CoronaVinyl Day 244 (H): Pelican West by Haircut 100

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

This will likely be the last CoronaVinyl post for a week and a half, as I'll be in an intensive stimulus check scam seminar next week, and I have to work on all my regional accents tomorrow.  I can't be calling someone in Alabama with a Chicago accent and expect them to wire me $1,400!  Anywho, today's CoronaVinyl category is "H," and I'm listening to Haircut 100's debut album, 1982's Pelican West.

London's Haircut 100 was flash in the pan in the early '80s.  With horns and congas to complement the normal array of instruments, their music was kind of a combination of new wave, jazz, funk, and a little 2-tone.  The songs on Pelican West are mostly upbeat, uptempo, and easy to dance to.  Think Duran Duran with a little more funk.

Pelican West made a big splash in the UK, reaching #2 on the UK album chart.  It also reached #31 on the Billboard album chart.  In the UK, all three singles from the album charted in the Top 10 on the UK pop chart, with "Love Plus One" going to #3, "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)" going to #4, and "Fantastic Day" going to #9.  "Love Plus One" was also the band's only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #37.

But like many bands, just as quickly as they rose to fame, they were gone.  In late 1982, lead singer and main songwriter Nick Heyward left the band to go solo, and the remaining members put out one more album in 1984 that failed to chart in the UK or U.S.  The band then broke up after that -- though they did reunite in 2004 for the VH-1 show Bands Reunited and they have played together here and there since then.

Heyward went on to a relatively successful solo career, particularly in the UK.  An interesting tidbit is that drummer Blair Cunningham -- an American who replaced original drummer Patrick Hunt during the Pelican West recording sessions -- has not only had a long and successful career as a session drummer, but his older brother Carl was in the Bar-Kays and was killed in the same plane crash that killed Otis Redding in 1967.

The Spotify version of Pelican West is a deluxe edition that has five extra tracks.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Favourite Shirt (Boy Meets Girl)"
The album kicks off with a bang, a catchy, danceable little ditty with a breakneck funk guitar riff, some conga solos, and prominent saxophones.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Surprise Me Again"
This one is more new wavey and poppy than the rest of the album, with less emphasis on horns and percussion.  Not that I dislike the other songs by any means, but this is a good little pop song.