Few successful bands resist the temptation to reform after breaking up. You can probably only name a handful – ABBA have never succumbed to public demand, neither have Wham! or The Jam... and neither have Hefner.
Emphasising Hefner’s position in that elite list, singer Darren Hayman wrote a song pledging never to reform the band on a recent double A-side split with former drummer Anthony Harding.
Bands That Don’t Reform/A Soft Place appeared in record shops last July, and it was the closest Hefner’s cult following will ever get to a band reunion.
“If you think of bands that just say no there’s not many people who can hold their heads high,” Darren says, speaking from his home in Walthamstow.
“The idea (with Bands That Don’t Reform) was to set something in stone so if I ever decided to reform Hefner, people would say, ‘Ah, remember, but you wrote that song.’ It’s on record to make sure I really don’t do it.”
Hayman says reforming spoils the story of a band. “I was a teenager when the Velvet Underground reformed and it seemed like a real event – we’d got used to the idea of bands properly splitting up. When the Beatles did it, you know, that was it. The end. Now, The Ramones could reform with four drummers that aren’t dead and no one would care.”
“Every musician thinks about the Mojo retrospective in 25 years time – grainy black and white photos with a microphone stand in front of them, their life as a narrative – but then everyone does that, whether you’re a musician or not.
“I was very conscious that Hefner did three or four records. I like those sort of bands. When we stopped it took me by surprise, but I like that the line-up was static.”
Hayman has now recorded four solo albums since Hefner split in 2002. His most recent with his new band The Secondary Modern, Pram Town, relocates characters from his childhood in Brentwood to a new town nearby, Harlow.
The album is semi-autobiographical and evokes the austerity of what he calls “a bit of concrete stuck in the country”.
Its pared-down approach matches Hayman’s lyrical style as well as the home-made aesthetic that has characterised his career. But Hayman has updated his ways – his recent Tweets announced a trip to Suffolk to research 17th-century witch trials for a concept album about dogging.
“Well, it’s not exclusively about dogging – there’s only so many songs you can write about dogging,” he says. “It’s going to be an extension of Pram Town, but about the countryside and the small villages in Essex, the small lawless underbelly the country has that’s rarely written about.”
Hayman remains committed to a cottage industry ethic, though. “One way I pay my way in this house is by putting T-shirts and CDs in Jiffy bags,” he says. “I begrudgingly fit into the modern world.”
So, next time you order a Hefner CD, it might be Hayman who posts it.
* Starts 7.30pm, tickets £7. Call Rounder Records on 01273 325440 or Resident Music on 01273 606312
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