In what gig would you find Bunty Gunn, Barry Manilow, Flowers, Rock Bastards and Mudlarking all getting an honourable mention. Only one place I can think of, and that's in a Nick Heyward gig.
Now, if you're a Nick fan, or have seen him live before, you'll know which way Nick's mind works. He's like a mental sponge. You can almost see the synapses firing in his eyes as his mind flits from one thing to the next like a butterfly on speed. He really is a unique individual. When you see him live or even speak to him you can see where the imagery, often very English, in his songs comes from.
After an excellent reception to his acoustic tour at the Acapela last year Nick has decided to play 2 nights in the venue this year. As I was there for both, I shall treat both nights as one review for the Blog.
This time Nick has gone electric and brought his Gibson and his Gretsch along with an acoustic for what will be a mainly electric performance. This time he is accompanied by Samer Sharawi on Bass/Backing Vocals and Sian Monaghan on Drums & Percussion who were excellent throughout and showed what energy and dynamism can be achieved with just three instruments in the time honoured tradition of trios such as The Police, The Jam, Cream etc.
I'll nail my colours to the mast right now and say that Nick is my favourite singer/songwriter and has been since I first heard him strike a chord on the debut Haircut100 release.
So he kicks off with his second solo single from his debut album, 1993's North Of A Miracle but with a twist. Shorn of it's horns it turns into a bluesy almost Bossa Nova version.
Take That Situation
I'm glad to see that Nick has decided to play quite a few songs from his debut album as it turns 40 this year and really deserves to be celebrated as it is an album that sparkles with creativity and superb songwriting and arranging being produced by Nick & Geoff Emerick of Beatles fame.
Next up another Miracle track, Blue Hat For A Blue Day. Last year Nick said he'd have loved to take his debut album out on an anniversary tour complete with horns etc but circumstances have overtaken him this year, more of which later.
We stick with this mini celebration of Miracle with his debut single Whistle Down The Wind which gets the crowd singing along beautifully.
Breaking the North Of A Miracle tribute, we are then treated to one of the delicate songs from 1997's The Apple Bed, the gorgeous Chelsea Sky - which was dropped from Night 2.
As I stated at the beginning, Nick's mind flits from a mental flower to flower and his introductions and explanations for songs often take a non linear course, a bit like a meandering river but it's a beautiful journey to behold and entering into Nick's world with this unpredictability makes his vulnerability and sensitivity shine through. He really is a gorgeous human being.
We are back with the final track from North Of A Miracle with a fabulous version of my favourite Nick track, Atlantic Monday. A horns heavy song, I never thought I'd hear Nick play it without the horns but play it he did. And what a noise the 3 piece band made tonight giving power when needed. And the audience didn't let me down tonight as they sang the horn parts to the song. Just Brilliant.
Earlier, I talked about Nick having an interesting year and the T shirt he wore for the first half of the show gave the game away for those who might not have known of the announcement last month, Haircut 100 are reforming for a tour at the end of the year with possible new material being released too. For us Haircut fans this was manna from heaven and tickets were purchased immediately. And talking to Nick after the gig he was so excited to have the boys back together to be able to celebrate the band that definitely should have given us more than one album (with Nick)
His solo hit, Over The Weekend came next and morphed into the Nick Haircuts final single the delicious Nobody's Fool.
Nobody's Fool
With the crowd really up for it now, Nick finished Part One with the second Haircut100 release, Love Plus One. Singing galore and a fabulous way to end Part One.
Love Plus One
After a quick break and a change of shirt, possibly his favourite (sorry!!) Nick and the band return with a rearranged version of his solo comeback hit from 1993 Kite.
Kite
Nick released his last solo album, Woodland Echoes in August 2017, which seems SO longer ago now to us Nick fans and we get a track from that tonight with the gently swinging Who?
Now it was time for another Haircut100 track but not one of the hits as he played Surprise Me Again from Pelican West.
Surprise Me Again
The 90s was a fertile time for Nick's creativity. He described his time at Creation where he had a front row seat for the rise of Oasis and from that era gave us Rollerblade from 1995's Tangled album.
Rollerblade
On Night 2 we were treated to an excellent song from The Apple Bed too - the sparkling, He Doesn't Love You Like I Do
He Doesn't Love You Like I Do
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If so, you would have heard Nick recording what is due to be a new album and next track up is a new one from those sessions, currently titled The Mudlarks it's an uptempo beast in the mould of tracks from Tangled but had a great reception as his only new track of the show. Now whether other of his current tracks will find their way onto a new Haircut 100 album, who knows, but having heard quite a few of the new tracks they'd be foolish not to work at least a few onto the new Haircut album, should there be one.
Secret Garden, which was also played on both nights is a pretty unknown song unless you have Nick's album with India Dupre called The Mermaid & The Lighthouse Keeper. It's a lovely track, even with Nick playing it solo.
On both nights we were also treated to one of the more reflective highlights of 1995's Tangled with the song London, which with Traffic In Fleet Street and Chelsea Sky would be a perfect live trilogy - just a suggestion Nick.
London
On Night 1 I was also chuffed to hear one of my all time favourite Nick song, the fabulous Caravan from 1993's From Sunday To Monday.
Caravan
It's always difficult where to draw the line in terms of review. Not giving away all of the secrets, the banter, the information shared between artist and audience that made the evening unique and special, so I won't reveal how we got to the barnstorming version of Haircut 100's debut single Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl). But get there we did and the audience sang their hearts out.
Favourite Shirts
With the audience now on their feet there was only one song left that would finish the evening off with a bang and send the whole audience on their way with massive grins on their face. Indeed both days were a Fantastic Day and a brilliant way to end.
Fantastic Day
For Nick, it's surely an 80s festival summer circuit then on to rehearsals for the much anticipated Haircut 100 Tour. I wouldn't miss that for anything, Neither should you!!
Nick On Twitter - @NickHeyward
All photos by Nick Baker - I don't mind you using them but please say they're mine, somewhere :)
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