Can it really be thirty years since The Brand New Heavies first sashayed their way into the public eye with a romantic’s heart, a hedonist’s spirit and a Superfly sensibility? Their extraordinary new album TBNH, however, finds the band – and main songwriters funk-soul brothers Andrew Levy (bass) and Simon Bartholomew (guitar) – embarking on an entirely new chapter in their illustrious history. A heady cocktail of Chic-style funk-pop, sunshine grooves and scorched-soul balladry, TBNH refines, reimagines ultimately reinvents a winning formula which has won them 16 top 40 hits and three million album sales. The morello cherry in the glass? A breath-taking cover of Kendrick Lamar’s These Walls, produced by Heavies uber-fan Mark Ronson. "He saw The Heaves in New York in a really small venue SOB’s back in the early days and changed his whole musical outlook," says Simon of their collaboration with the planet’s hottest producer." It's incredible to think that everything he’s done since has been shaped by us. It’s a cool thing.
For The Brand New Heavies, groove has always been in the heart. Having emerged as part of the l Acid Jazzscene, their self-titled 1990 debut made an instant connection with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.“We were these young kids from a suburb in West London who went to America with our funny flared trousers and weird shirts, and they really took to us,” explains Andrew. “The week I landed in LA I was having dinner with the bass player from The Bangles. We went to a ceremony to honour Ray Charles at the Apollo in Harlem and Stevie Wonder came over and sang Never Stop to us. At the time you don’t realise how incredible that is.