‘The song got us signed but I hated it’: how Haircut 100 made Fantastic Day
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- Nick Heyward wrote "Fantastic Day" in 1978 while standing in the basement of the Ski Club of Great Britain using only D, C, and G chords, initially worrying the title might already be a song because it felt so familiar.
- Heyward wrote the opening line — "Well there's a great amount of strain about getting on that train" — after seeing Sheena Easton perform "9 to 5" on the TV series The Big Time, and the song's spoken-word coda ("I tried to shave myself / Be a happier guy") was only added in the studio.
- Bob Sargeant produced the track and added a trumpet fanfare Heyward had specifically requested as a nod to The Beatles' "She Loves You," alongside a jazzy G sixth chord Heyward says was Sargeant's idea.
- Les Nemes (bass) admits he has always disliked "Fantastic Day," but acknowledges its strong, catchy chorus rescued a struggling Arista showcase and got the band signed.
- Nemes says the original arrangement, when the band was called Moving England, was rawer and Talking Heads–influenced before the song evolved into what he calls "this teeny pop song, a little bit more polite."
- Raf Ravenscroft — the saxophonist on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" — jammed on "Fantastic Day" after meeting the band poolside at a rock'n'roll hotel in California during their first US tour.
- Haircut 100 recently returned to the US for the first time in decades and met fans still carrying the song, including a woman who told them it got her through cancer at 16 and cried at the intro.
Why it matters: The piece reframes a fondly remembered 1981 UK hit as a song its own bassist disliked for years and almost never made the cut at the showcase that won the band their Arista deal — a candid split-screen from the two musicians that complicates the buoyant image of the Pelican West era. The emotional fan reactions (cancer survivor, decades-late reunion tour) show the song still does work the writers never intended.
