Charles Hayward (musician)


Charles Hayward is an English drummer and was a founding member of the experimental rock groups This Heat and Camberwell Now. He also played with Mal Dean's Amazing Band, Dolphin Logic, and gigged and recorded with Phil Manzanera in the group Quiet Sun project as well as a short stint with Gong. He was a session musician on The Raincoats' second album, Odyshape, and on one occasion played drums for the anarchist punk band Crass. Since the late 1980s, Hayward has released several solo projects and participated in various collaborations, most notably Massacre with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith.

Career

In 1976, Hayward and fellow Charles Bullen began practising with bassist Gareth Williams under the name This Heat. They began to experiment with tape loops, found sounds and keyboards on several sessions. Finally, in 1979, This Heat released their self-titled debut album. 1981's Deceit marked the final new album from This Heat, Williams leaving just after its release. While Bullen began working as a studio engineer, Hayward did sessions for Lora Logic, The Raincoats and Everything but the Girl before forming Camberwell Now with bassist Trefor Goronwy and tape manipulator Stephen Rickard. The trio released 2 eps Meridian, Greenfingers and 1 album The Ghost Trade through the Swiss Recommended label.
When Camberwell Now disbanded in 1987 Hayward embarked on a solo career which has continued to the present day. He debuted with Survive the Gesture, Skew-whiff Switch on War and My Secret Alphabet in 1993. Three live albums recorded in Japan followed in the late 1990s. In 2003 Abracadabra Information was released and 2011 saw the release of ONE BIG ATOM. In 1998, he joined Massacre with Fred Frith and Bill Laswell.
Throughout the 1990s up to the present he has initiated a large number of events and performances, including the series Accidents + Emergencies at the Albany Theatre in Deptford; Out of Body Orchestra; music made using sounds from the construction of the new Laban Dance Centre, which was choreographed for the institution's official opening; music for a circus ; and the full-on installation/performance Anti-Clockwise for multiple strobes, maze structure of diverse textures, 2 drummers, synthesizers and your nervous system. Recent developments include the CONTINUITY evenings as part of Camberwell Arts. Over the past ten years Hayward has developed these attitudes and insights into a wide range of soundwork, both collaboratively and as a solo artist/performer.
These include:
30 MINUTE SNARE DRUM ROLL, Zigzag+Swirl, a solo song set at the drums using a system of controlled chance electronics, beginanywhere a set of songs centred around the piano, collaborations with Laura Cannell, Thurston Moore, Keiji Haino amongst many others. Recent work with the Islington Mill crew in the project Anonymous Bash has led to new work with many younger players, including Harmergeddon, DATA QUACK and projects for an array of new record labels including Samarbeta, Care in the Community and Unknown Gods. He also releases material on his own label CONTINUITY..... His long term relationship with the Albany continues with a twice yearly series of performances, workshops and installation, sound is sound is sound which he curates on behalf of Lewisham Arthouse.
In 2019 Whistling Arrow - a sextet comprising three members of Ex-Easter Island Head, Laura Cannell, André Bosman and Charles Hayward published an album out on 22 November via God Unknown records.
As well as his solo performance, Hayward's recent projects include:
Hayward currently lives with his wife and three children, Lewis, Merlin and Riley.

Discography

Albums

see also Quiet Sun, This Heat, Camberwell Now, etc...