FANTASTIC DAYS: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
BY NICK HEYWARD

Published by New Modern 5 November 2026
Hardback (RRP £25), ebook and audio

CELEBRATING FORTY-FIVE YEARS SINCE HAIRCUT ONE HUNDRED STORMED THE UK TOP 5 WITH THEIR DEBUT SINGLE ‘FAVOURITE SHIRTS (BOY MEETS GIRL)’

NICK HEYWARD’S PROFILE SOARED THIS YEAR WITH HAIRCUT ONE HUNDRED RELEASING A LONG-AWAITED FOLLOW-UP ALBUM AND ORIGINAL LINE-UP REUNITED WITH A SELL-OUT TOUR

In 1981, Nick Heyward and school friends Graham Jones and Les Nemes signed their band Haircut One Hundred to Arista records. Less than two years later and frontman and principal songwriter Heyward had left. In that short period, they scored four top 10 singles, a number 2 platinum album in Pelican West and Nick Heyward had become the nation’s musical heartthrob.

Nick Heyward’s face was on a million teenage bedroom walls and countless magazine covers – it seemed all his childhood dreams had come true. But beyond the international fame and golden image there is a story of jealousy, signing to Alan McGee’s Creation label, being feted as godfather of Britpop and of being a commercial outcast, about depression and enlightenment and about the longest overdue comeback in pop music history.

Pete Selby, managing director of New Modern, who acquired world rights directly from manager Sara Heyward said: ‘Whether with Haircut One Hundred or following his own peripatetic solo path, Nick’s forty-five-year career has always been one of peerless songwriting highs. However, as Fantastic Days reveals, even at its heights, very rarely has life been plain sailing. Like Nick himself, the long-overdue Fantastic Days is a memoir brim full of soul-searching, self-deprecation and contagious good humour. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with him.’

Nick Heyward said: ‘When I stood in my bedroom singing Fantastic Day over and over again while learning to play guitar and sing and the same time, I had no idea it would become so prophetic. Underneath it all they’ve all been fantastic days, but I had to find that out the hard way. Sometimes it’s the only way.’

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