR
