It’s with sadness that we have to pass on the news that Pete Haywood has passed away after losing his fight with cancer.
Mr Haywood was not only a DJ at Wild Fruit, a one-off club night which ended up going for more than fifteen years across various venues throughout Brighton. He was a producer and designer who created record sleeves, club logos and fliers which became part of the zeitgeist of “The E Generation” and beyond.
As a tribute to the creative genius that Pete possessed we will be showing our film of him discussing his work with Fatboy Slim,Wham, The Stones, Kylie, Paul Kemp of Wild Fruit, and so much more.
Film by Ranierifilm.com William Ranieri
Brighton 2023
Mr Haywood was not only a DJ at Wild Fruit, a one-off club night which ended up going for more than fifteen years across various venues throughout Brighton. He was a producer and designer who created record sleeves, club logos and fliers which became part of the zeitgeist of “The E Generation” and beyond.
As a tribute to the creative genius that Pete possessed we will be showing our film of him discussing his work with Fatboy Slim,Wham, The Stones, Kylie, Paul Kemp of Wild Fruit, and so much more.
Film by Ranierifilm.com William Ranieri
Brighton 2023
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00For my artwork, I've got a German client.
00:29And he asked me if I could put together a chill-out series.
00:37Because at that time, no one was really doing compilations like that.
00:44And so I came together with a whole load of tracks.
00:47And they were licensed, and I did the artwork for them.
00:51And it's all based around the California 1950s Arizona houses.
01:01And so I put the art together, the comfort zone, and a nice desert house in the middle of nowhere.
01:09And yeah, they started selling really, really well.
01:11And so he commissioned me to do about ten albums, which I compiled and artworked.
01:20And they became quite successful.
01:22They were released on Universal Records, weren't they?
01:24They were, yes. The later versions were, yes.
01:28So you became the major label's go-to loungecore man?
01:32That's right, yes. Loungecore specialist.
01:36Yeah, because we were in the car the other day, and we were having a discussion about the difference between chill-out and lounge.
01:42Yes.
01:43Could you enlighten us on that?
01:46Yeah, the chill-out where you're more or less leveled flat.
01:51But the lounge stuff is a very, very different...
01:55It's like a sexy, slow-down beats.
02:00But it's not meant for chilling out.
02:02It's meant to listen to and to socialize with.
02:05And there's a real distinct difference.
02:07You don't get leveled out on certain types of music.
02:13But yeah, I've searched far and wide for these tracks.
02:17And they came from France, they came from Italy, they came from America.
02:21There's some really, really good stuff in there.
02:23So Comfort Zone series, yeah.
02:25I'm very, very proud of that.
02:36And the ambient scene as well.
02:38You're also involved in that?
02:40The ambient scene, yes.
02:42So I've actually produced for that.
02:45And they're tracks that could be up to half an hour long.
02:49And they just... I always call it swimming.
02:52Musical swimming.
02:56So you take records and then elongate the whole process.
03:01And the whole idea is just for people to go home and completely chill out to get lost.
03:11Yeah.
03:19Tell me about your record sleeve design career.
03:23I believe that you worked with Wham, didn't you?
03:26Yeah, I worked with Wham, George Michael.
03:28I got a phone call from CBS Records, who I was working for at the time.
03:35And they said, we've got a very exciting project about to launch.
03:40They called Wham, and they're going to be huge.
03:44Record companies knew in those days, because they could turn somebody huge if they wanted to.
03:49And then, so I went down to meet George.
03:53And he was lovely, he was very friendly.
03:56And he said, I really like the stuff that the Style Council are doing.
04:03Could you kind of go in that direction as a starting point?
04:07So I did.
04:09And I came up with a load of visuals, which meant that I went to see George at his mother's house.
04:18Where she fed me copious amounts of apple pie.
04:21She was a delight.
04:23And she said that George was out late every night.
04:28And so he wouldn't be on good form.
04:30Although he did ask me to come around at 12 o'clock.
04:33But of course he didn't turn up till 3 downstairs.
04:36And yeah, we sat down and we formulated the whole look.
04:41Or the idea and the angle for Wham's fantastic album.
04:47Which was an award winning sleeve.
04:50Although at the very, very last moment, the boss of CBS decided he didn't want it to be black and white.
04:56Because Paul Young's album had just come out, and that was in black and white.
04:59So I had to revert back to the original 35mm transparency version.
05:05And yeah, who cares?
05:08It looked awful.
05:10But it sold in copious amounts.
05:12And that's all they cared about in those days.
05:15I also believe you worked with the Rolling Stones as well.
05:29I did, yes.
05:30Tell me about that project.
05:31Ok, so I got a call from EMI Records to join in the team.
05:36Because everyone worked in teams.
05:39You had an art director at the record company.
05:42And I came in and I executed the artwork for She's So Cold.
05:47The Hit Factory.
05:48Now that was really interesting.
05:50Because they were knocking out records.
05:54Two or three a week.
06:00I got Rick Astley.
06:02And Rick was lovely.
06:03He'd been working as a tape operator at PWL for a while.
06:07We had to do turnaround artwork very, very quickly.
06:10Because he just had hit.
06:12Exploded big time.
06:14So it went from he was a tape operator.
06:17To somebody who just made tea at PWL.
06:22To suddenly becoming their next big star.
06:26In those days it wasn't computerised.
06:28It was all done on big sheets of board.
06:31Pasted together.
06:34It was a very, very different technology then.
06:41So did Kylie and Jason come into this work of yours then?
06:44They did.
06:46Jason, no.
06:48Kylie, yes.
06:49I dealt with her when we were doing The Greatest Hits album.
06:53Did you meet with her when you were working?
06:55I did.
06:56She came to my studio in Camden.
07:01She told me what she did like and didn't like.
07:04Had a very clear idea.
07:06Very, very focused.
07:09She was actually really, really pleasant.
07:11She was lovely.
07:12Mr McCartney, I believe, was a client of yours as well.
07:15We went to visit Paul when he was recording.
07:19It was a special project.
07:21It was actually a birthday present for his wife, Linda.
07:24The idea was that they were going to produce a 7-inch single.
07:28With the record cover.
07:31And he was going to give it to her as a one-off birthday present.
07:35So everything was very protected.
07:37The printer's proofs were made.
07:39Then all the proofs went to Paul.
07:41And only one was kept to one side.
07:44And the second one became the actual manufactured cover.
07:49What happened to the other copy?
07:52I think my ex-partner took it for his collection.
08:00Aside from your career as a top record sleeve designer,
08:03you were also very successful as a DJ.
08:07I first heard you playing at Wildfruit, which was legendary.
08:11Tell me about how that started and where that led.
08:14Like most DJs, you do a gig here and a gig there.
08:18And I came to the attention of Paul Kemp,
08:21who was the promoter for this night.
08:25As he built, as a new night, a one-off Gay Extravaganza.
08:30Hi, I'm Paul Kemp. I organize Wildfruit's Gay Extravaganza.
08:36There's so many good-looking men here.
08:39It's just like, where do I look?
08:42He put it in the paradox.
08:44He wanted a one-off special.
08:46And he wanted it to be really, really uplifting.
08:49Very, very colorful.
08:51It was huge.
08:53Turned into another night a month later.
08:56And then another month, another month, another month, another year.
08:59And it ran for 15 years.
09:02It's a one-off extravaganza.
09:04A 15-year-old club.
09:06It's probably outlasted every club in the country.
09:15We came out of the scene and we were experienced.
09:18And we knew what people wanted.
09:21We knew what they wanted to hear.
09:38I guess the relationship between a promoter and a designer and a DJ
09:43is a bit like a marriage in some ways.
09:46I met Pete in the late 80s.
09:51I started a gay club called Club Shame at the Zap Club.
09:55Before Club Shame, the LGBT community and the gay community
09:58really had their own clubs, separate clubs.
10:02At that time, it was a new clubbing generation, let's say.
10:08Some call it the E-generation.
10:11But it was when people started mixing more together.
10:15I had an opportunity at the Zap Club, which was very much part of that,
10:19to run the Gay Night, which was on Wednesday night.
10:24Pete came down with his partner at the time, Kate, to that night.
10:28I didn't really know him very much then,
10:30but he was in the air of the clubbing stuff.
10:36We got to know each other through that.
10:39At that time, in the design world, it was really much...
10:42We used to do our own flyers.
10:44It was all electroset and cutting bits out of magazines.
10:48Because there wasn't really the internet in those days,
10:51people could go to different cities or different parts of the world,
10:55kind of nick a few ideas, cut and paste it and put a bit of electroset on it.
10:59So that's what happened, because people couldn't often pick up on that.
11:03So a lot of ideas were circulated around.
11:09At that point, we kind of clubbed while Fruit was kind of born.
11:17This was a flyer here, which I'm going to give you a copy of.
11:21It's the famous bananas on it.
11:23At that time, the design was very much two or three colours.
11:29Pete designed that as well.
11:31That was done as a one-off club night.
11:34So he started doing the flyers.
11:37That was iconic.
11:39That was part of the look and feel of the club night.
11:43At that one-off, I thought,
11:45actually, this feels quite good, this one.
11:48So we did another one.
11:51Normally, in the club land, you normally do three.
11:54If the third one's not really working,
11:56you kind of go and knock it on the head.
11:59The rest is history, really.
12:02The reason I talk about Wild Fruit
12:04is because Pete was the resident DJ there.
12:06So it became a really close relationship.
12:08He's got a passion, designers have, graphic designers,
12:11and also a passion about the music.
12:13So Pete normally took the last slot of the evening,
12:17and the guests would go in the middle.
12:19Wild Fruit lasted 23 years,
12:21which is, in club land, a long, long time.
12:24Especially before the smoking ban and 24-hour licences.
12:27It was full.
12:28It was people coming in from all over the country.
12:31Number one in DJ magazine.
12:34It was just an incredible event
12:36that brought lots of people together,
12:38not just the LGBT community.
12:40Club Shame had started that kind of mixed club.
12:43Pete was a straight man, but in a gay club.
12:46It didn't matter, because he understood the audience,
12:49he understood the music.
12:51And he loved the dressing up.
12:53So a lot of people dressing up.
12:55Very much a house club.
12:57The music was really important to the evening.
13:00This is one of my favourites as well.
13:03This is one we had for a bank holiday.
13:05Die-cut flies.
13:06People don't do this so much,
13:08because it's got so much detail into it.
13:10It's got a blend of now and the old seafront.
13:13So historical context.
13:15And Pete really enjoyed that kind of stuff.
13:19The detail.
13:21And good graphic designers.
13:24They create atmosphere.
13:26It's very easy to do a brochure.
13:29And I know Pete's done a lot of stuff
13:31for Pet Shop Boy's designs.
13:33He's done a lot of stuff in the music industry.
13:36So I was a key person involved
13:38when we brought our CD out.
13:40So again, the booklet inside, the photographs,
13:43that kind of product, the packaging.
13:4623 years, and we're still mates.
13:49Still got a lot of love for Pete.
13:51We met Kasia.
13:53Kasia's very glamorous.
13:55She fitted in with the Wild Fruit family very much.
13:58It's been fantastic having Pete in my life.
14:00And I hope he's still in my life very much.
14:03I will always be part of that Wild Fruit journey
14:07back to the late 80s.
14:11I send all my love to Pete.
14:14Always thinking about him.
14:17Nothing ever changes.
14:19Don't forget the people you work with
14:21because they're a big part of that.
14:23I never forget people who've worked with me
14:25over the years and contributed to that.
14:29There's so many fantastic memories.
14:32I wouldn't change it for the world, as they say.
14:35But yeah, lots of love.
14:37Anybody who was anybody
14:40played at Wild Fruit.
14:42From Norman Cook
14:45all the way down to
14:47all the London DJs at the time.
14:50Many of which came upon us later on.
14:52I feel like I'm floating on a cloud.
14:55Rainbows fill up the sky.
14:58Smiles on everyone's faces
15:00as we dance around
15:02and sing to our favourite song.
15:05Lights fill up the air
15:07as the bassline drops.
15:09The hands go up, voices scream out
15:11we are the nightlife.
15:13We get down together.
15:15We share experiences the rest of the world
15:17don't understand.
15:19It's a secret society
15:21of misfits, arts, creative people
15:23who are not considered normal.
15:26We are our own community.
15:29We share joy, we share pain
15:31we share love.
15:33For that one moment
15:35the music connects us.
15:39I can't remember exactly when
15:41I met Pete
15:43but it was probably in a nightclub
15:45somewhere very late at night
15:47when we were probably dancing together
15:49or... I tell you what
15:51some people you just don't remember where you met them.
15:53Of course.
15:55Or when you decided
15:57I really like this person, we're going to be friends.
15:59But it was in the hazy days of nightclub
16:01so it was
16:03in an alcohol-fuelled
16:05environment.
16:07We sort of worked in tandem, Pete was still in Wild Fruit
16:09Sunday nights were his
16:11and I can't remember what I was doing at that time
16:13but I used to go and check him out on Sundays
16:15he used to come and check me out on whatever night
16:17I was playing and then he invited me
16:19to come to Wild Fruit. I think that's when things really
16:21took off.
16:25When he started getting me guesting at Wild Fruit
16:27it was a very
16:29gay club and for a
16:31straight DJ to be invited to a
16:33gay club is quite...
16:35you take that as a compliment.
16:37And the fact that Pete, a straight man
16:39was DJing in a gay club was neither here nor there.
16:43There's so many memories, the last few weeks
16:45so many memories of Pete have been going through my
16:47head and
16:49generally it all
16:51comes back to music and love.
16:53Music and love of each
16:55other and love of music and a mutual
16:57love of each other and music and
16:59every time we saw each other
17:01we would just talk about music
17:03and love it
17:05and
17:07Is there a tune
17:09or a song or a
17:11rhythm?
17:13It's funny, I was going through tunes
17:15to play tonight and thinking
17:17what would Pete be like?
17:19I was just thinking
17:21there's a kind of hard
17:23camp-ness to him.
17:25My presence here is obvious.
17:27If anyone who knows
17:29me and how much I love Pete
17:31obviously I'm so glad
17:33I'm able to be here.
17:37This tune is dynamite, dynamite
17:39through the night.
17:41And that led
17:43you to playing in Poland I believe.
17:45A friend of a promoter over
17:47there and he invited me to come
17:49and play just again as a one-off
17:51and I became the first
17:53British
17:55UK house DJ to play
17:57a night in Poland
17:59and I went over there and I thought wow
18:01this is going to be special.
18:03They were so hungry
18:05and respectful of
18:07everything that was going on at that time.
18:09So I did the first
18:11weekend and then I got
18:13many a night that followed.
18:15The music of
18:17Pete's that I love the most is the really gentle
18:19chill-out stuff
18:21and there in the two sides of him
18:23he's very
18:25camp and he's always the centre of the party
18:27but also had a very very sensitive
18:29quiet side and more reflective
18:31more artistic you know.
18:35Tell me about your
18:37downtempo project Heywood.
18:39That is
18:41a fairly new
18:43project
18:45and
18:47all the stuff that I'm really
18:49interested in downtempo wise
18:51is a project
18:53that I can just feel free
18:55to
18:57listen to.
18:59It's a project
19:01that I can just feel free
19:03to
19:05actually do whatever I like
19:07providing it's downtempo.
19:09It's fairly jazzy
19:11in parts, it's fairly ambient in parts
19:13and I'm really excited
19:15about it and I'm managing to get out
19:17a track a day at the moment.
19:19Fantastic
19:21and I believe you've also been working in the
19:23drum and bass space. I have
19:25it's something I've always been interested in
19:27and now I'm expanding into
19:29doing production in that area
19:31which is really exciting for me because
19:33it's making me
19:35do things which I
19:37haven't done before. Yeah I believe you have a project
19:39called Formatics with
19:41Andy and Kasia? It is indeed
19:43Formatics, that's really pushing
19:45the boundaries for me and it's
19:47exciting, it's very bass
19:49heavy music, it's got
19:51drum and bass tempos
19:53and half tempos
19:55and I find it really exciting and we've got a
19:57release and
19:59yes, we've got
20:01an album on the way
20:03but hopefully I can fulfil that
20:05by the end of this year.
20:11And as a producer, how many releases
20:13have you had now do you think under your belt?
20:15Must be about
20:17150, of course none of them
20:19are hits
20:21but they're very very good.
20:23They're on compilations all over the world
20:25one in particular we did
20:27was, it's been on
20:2950 compilations, it's called Save Me
20:31Tonight, it's on the Hotel Costes album
20:33which is a very
20:35established label.
20:45I've got production spread far
20:47and wide and
20:49right now I'm producing more than ever
20:51you know with my condition
20:53it doesn't
20:55seem to have stopped
20:57my ability to
20:59produce and make
21:01records, which I'm very very pleased about
21:03because I can't really do artwork anywhere
21:05anymore because a different
21:07part of the brain is involved
21:09and it gets stuck very very
21:11easily but the music stuff is just
21:13flowing.
21:15It's hard to
21:17follow to know where you are
21:23I go under
21:25the name Evolved, Palmatics and Evolved
21:27Palmatics is
21:29a collective of again lots of
21:31talented producers including Evolved
21:37Pete
21:39has been
21:41you know the face of Brighton
21:43he's been very engaged with the Brighton community
21:45for over 25
21:47years and you know
21:49he's been
21:51behind, he's the DJ
21:53behind many many
21:55famous and loved nights
21:57you know from Wild Fruit
21:59to Nights at
22:01Sunday Sunday Puna Nas
22:03Escape
22:05obviously the Zap Club as well
22:07so really all this sort of
22:09very known venues
22:11to everybody you know he's been part
22:13of the people's
22:15I would say entertainment and
22:17club journey of Brighton
22:19I've known
22:21Pete and I've rubbed shoulders with Pete
22:23when I was a young lad so about
22:254 or 5 years ago we got together
22:27and said let's write some music so
22:29you know the rest is kind of history we've written
22:31the music, we've written, there's actually quite a lot of
22:33music to come
22:37For us as a family and as friends
22:39this has been
22:41a way I would say
22:43to build the resilience
22:45to put something that's really
22:47negative into something that's positive
22:49you know what are we going to do about it
22:51why don't we just leave some legacy
22:53why don't we have a little bit of fun
22:55in the light of
22:57something that we really can't control
23:05A long story but I'll tell you what
23:07if you find
23:09a guy called Jem
23:11in the crowds tonight
23:13he will tell you everything about it because actually
23:15he was in Poland and
23:17Jem who was the promoter
23:19in Warsaw at the time
23:21brought Pete to Poland
23:23he was actually the first house DJ
23:25to play in Poland
23:27and cut this story short
23:31you know fast forward 20 years on
23:33we're still cracking on
23:35One thing I'm really
23:39grateful for and
23:41truly delighted and impressed
23:43is the fact that
23:45people really dedicated their time and
23:47effort to
23:49contribute and do it on their own merit
23:51you know just to
23:53not only to obviously contribute to
23:55Pete's GoFundMe page
23:57as a benefit night but more
23:59importantly also to raise awareness
24:01you know look
24:03anything can happen in our lifetime
24:05there is a change of circumstances
24:07we're not ready for it sometimes
24:09but it's really how do we find
24:11some consolation
24:13we find it in our friends
24:15in our community
24:17and this is why I am
24:19specifically particularly grateful
24:21to everyone who
24:23has put the time and effort
24:25Ash, Steve, Norman
24:27all the organisers tonight
24:29Andy and everybody else
24:33I met Pete first
24:35at I think it was Bar Centro
24:37which is now
24:39a posh hotel in the middle of
24:41Brighton and he was a DJ there
24:43and I walked into this club
24:45I was like what the fuck's this
24:47and there was Pete in the corner
24:49and he was immediately friendly
24:51and then at that time
24:53I was starting my business
24:55taking some pictures and then Pete and Kasia
24:57took me over to
24:59Poland with them
25:01and we took some photographs
25:03at a club over there
25:05going to Poland together
25:07seeing how much of a superstar
25:09he was
25:11he remains in Poland
25:13seeing posters of him up everywhere
25:15and then arriving there and realising
25:17everyone knows who Pete is here
25:19and being part of that
25:21was something quite special
25:31What's up
26:01What's up
26:03What's up
26:05What's up
26:07What's up
26:09What's up
26:11What's up
26:13What's up
26:15What's up
26:17What's up
26:19What's up
26:21What's up
26:23What's up
26:25What's up
26:27What's up
26:29What's up