Nick Heyward, songwriter\/vocals, guitar<\/p>\n
If I\u2019d been sitting down when I wrote Fantastic Day, it would have been a different song, but I was standing up in front of a chocolate-brown wall with the names of all my favourite punk bands scribbled on it. I was envisioning the future. It was 1978, and my family had moved across London to a place called the Ski Club of Great Britain where my parents ran the bar. We lived in the basement and I had a tiny room that was like a ship\u2019s cabin.<\/p>\n
I was drawn to bands with a guitarist who played and sang \u2013 my heroes were Andy Partridge of XTC and David Byrne of Talking Heads. I was learning to sing and play at the same time using my homemade mic stand and the only chords I knew then: D, C and G. I started singing \u201cfantastic day\u201d over the top, probably just because of the exuberance of being young. I thought: \u201cI suppose this is a song, and I suppose it\u2019s my song.\u201d It seemed to come from this unconscious, magical realm. I also recall thinking: \u201cWell, that\u2019s obviously already been done.\u201d But when I asked around, no one else could think of a song called Fantastic Day. Back then, it was hard to check.<\/p>\n
double quotation markIn California, we met Raf Ravenscroft, who played sax on Baker Street. We invited him to our show and he jammed on Fantastic Day<\/p>\n
The verses came together more consciously, while the lyrics evolved over time. Early on, I never wrote words down \u2013 as a child, I used to stammer and get stuck, so I\u2019d learned to keep going by not trying too hard to remember something. I liked making things up on the spur of the moment, inspired by whatever was around me. I still do that now. The opening lines \u2013 \u201cWell there\u2019s a great amount of strain about getting on that train\u201d \u2013 came quite late in the day, after I saw Sheena Easton performing her song 9 to 5 on TV series The Big Time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t consciously make it a bittersweet song, but there is a sense of light and dark to it, of duality. I was working in commercial art in my late teens, in a room with no natural light, and it was driving me mad. All I wanted to do was music. I think that\u2019s reflected in some parts of the song, like the spoken word bit: \u201cI tried to shave myself \/ Be a happier guy.\u201d I think that was only added when we were in the studio recording it. Bob Sargeant brought the same expertise producing the record as George Martin \u2013 he knew I was a Beatles nut and added the trumpet fanfare. I wanted to tip my hat to She Loves You. Bob understood how to do it musically, and that was by adding the jazzy G sixth chord.<\/p>\n
The song goes right back to the birth of me having that vision of doing what I do now, of imagining it for so long and then finding myself actually doing it. I\u2019ve taken that mayfly moment all around the world, and I\u2019ve never got bored of singing Fantastic Day. Every time I do it I feel totally fresh, just like the first time.<\/p>\n
Les Nemes, bass guitar<\/p>\n
I hate Fantastic Day! I shouldn\u2019t because it\u2019s the song that got us signed. We did a showcase for Arista \u2013 I think we\u2019d played two songs and we weren\u2019t doing very well. I suddenly thought: \u201cWell, why don\u2019t we try that one I hate?\u201d So we played Fantastic Day and they went: \u201cWow, we could have something here!\u201d I mean, I guess it is a very strong chorus. It\u2019s very catchy, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Most of the Pelican West album is quite funky, but some of the other poppy songs such as Snow Girl and Milk Film feel more interesting to me. Being inspired by what Nick was doing brought something else out in my basslines. I\u2019d try not to go for the obvious. I\u2019d think: \u201cWhat would Ronnie Lane or Tina Weymouth play?\u201d But because Fantastic Day was written at the beginning of our playing careers, before we really knew what we were doing, the chords in the verses just go from C to G, C to G and it was hard for me not to follow them \u2013 which is what I did.<\/p>\n
In the early days, we hopped on every bandwagon going. We were a punk band, a ska band, a mod band. We tried everything, and Fantastic Day was always there, just performed in different styles. The original, when we were called Moving England, was quite urgent, more Talking Heads, and it even had an element of the Jam to it. I preferred it then, I\u2019ve got to admit. It was raw. Then it developed into this teeny pop song, a little bit more polite.<\/p>\n
I probably sound really down on it, but I\u2019m not really \u2013 it led to some great moments. When we first toured the US, we stayed at a rock\u2019n\u2019roll hotel in California and Raf Ravenscroft, the guy who played sax on Baker Street, was sunning himself by the pool. We got chatting and invited him to our show and he stepped up and jammed on Fantastic Day.<\/p>\n
When we finally went back to the States a couple of years ago, we\u2019d meet people who were seeing the band for the first time, 42 years after becoming fans. They\u2019d say things like: \u201cThat was the song that got me through cancer when I was 16.\u201d I remember seeing a woman standing in the audience with her husband\u2019s arms round her shoulders and when we started playing the intro to Fantastic Day tears began streaming down her face \u2013 we were filling up on stage, too. So although I have said, \u201cIf I was to choose one song to take out of the set, that would be it,\u201d I do recognise what it means to people.<\/p>\n