POPULAR 1980s artist and front man of teen-pop sensations Haircut 100, Nick Heyward, will be headlining 80s day at Jack Up The Summer in August.

Nick will be jetting in from his home in Florida to perform at the festival.

In the early 80s Haircut 100 had four UK top 10 singles: ‘Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)’, ‘Love Plus One’, ‘Nobody’s Fool’, and ‘Fantastic Day’.

The band released their platinum certified debut album ‘Pelican West’ in 1982, which zoomed to number two in the UK album chart, and hit the US chart at number 31.

Their final offering was 1984’s ‘Paint and Paint.’

It finished as quickly as it began — the band parted ways and Nick’s first solo album, ‘North Of A Miracle’, recorded with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, was released in September 1983 and went gold.

Nick went on to amass more hit singles as a solo artist in his own right when Haircut 100 split up, and added two more top ten singles to his repertoire.

His career continued through the next decade and a half and he supported Wham! at Wembley at their farewell shows.

His first two solo albums of the 1990s, ‘From Monday To Sunday’ and ‘Tangled’ slotted in with the trend of the time — Brit-pop.

Speaking of the 1980’s glory days, Nick said: “I like the way someone once described Haircut 100’s sound as ‘Percolated pop funk’. Percolated is a nice word. It did sound mixed up, sounded colourful, bits cut from everywhere.

"That’s the joy of a band — everybody brings their bits. The bits were all over the place, and it didn’t sound like one thing, it sounded like lots and lots of things. As a band, it worked.

"I’d say it sounded like six people learning their craft — six young people coming together and it just happening naturally.”

Nowadays though, he cares not about volume of sales, charts and hits, and he lives to write songs, to get up on stage with his band, and to spend time with his son and daughter and future wife.

“I split my time between my place in Florida and stay with family and friends in the UK when I’m here. When I travel over to the Isle of Wight in August I will be doing so with my UK-based band, who have been with me for 25 years since my first solo album.

"I genuinely can’t wait to visit the Island to headline the fantastic Jack Up The Summer festival and intend to dig deep into my back-catalogue both from my solo career and with Haircut 100 to perform all the hits.”

Organisers said: “As front man of pop group Haircut 100, Nick Heyward was an integral part of the 1980s pop explosion and as such we couldn’t be more delighted to have secured him as our 80s day headliner.

"Nick will be appearing live on stage on Saturday, August 10, alongside hugely iconic 80s electro-pop band Heaven 17, one of the country’s best loved reggae acts Aswad, with many, many more great names still to be announced.”

A limited number of early bird weekend and day tickets are now available online at jackupthesummer.co.uk, as well as over the counter at Island outlets, including the County Press office in Newport.