100 episodes baby! This episode, Iâm joined by Nick Heyward and Blair Cunningham of Haircut 100, very appropriately for my 100th episode. The band are back, with their first studio album since 1982âs masterpiece, âPelican Westâ, thatâs not counting a 1984 album they made without Nick. The new album is called âBoxing The Compassâ and it is sensational. I caught them play a tour warm-up recently and they are on incredible form in that department too.
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Nick Heyward is from Beckenham, and started playing in early incarnations of the band in 1977. They eventually became Haircut 100 and signed to Arista in 1981. The band were ill-prepared for the success that followed, Nick in particular not dealing well with the pressures of fame, and by early â83 he was out the band, later citing stress and depression among the reasons. He went on to have a solo career, and Haircut 100 have reunited several times in more recent years, but this is the first time theyâre released a new record together.
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Blair Cunningham is a world-class drummer, originally from Memphis, Tennessee. Heâs one of 13 children, and remarkably, and very sadly, his brother Carl was the drummer for Stax band The Bar-Kays, and died in the same plane crash that killed Otis Redding. After the original dissolution of Haircut 100, he went on to drum for The Pretenders, Sade, Mick Jagger, and loads of others, and notably was a member of Paul McCartneyâs band for a few years, so when he refers to âPaulâ during our conversation, thatâs who he means.
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I had a great time with these guys. The conversation is all over the place, but it was loads of fun, and I hope that comes across.
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Also, a particularly special thank you to everyone that listens regularly. I appreciate the selection of guests is idiosyncratic and diverse, so it means a lot that youâve stuck around. The show continues to be a fully-independent podcast, with no advertising, and a one man operation. I book the guests, do the interviews, edit the show together, and run the socials. I love the control this gives me, but it brings its own challenges, especially as I want to make podcasts, not spend hours generating content on social media, and so the algorithm doesnât help the show much. This means that anything you can do to help, telling your friends, following me on Instagram @sendingsignalspodcast, liking posts, leaving a star rating or review with your podcast provider; these things generally mean a lot to a show like mine.
