YOU can argue that Kajagoogoo star Limahl’s hedgehog mullet or The Human League frontman Phil Oakey’s lopsided look were the big haircuts of the 80s.
But you are wrong. The most iconic haircut of the 80s came courtesy of Mike Score, the lead singer of A Flock of Seagulls.
Only the hairstyles of Twiggy or Jennifer Aniston have been talked about so much.
No other haircut has been name-checked so often in popular fiction.
Pulp Fiction, Family Guy, Friends, Austin Powers, The Wedding Singer and Ben Stiller’s The Suburbans last year all have name-checked it or the band.
As Mike, 55, prepares to fly to Scotland next weekend for the Rewind Festival, he laughed: “I think that haircut owns me, I don’t own it.”
If you haven’t followed the band since the 80s, we have a secret – Mike doesn’t have ANY hair any more.
The former hairdresser from Beverley, Yorkshire, said: “I basically shave my head now and people still come up and ask, ‘Are you going to do your hair tonight?’ and I say, ‘What do you think?’
“But I’d love to have a wig made like the haircut I had in the 80s and play these hits like Wishing then pull it off at the end. Keep it fun.
“That’s what people liked about the band. We had a crazy image and our music was upbeat rather than dark and gloomy.”
Seen as a band to laugh at, the Liverpool-based Gulls were one of the UK’s big breakthrough outfits.
Their 1982 self-titled debut album went to No10 in America and they won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1983 for D.N.A.
The single I Ran (So Far Away) went to No1 in Australia and Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) topped the charts in France.
While Duran Duran and Culture Club broke America, the Gulls were one of only a few Brit bands from the 80s to actually make any mark Stateside. And Mike doesn’t think it was all about the image, although he concedes the new music channel MTV helped.
He said: “We were one of the first bands of that era to go to America and play.
“Most Americans had the idea that English bands were just limp-wristed and not into lead guitar-style but we went over and showed we really could do that kind of stuff with power.
“I think that’s why we took off in America so well. They were looking for a new thing that wasn’t a 70s supergroup.”
To go with his outrageous hairstyle, the music was all sci-fi about alien invasion and songs with titles such as Modern Love is Automatic, D.N.A. and Telecommunication. They may have sung about the future that we are now living but their image always went before them. They were serious but everyone else was laughing at them.
Mike said: “Towards the end of the original band, a lot of people slagged us off because we had such a strong image.
“But then you see Ben Stiller name-checking us or Peter in Family Guy with a similar haircut, I look back and think, ‘What a genius stroke to do that hairdo’.
“Because here we are 30 years later and we are still talking about it. It has iconic stature.
“And it’s brilliant we got a mention in a film like Pulp Fiction. It makes me laugh. In those days I was so serious about my image but now I laugh and think I was crazy.”
The famous wings hairstyle – flat in the middle and slicked up at the sides – was a mistake.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the singer copied David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust hairstyle but before a gig, the original bassist in the band, Frank Maudsley, put his hand on Mike’s head and flattened the middle of it. He liked the look and a style was born.
Mike said: “Now Wolverine has even stolen the look. They should all pay me a huge royalty.”
And don’t think the haircut was just admired by hairdressers and trend-setters.
Mike winked: “The great thing in the 80s was walking around New York with my hair like that and 20 girls running after me. Isn’t that what it’s all about?”
He may not have the hair but Mike has still got the fans. He has ditched the other original members, including his drumming brother Ali, but Mike will be singing his best-known songs once again in Scotland and next weekend’s Rewind Festival at Scone Palace, Perth.
Saturday’s line-up also includes Kim Wilde, Rick Astley and Howard Jones while next Sunday’s stars include Tony Hadley, Nik Kershaw and OMD.
Mike said: “We will all be giving people what they’ve come to see.
“It’s like a greatest hits tour. I will be playing and singing. If you took the synth away, I’d probably lean forward and fall over.”
Although Mike does tour with a band as A Flock of Seagulls, he also released his debut solo single All I Wanna Do this year.
There are no plans to re-form the original line-up of the Gulls. But he said: “I never say never. There are certain days when I think, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to get them back together?’
“I do get offers to do festivals but I’m happy with the guys I have. They are my best buddies. I like to go on the road and have my friends there rather than deal with the egos or the disruptions of the past.”
The Gulls, who took their name from Stranglers song Toiler On the Sea, knew that image was as important as the music. Bowie, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music and Japan all had a strong image.
Nothing inspires him with our current crop of bands from Mumford & Sons to One Direction.
Mike, who now lives in America, said: “You don’t want your superstars to look like the guy standing beside you in the pub. I think the last person to do that was Russell Brand and he’s not even a singer.
“And the last album that I thought worked well with music and image was Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream.
“Most of music nowadays is drivel. Boybands that aren’t bands, that don’t have the same grip on reality and seem stamped out one after the other.
“But I’d take Simon Cowell’s bank account. He’s a genius. He’s doing these shows like The X Factor for himself, not the acts.”
Mike may enjoy his own ex factor this weekend.
He’s only been to Scotland five or six times but revealed he loved “the way the girls talked” and had a girl who said she was his “wee bridie”.
He wonders if she might be at Rewind and added: “She might be a bit of a curled bridie by now.”
