“Polymath drummer Charles Hayward plays CCA, Glasgow”
Five reasons to go and see Charles Hayward
Source: The List (Issue 652)
Date: 10 March 2010
Written by: Neil Cooper
Charles Hayward, plus Ultimate Thrush, Vars of Litchi and Culver, CCA, Glasgow, Thu Mar 25.
1: He’s a drummer
But, like jazz percussionist Han Bennink, Can’s Jaki Liebezeit and improvisational drummer Chris Corsano, he’s so much more, as this solo show should prove.
2: He was in This Heat
In 1976, Hayward, Charles Bullen and Gareth Williams applied tape loop experiments and free improv to an insistent melding of musique concrète, DIY dub and rhythm-led discordia. This Heat’s eponymous debut album, (‘The Blue and Yellow’) came in a blue and yellow sleeve that inspired an aphoristic ad campaign, with charming slogans like, ‘Blue and yellow like bruise and pus’, and that sort of thing.
3: He is the bridge between Roxy Music and Hot Chip
Hayward played in Quiet Sun with a pre-Roxy Phil Manzanara, followed by a brief stint in Gong. He later moved through the post-punk Rough Trade squat-rock scene via The Raincoats, Everything But The Girl and Lora Logic. He even gigged with anarchist punks Crass.
4: He keeps good company
Hayward has played with German polymath Heiner Goebbels, formed Massacre with experimental rockers Bill Laswell and Fred Frith, gigged with Ted Milton’s Blurt and released an album with Lol Coxhill, Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt.
5: What was that about Hot Chip?
Following a collaboration with Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor and Spring Heel Jack’s John Coxon on the About album, Hayward guested on the band’s One Life Stand album, providing the Motown backbeat on ‘Hand Me Down Your Love.’
Source: The List
