Brand New Heavies will be playing Brighton Dome to perform their classic album ‘Brother Sister’ as part of the 30th anniversary tour and Brighton Source spoke to bass player and original member Andrew Levy about the album and what the future holds for the Acid Jazz pioneers.

You’re playing Brighton Dome on 22nd November. What can fans expect from your current live show?
It’s going to be a high quality, high energy show. The thing about The Brand New Heavies is that we always get told that the crowd can see that we’re enjoying the show, even though we’ve been playing the same songs for a long time. We never over rehearse our set so no one quite knows what’s going on half the time. We’re so close and we all share that anticipation of being not quite sure what the next song’s going to be or if there’s going to be a cool, new section added to the ending. So we keep ourselves on our toes and I think it does come across to the crowd – that little bit of vulnerability is something that a lot of other bands don’t have.

Aside from yourself, Simon (Bartholomew, guitar) and Angela (Ricci, vocals) who’s in the current live band?
All the same people that have been with us for about 9 years now: Our keyboard player Matt Steele, who’s been with us for 13 or 14 years so he’s fully fledged; Bryan Corbett (trumpet), I think he must have done about 7 years now; Richard Beesley (sax) has done 10 or 12 years so everyone’s tight together. Also Mims Grey, who’s an artist in her own right, on backing vocals and percussion. Our newest member is Kerry Arandel who does backing vocals as well, so we’ve got 3 singers plus Simon who’ll be doing some singing as well – so a very well-oiled machine.

You’ve had some amazing lead singers – how do you find them or did they approach you?
N’Dea Davenport was kind of offered to us (which sounds really bad). She was introduced to us by our American record label, who’d heard the British version of the album in a Tower Records store in Los Angeles. One of the A&R people from Delicious Vinyl said we love this stuff and they flew us out there, where we met N’Dea but we didn’t do any music, we just chatted and they liked us so much they wanted to sign us. We didn’t have a singer because our original singer (Jay Ella Ruth) had left just before we got discovered in America. So we signed and they said why don’t you try out N’Dea, who they then flew to London. We were in a tiny rehearsal studio in Greenwich and she walked in, picked up a mic and started dancing and jamming with us and it was a match made in heaven. We didn’t really talk a lot but we realised we had the same musical backgrounds and we ended up writing ‘Brother Sister’ with her and touring all over the world for two years. It was a lovely situation but a shame it didn’t last too long as she was the perfect match for us to break America.

You’ve had Angela as lead vocalist for seven years now and, to me, she has more of a smoky, jazzy sound so did you have to change the way you write or arrange to accommodate her voice?
We haven’t had to change any of the keys which I thought we would have had to do as she has a lower register but she’s a stickler for authenticity so she practised for a long time to get the range that N’Dea had (on the original recordings). But it’s a very different voice and we didn’t want to scour the earth trying to find someone to copy N’Dea and there’s something about Angela that really slots in with the band. She’s got great stage presence, which is something that’s really hard to find if you’re looking for a singer that’s not already a star. She’s an ex-model so she knows how to carry herself and we’re very pleased to have her.

She’s probably the second-longest serving singer after N’Dea so it looks like she must be a keeper.
We should give her an award at the Brighton show – as long as she’ll have us, we’ll have her. I’d like to get some more writing done with her ‘cause we’re due at least two albums by now so we need to get in the studio with her and write in her own register as well, so it will sound nice and cool, nice and funky. I’ve been writing a lot in the background so I’ve got quite a few bits and bobs ready to release to the band. Honestly, we’ve got mountains of music that we just need to convert into songs and toss out the weaker ones.

Will you be playing any of the new material on the tour?
I’d love to play some of the new stuff. We did an album with Angela called ‘TBNH’ that got swallowed up in the lockdown and we sometimes throw some of those tracks in but we’ve got to stick to what it says on the tin so there won’t be any new ones but there’ll be songs that we’ve never played live from ‘Brother Sister’ and some we haven’t played for 20 years. It’s a bit nerve wracking as we haven’t rehearsed them too deeply but they’re all in my bloodstream so they should be fine.

Talking of ‘TBNH’ was that the only time you’ve used male vocalists (Laville and Jack Knight) aside from the rap groups on the ‘Heavy Rhyme Experience’?
Simon originally sang the demo of the Laville song but he decided to have a professional singer record it but yes, that’s the first time we’ve used a male singer.

Was it a conscious decision to always have female lead vocalists?
Largely we’ve always tried to have a female lead vocalist, I just think it makes sense with the whole history of Funk music. I love female singers and we just wanted to recreate that. Jan Kincaid (ex-BNH drummer) amazing voice and incredible musician and I still think it’s a shame he’s not with us as his voice was great and a part of the Heavies’ sound. Now we’re open to working with people that aren’t in the band so there might be a couple of guest vocalists on the next album.

It’s the 30th anniversary of ‘Brother Sister’. How did it feel revisiting it after all this time?
Quite emotional actually. Good emotions but it’s just that hankering for the past and for the days when I could just go into the studio in my house in Stoke Newington, the first house I bought, and literally spend all day working on a bass line, getting every single nuance, every single note, and writing a song from beginning to end. But then life goes on, you get married and have kids, and music isn’t the main focus of your life as you have other priorities. So it made me miss those days – a lot. Listening back to all the multi-tracks we have, I thought we can recreate that but let’s try to have a little more fun and take the seriousness out of this business, so we’re definitely going to have fun on this tour.

Next year is the big one, a 40th anniversary show at Royal Albert Hall.
Which is unbelievable, I never thought we’d go back there. The last time was 1997. We were self-managed up until a couple of weeks ago and, for some reason, I though we need to change what we’re doing so I got in touch with Sony Music as they’ve got a subsidiary that do a lot of strings based concerts and I thought Brand New Heavies, good strings, that could be interesting for our demographic. They said yes and we played the Royal Festival Hall and Barbican and big theatres in Manchester and Birmingham and they all sold out. We realised that people are getting older and want a different product so we booked the Albert Hall and now there are only 200 tickets left. We’re going to film it and we’ve got 12 cameras but we don’t know yet how it will be released.

What are your plans for after the Albert Hall show?
We’re going to be touring the US next Summer then the UK and Europe. Things have exploded live-wise so we’ll also be playing in Australia, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo.

Going back to the beginning, what was it like supporting James Brown in 1987?
This was when we were called Brothers International with Lascelles Gordon and Barrie K Sharpe and the core members of Brand New Heavies. I think James Brown’s agent had heard of us and was friends with Eddie Piller of Acid Jazz, who we’d just signed to, so whoever arranged it, it was a genius decision. He came on stage to watch our soundcheck and I was in my element, I’d finally made it as his music was what made me learn how to play the bass and he’s standing in a green tailored suit, jigging around listening to me and I couldn’t even play properly as I’d only picked it up two years before. I’m one of those people who just pick things up along the way. He even tried to steal our brass section!

I presume he was one of the inspirations behind forming the band?
He was an absolutely massive influence, especially the records he made with Lyn Collins and Vicki Anderson. We modelled the band on this which is why we had to have a female lead singer. With his music you can hear every single note, every single instrument so it’s quite easy to emulate and I later realised it was Bootsy Collins playing bass that I learned from.

Thanks for talking to us today and have a great show at The Dome on the 22nd.
Thank you so much. We’ve just released more tickets as it’s nearly sold out and we hope to see you there.

Brand New Heavies play Brighton Dome Concert Hall on Friday 22nd November.
Remaining tickets are available at the Dome Box Office or online here.