The 80’s are back!, and four of the decade’s most memorable artists will tour together for the first time ever. The 80’s Invasion tour features the cream of music from the some of the most popular artists – Big Country, Midge Ure, Nick Heyward & Curiosity Killed The Cat, and will be touring throughout March 2016.
The acts will perform their biggest hits with record sales of over 20 million, 200 gold, platinum & silver discs and numerous awards between them this is THE 80’s show not to be missed!
The tour takes in 15 dates starting at Southsea’s Kings Theatre on 1st March and culminating at Edinburgh’s The Playhouse Theatre on 20th March.
Earlier today, Nick Heyward kindly took time out to chat to the Edinburgh Reporter about the show and his plans for the future.
Nick said: ” The Edinburgh show will be the last one of the tour so there will be a big party I imagine, I will be performing all the known hits , ‘Fantastic Day’ ‘Love plus One’ ‘Favourite Shirt’ ‘Whistle down the Wind’ ‘Blue Hat for a Blue Day’ and then experimenting.
“The music is getting older and older but it’s being passed down so the audiences are a bit of a mixture. We have grandma, mum and the siblings and their siblings so the demographics are completely widespread now.
“There’s no rivalry between us, I’ve known Midge (Ure) for many years and I first bumped into Ben (Volpeliere-Pierrot) about 10 years ago. I also shared an engineer with Big Country for a while and Mark drives around in an old American car with his mum near where I used to live and I always used to wave to him. He was well kn own in the area as Big Country’s drummer. I think he used to collect the cars.
“I’m looking forward to playing Edinburgh. The last time I was there I ended up waving a big sword around like William Wallace. The Scottish audiences are always the top really. Scottish people are really friendly and easy to connect with. They always say hello to each other. I’ve always found that the people get friendlier the further north you go. I was actually talking to my good lady recently about this and we think that up north people huddle close together like penguins to survive the winter and communicate like a team and are able to get on and work together because it’s colder. That was our theory anyway.”
Haircut 100 were one of the most successful bands of their time and rumours have been rife about a reunion which is something that appeals to Nick. He continues: “I’m up for a full reunion but it never seems to happen, because there are six of us and we have no manager so we would all need to come together at the same time and it never seems to be possible. We’ve ad four or two but I’m always up for it. We actually did a full reunion at Bands Reunited but that was the last time. That was my favourite because when it’s a full reunion will all six of us it’s absolutely brilliant.
So what next for the 80s icon: “I just want to keep touring. I’m currently making a new album so I’d like to go on tour and play that. I’m toying with titles at the moment but I haven’t settled on one yet, but hopefully I will finish that one and go on and make another. I think it’s going to be a busy year next year.”
Nick’s music career began when he formed Haircut 100 in 1981. The band had four UK Top 10 singles – “Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)” (No 4), “Fantastic Day” (No 9), “Love Plus One” (No 3) and “Nobody’s Fool” (No 9) and turned Nick into a major pop star Their debut album, “Pelican West”, reached No 1 in the UK charts. Nick’s solo career began in 1983 with his debut album “North of a Miracle,” which reached no. 10 in the UK charts and included three UK Top 14 singles – “Whistle Down the Wind”, “Take That Situation” and “Blue Hat for a Blue Day”. In 1993 his single “Kite”, taken from the album, “From Monday to Sunday”, made No 3 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Also appearing on the bill is Big Country. Formed in 1981 and with their debut album release two years later “The Crossing” broke the band massively worldwide with their classic singles “Fields Of Fire”, “Chance” and signature song “In A Big Country”, which went on to become massive worldwide hits, selling over 2 million copies and driving the record to 3 prestigious US Grammy nominations. The run of success continued throughout the 80′s with the anthemic single ‘Wonderland’ and the second album “Steeltown” (1984), which debuted at No 1 in the UK and contained the hit singles “East Of Eden”, “Just a Shadow” and “Where The Rose Is Sown.” In 1985, Big Country appeared at Live Aid in London followed by further successful album releases “The Seer” (1986), which included the bands biggest UK hit “Look Away”.
Midge Ure needs very little introduction. Musical success is seldom measured in time spans of more than a few years, so the fact that by the time Midge’s single “If I Was” went to No 1 in 1985 he had already crammed several musical lifetimes into a 10 year professional career speaks volumes – Slik, The Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Visage, Ultravox and of course the most famous one off group in musical history Band Aid had by then all had the guiding hand of his musical navigation. Ultravox was a major influence on the new romantic and electro-pop movements of the early ’80s. Their successful trademark was combining Midge’s powerful guitar riffs with sweeping synthesiser motifs, enigmatic imagery and state-of-the-art visuals. Tracks like “Reap the Wild Wind”, “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes”, “Love’s Great Adventure”, “All Stood Still”, “The Voice”, “Hymn”, “The Thin Wall” and 1981’s timeless “Vienna” were all massive hits the world over as they charted with awesome regularity, not only on single, but with seven consecutive top ten albums in just six years.
Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot – Curiosity Killed The Cat instantly became one of the hottest and most popular bands of the late eighties after forming in 1986. While gaining a large teen following, Curiosity Killed The Cat’s appeal was far wider, their cool, funky, distinctive music being a very long way from typical teen fodder. Curiosity Killed The Cat’s many hit singles include “Down to Earth”, which peaked at number 2 in the charts and sold 1.5 million worldwide, “Misfit” “Ordinary Day”, “Hang On In There Baby” and “Name and Number”, which later went on to be a hit single for De La Soul. Curiosity Killed The Cat’s debut album “Keep Your Distance” went straight in to the UK album charts at number one, selling over 1.5 million copies while Curiosity‘s second album, “Get Ahead,” also made the top ten. In addition, Curiosity Kille The Cat were well respected within the music industry and won a BRITS nomination for the Best New Act of 1987 as well as winning the Music Therapy Best New Act award.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
