Former frontman of former teen idols Haircut 100, Nick Heyward talks to Pete Gleadall about Whamdeath, Live Aid and the atmospheric effects of dropping your trousers.

Nick Heyward used to be in a band that sold records by the lorryload, but that was then. Now, he's on his own and still making records, although they haven't been storming up the charts like they used to do. His first solo album saw him dabbling with 'the jazz' and getting technical in the process, but his more recent offerings have shown signs of a return to his pop roots — after all, he has to pay the rent like most of us.

I spoke to him just after he'd supported Wham! at Wembley, their farewell gig; how could you do it, Nick?

"It was good fun, it wasn't like a normal outdoor concert and I knew that the audience, the majority anyway, would be from the era of ABC and the Haircuts, so it was good to play. I wouldn't normally do that sort of concert, the big stadium type of thing, but the audience were great. I'm totally against your Queens and Rod Stewarts doing those sort of gigs, I don't know why they do it, well, it's money and the fact that the gap between the new pop and Queen or whatever has closed, something to do with Live Aid. There used to be an enormous gap between the new pop and the old groups, but now you have George Michael making records with Elton John, its just backslapping now, back to the 70's."

Strong words, but sentiments you can't disagree with. Queen have admitted that since Live Aid they have had a new lease of life, as far as selling records is concerned. It seems that Nick is a fan of the Housemartins.

"Why weren't the Housemartins there? (Live Aid that is) Its great to see four chaps poking fun, as well as making optimistic music. It works and they're not rock stars". Nick doesn't like rock stars these days.

"When the Haircuts split up, everybody wanted to be a rock star you know, they even undermined the audience and called them screamers. How horrible, undermining youngsters by calling them 'the young market', I mean, what's wrong with being young? When I was fourteen I wouldn't like to be called a tit-head."

Quite, so who was playing with you at the Wham! 'bank aid' gig?

"The most wonderful guitarist, Isaac Gillary, Les Nemes on bass, Graham Ward on drums, a big big brass section with Guy Barker, Stewart Brookes, Phil Smith and Peter Beach, Mark Fox on percussion, Tessa Niles and Mirriam Stoppard on backing vocals and Peter Beckett on keyboards, a big twelve piece band."

So is this the sort of lineup to expect in future?

"I think because of the range of stuff I've done, you have to use a big band. I'd love to use a combo, but to get the songs across you need a big band. I love big bands, Haircut was a big band".

The gig was taped, but as with most gigs, there were problems.

"Somebody sabotaged the monitors, I was hearing everything late from the second song onwards, no monitors. I wish I could have heard myself better because on the slow numbers I could have controlled my singing better. It's a really live sound and I'm putting out two of the tracks as a single and it's totally live, mistakes and all."

Surely the tape was tidied up?

"We haven't replaced anything but the drums, and there wasn't much mixing. We just whacked everything up".

What a refreshing approach, so tell us about the new album then, what sort of thing have you been doing, is it jazz?

"Same old stuff, plenty of guitars, and if there are keyboards, it's not going to be 'diddly diddly woop woop', we're using them to get effects, like this track I did, a bit Lovin' Spoonful-ish so I tried to get the new sounding keyboards to sound like" (he sings) 'aaaaaaah' like a mass thing, "put some Rickenbackers in there and it works. Good old brilliant sounds on guitars, like rip-roaring sounds go well with some of the new keyboard sounds".

So how do you feel about the new technology and its uses in the studio?

"I don't go in for the techniques, because they date themselves so quickly, by the time you've finished, it's out of date".

If that's the case, how come a synth was used for the bass on his single, 'Goodbye Yesterday'?

"That was an exception, it was a DX7 and perhaps a Juno. I like to put down bass guitar and drums, thats how the album was done".

He keeps talking about his new album, but so far there has been no sign of it in the shops. Instead, he has released two singles recently, 'Over the Weekend' and 'Goodbye Yesterday'. When is the album coming out then Nick?

"August, because if I said it was coming out any earlier and it didn't, people would think that it wasn't finished or something. I finished it just before Christmas."

Doesn't that wind you up, waiting so long for it to come out?

"It sends me round the bend, but it's this thing that people have got, paranoia, that you have to have a three single build up, and if you put out an album nobody knows its out. I thought that it stood up as an album on its own, but I got talked into it. I wish I hadn't now".

Same old story, the record company always knows best. Give me some details about the meisterwork. Where was it recorded? Who produced it? We want to know.

"I found this great Old Neve desk at PRT, and I mixed it, well bits of it at Mayfair and bits at Marcus. I wanted to call it 'Here's some songs I've just written', but I should call it 'Here's some songs I wrote last Christmas'." The man has a sense of humour, essential it seems. Nick being a happy sort of chap carries on.

"Me and Graham Sacher produced it, he's not a technical sort of producer at all, total feel. Graham's a song writer, and Isaac played the guitar parts, really tasty playing. His playing sings to you, rather than playing licks, which anybody can learn, he plays with the band, not like somebody who waits for a space in the song to solo over."

In Haircut 100, Nick was known for playing big semi-acoustic Gretschs, his last album was done with a Strat, what did he use for his 'about to be released' number, jangly Rickenbackers?

"Telecasters, I love them, I borrowed Isaac's, lovely guitar."

So do you use whatever's hanging around at the time?

"For sounds I do, I didn't know Tele's could sound like that. The first guitar I had was an Arbiter Tele copy and that's what I learned to play on, that and a Vox practice amp in my room, with a cheap little mike. I thought that if Andy Partridge could do it, then so could I, because there aren't any singers in Beckenham".

Aha, is he a singer or is he a songwriter?

"I've never seen myself as a singer because I've never listened to vocalists, because when you listen to a vocalist you can normally tell who they've listened to. I've never looked up to anybody like Elvis Costello or Michael McDonald except for Maurice White, but I haven't got a hope in hell's chance of sounding like him! There was a time when I was really into Talking Heads, but I couldn't get into the 'ooah Ooah' bit of David Byrne, although I was influenced by him. It would be horrible to have a blatant style like him, because he's got such individual style you can't copy him. Not wanting to be horrible to Blancmange, but you can tell that the guy loves Talking Heads. There was a time when I started to go 'eeeea' like John Lennon, but I quickly grew out of that, because it was mentioned somewhere and I thought 'oops', so I stopped that."

If he's not a singer, he must lay claim to being a songwriter. What's your favourite chord then? He strolls off and picks up a tasty looking Gretsch countryman and plays the opening chord to 'Hard Days Night' and laughs. Has he been found out, are all his songs Beatles rip-offs? No, not really, but tell me about your songwriting, could you go into the studio tomorrow and do an album?

"Yeah, I mean I pick up the guitar every bloody night, and I write things all the time, I could do an album tomorrow easily, because when I was in Haircut, people used to say 'have you got a song Nick?' and I would go 'Yeah', and make one up on the spot, I love being put under that sort of pressure."

So how do you feel when you write a song, do you feel happy, or sad, or constipated perhaps?

"If I'm feeling bad, then I don't pick up the guitar, that's why every song I write comes out optimistic, whatever mood I'm in, it just flows."

Are lyrics written first, or do the riffs come and words grafted on afterwards?

"No, you just come up with a title, like the other day I came up with the title 'I've got my girlfriend sitting beside me on the bed' and that was a song. It probably won't work because the title is a bit long. I don't start with a preconceived idea that I'm going to write a song, you have to start with an idea first, and then the words just come."

He has been known to go into an eight track studio on his todd, and do demos, playing drums, bass and guitar himself; what does he do for demos nowadays?

"I sit down at home with a cassette player, and I record the song with just guitar and vocals and that's it. I work out the bass notes, but that's my demo then I do it. You know how it should sound, so I knock it into shape in the studio."

Nick's first solo album 'North of a Miracle' was produced by Geoff Emerick, the man who engineered for the Beatles. What was it like working with him?

"He was great, he was the person who got me back into music, he's like a psychiatrist in the studio, also I did the whole album at Air Studios, amongst God's things".

Has he found religion or what?

"Paul McCartney's gear was in the same studio when he was recording his 'Tug of War' album, the left-handed Hofner bass with the Shea Stadium stickers on it. All his old Beatles gear was there."

Did any of the inspiration rub off on the tracks?

"Geoff was great, he was telling me about the things the Beatles used to do to get an atmosphere going in the studio, the way they used to get sound and everything, like one track they did in Abbey Road, they wanted to get a psychedelic mood on the track. They put up all these flashing lights and weird shapes up on the walls to get the vibes going, running around in studio two there, great guy to work with".

What does Nick do to get the atmosphere going when he records these days then?

"Whenever I want to get the atmosphere going I always get the strides off, and if you get it wrong, you have to take some more clothes off. We did that to Mark in the Haircuts once, and he ended behind his congas in the studio totally naked. I'm sure he was getting it wrong each take so everybody could get an eyeful of his plonker".

So that's what the masters of pop got up to in their spare time. The Haircuts are gone, but bear it in mind when you hear his next single 'Praying for a Miracle' being played on the radio. Apparently its a "monitor mix" with a "blatant 'Paperback Writer' ripoff" in the intro. It should bring a smile to your face, it does to mine.