Funk royalty and pioneers of the 90’s Acid Jazz scene, The Brand New Heavies, host their Australian shows this week. Their unique mix of jazz, funk and soul will light up audiences as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their iconic album, ‘Brother Sister’. Released in 1994, The Heavies third album ‘Brother Sister’ changed everything for the band. Propelled by the classic singles ‘Dream On Dreamer’, ‘Midnight At The Oasis’ and ‘Back To Love’, the record achieved huge success (a No. 4 UK chart position, over one million sales and a BRIT nomination) as they cemented their position as the spearheads of Acid Jazz.
With the band hitting Indonesia for a couple of shows enroute to Australia, we managed to catch up with guitarist Simon Bartholomew before he had even managed to check in to his hotel, talking to him from the luxury of a laptop, hastily set up in the lobby of his hotel. We discuss his musical influences as well as just why the band have stood the tests of time, with their sound live performances remaining timeless.
Simon: Hi, what’s up Sean?
Sean: Simon, I know you have literally just walked into your hotel in KL so thank you so much for your time.
Simon: We’re literally right in the thick of the travel and just landed in this really bizarre, like very intense, visually intense hotel lobby – I’m have a good look and it’s all right [laughs] and I’ve had a little sleep on a little bus on a 40-minute journey… wow but all good you know. The jet lags is still with us – jet lag’s real mate [laughs].
Sean: It’s fantastic to see The Heavies out on the road again, especially with some international dates, which is always great. As a band, can you really believe it’s now coming up to thirty-one years since that monumental album ‘Brother Sister’, that really projected you into the stratosphere with those fantastic songs?
Simon: You know what? You start to realise it more as you get older. You don’t know when you’re beginning your career and when stuff is happening. That being our second album, the first one made with our own money and then that sort of slowly sort of got notoriety and led us to making the ‘Brother Sister’ album. You know, you start to realise how many people it’s affected and have heard it. And it’s not just an album on its own, it’s come from a whole sort of scene of people discovering funk and soul and everything like that. And then hip-hop is beginning too at that time. So it has a sort of a lot, it’s quite a wealth of stuff around it. You know, I’m very happy we did it.
Sean: I’ve had the album on the last few days, just to revisit it because that era was a big part of my life musically. Those late 80s and 90s albums and songs some of the most incredible bands coming out of the UK in that period but do you know what, the moment that ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ kicks off, it is just goosebump stuff and it’s just timeless and its a real testament that the album sits so well now… It could almost have been a recent release because it sounds so current.
Simon: Funnily enough with all the sort of funk… there’s a lot of funk bands coming out like The Black Keys and Vulfpeck and all sorts of bands, but I guess it does you know. It’s funny isn’t it, because I think the music that we will listen to, it is also kind of timeless. It has a sort of resonance about it and I think in a way a lot of music copies music from that period. So, it was fun to revisit it all and some of the songs we’ve never played live before. We’re doing our best to play the whole thing all the way through.
Sean: When you got that album laid down all those years ago did you all feel that it was something special that had been captured because you know, we hear of these great albums that have come out over the years and sometimes people say you know we thought we’d done okay, but then suddenly the reaction from the public makes you sit up and go, wow.
Simon: I think it’s a bit of that because, you know, like I say, we made our first album and that got heard by Delicious Vinyl in America. So we couldn’t really get a record deal in the UK because the type of music just wasn’t sort of seen as anything viable for record companies, you know. And they had a singer, N’Dea (Davenport), and we added the song ‘Never Stop’ to the first album. And that got to number three in America so it’s been a sort of stepping stone kind of career for us. I mean I guess it was surprising but you’re kind of like this ball had started snowballing… the rolling stone was gathering moss or gathers no moss… [laughs] I don’t know what’s better or good and so it was just like we were in it and things were growing. I mean there’s a certain amount where the record companies have power to get you in places but it’s been fantastic you know, its amazing to think it really did resonate with so many people.
Sean: We’re excited to have you back here in Australia. You’re getting to play a few shows around the country. You’ll be coming to see us in Perth on the final night of the tour.
Simon: Yes, we will. Phenomenal. I mean, we have been going to Japan pretty regularly. Let’s put Australia on at least an annual or bi-annual spot on the map to go and visit, because we’re quite in demand. We haven’t been to America for a little while and stuff. I feel there’s a bit of a renaissance for The Heavies right now and I think we’re up for it and you know, I think kids these days are going back to older music and things like that because of the internet. You can find everything on there and that’s quite interesting to see.
We get younger people at our gigs. We played in Manila yesterday and there’s this young couple and we got them on stage and we’re just sort of dancing and it’s fucking mental…sorry, jolly mental [laughs] and you know it’s quite interesting to see that happen and I think this sort of music, like something, that’s timeless but there’s also some ageless as well so that’s just a beautiful thing because if there’s one thing in the world that you can rely on… and some of my best friends are probably albums, relationships with music can last the longest, you know and it being not attached to you other than paying a little bit of money for it then it’s yours; it’s not political, it just rides through any madness, any war or any peace or any love and any hate. You might feel bad in the morning, stick a bit of Van Halen on and boom, you’re out the door, you know what I mean?
Sean: Taking you right back, what were your earlier influences as a kid growing up? What was the music you were listening to?
Simon: Being the guitar player in the band and when I was 11 or 12 years of age, there were only two channels to watch on TV and no internet. It’s a very different world now obviously. You met everyone in the pub on a Friday, because that’s where you went, because no one knew where everyone was going to be. So you had a local. And the local is not a concept anymore really. So I just fell in love with musicians like Eddie Cochran – Summertime blues. And Peggy Sue, I learned to play Peggy Sue, do you know her? [laughs] Like this sort of like, cool sound, and Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry. And that’s really healthy, I mean that’s where the Yardbirds came from, and my dad liked Blues, and that kind of guitar thing. So that’s my sort of roots, and that’s the sort of influences that I had.
And different people, like Andrew (Levy) is Jamaican, so his family and his uncle would bring back records from Jamaica you know and then you would sneak in their living room and put records on – they weren’t really allowed to, you know but you’d play records and put the needle down but it’s like magic. I think there’s something about that with the internet which I adore and we’re using it now but to have that sort of it thing was very special. You would look at what records you had… I think the internet was like going around to your mate’s house who had different record collection than you… that was your Google back then.
Sean: Well, the shows are nicely spread out for you; It all kicks off at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney on Friday 14 February, then down to Melbourne and Hamer Hall on Saturday 15th then shooting over to Perth at the beautiful Astor Theatre on Monday 17th – I was only there last week watching Tony Hadley.
Simon: Ah, you might have seen our old backing vocalist Lily.
Sean: She was incredible. She sang ‘Through the Barricades’ with Tony. Sensational.
Simon: I’ll tell her when I see her.
Sean: I didn’t realise the guy on the keyboards, Adam Wakeman was the son of Rick of YES fame.
Simon: Really? I’m a big prog rock fan. I’m going to see this band called The Musical Box in a few weeks. They’re Canadian and they do the most faithful reproduction of early Genesis, Peter Gabriel era. They even use the original lights. They’re the lights on TV with flaps and they’d adjust the flaps. They even use the fucking lights. So they’ve got all the original instruments. They probably do it better than Genesis [laughs] because they’ve got it all tweaked nice.
Sean: I saw Genesis in ’87 at Wembley Stadium for the Invisible Touch tour. They were just superb.
Simon: All great performers – they’ve just cut their teeth from day one man, that’s working hard you know, even if they got a bit cheesy to the end.
Sean: So before your jetlag really kicks in I’d love to finish with some general ones.
Simon: Yeah of course.
Sean: The first one’s my restaurant question; if you could invite three musicians past or present, dead or alive to join you for dinner for the evening, who would you have sat with you?
Simon: You know what’s really funny. I saw a clip on YouTube of a really bizarre thing, when England had the Queen, she once met, and it’s on YouTube somewhere, Brian May, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton but she has not got a clue who they are, so she says, “Hello” (Simon does a rather impressive Queen of England voice) and they’re these guys, big rock and roll stars, they’ve done everything… they’ve done the cars, and the girls, everything and they’re all standing behaving like little boys. It’s mad and she’s like, “Hello, how are you? And what do you do?”, “I play guitar Ma’am”, “Oh that’s very nice” and then she meets Jimmy Page and Brian May says “He’s in Led Zeppelin.” “How long have you been playing?” [laughs] She has not got a clue and then she was speaking to Eric Clapton, “I play guitar too” but it’s just a bizarre and so funny. But I’m a big Jimi Hendrix fan – he’s probably a bit wild to invite for dinner but it could be a long dinner party with Jimi. I mean it’s a bit like big brother because there’s some people you want to invite that would maybe not get on.
I’m now trying to think about who would be fun at a dinner party and who is just an amazing musician – they’re two very different things. I’ll tell you what Johnny Thunders from the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop and… [laughs] I don’t know, this is my party guys, not necessarily the musicians I like the most. I’m just letting you know that. [laughs] This would be the one that would make it a lot easier. Jimi Hendrix is always invited. That would be mad. We’d be dead by the end of dinner. Dead by dessert. [laughs]
Sean: [laughs] What an interesting night ahead. What was the last album you listened to?
Simon: I actually shower to ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ because I get my phone out and the length of this song is just perfect for the length of shower time. So Electric Ladyland is like one I had from very young like 15 or 16 and it was made at a time and in a way where you’ve got people making albums before that with singles – he had an album full of singles and songs and he was just doing soundscapes and joining songs together and fading in and out and it’s like a sort of… I don’t like the word but a concept album and I don’t think he even used it but it was more like a journey and he had to fight to do it. His manager left him, he didn’t like it Chas Chandler from The Animals – it was like he left because he was just mucking about. He’s jamming and exploring stuff and it’s like rock and roll and there’s like ‘Crossdown Traffic’ which is great fun and it’s like 1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) too, and they were like when they’re mixing it they were like pushing the tape onto the head and exploring stuff and I listened to that like earlier on today. Another great album is Selling England by the Pound by Genesis which has got Cinema Show and Firth of Fifth which are just like these amazing passages of music journeys you know. For the funk and soul fans you might go what the heck is that but that is something else.
Sean: Well before you trundle off to bed, if you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Simon: Wow, now that is like a mountain of a question. I’m not sure I want to go somewhere else in my head now. We were talking about Cat Stevens the other day and I’m a bit tired so my brain isn’t really functioning but that’s a heck of a question. I’ll tell you what there is. I did find the recordings of ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ so it’s all the 10 takes before they finished the song and they get to the final take and it’s literally because it’s not really written and jammed so it starts with this wah-wah thing. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah. And he only adds that in at the last minute. So it’s just such a sort of loose and funky thing and such an iconic piece of music to me. That would be amazing to write. I did hear that the Beach Boys song, ‘God Only Knows How I Feel About You’, that sounds like something they would have worked and slaved over, right? He wrote the lyrics on the back of a piece of paper and in the taxi on the way to the studio.
Everyone will say that The Beatles were just phenomenal you know, like ‘Norwegian Wood’ a bonkers song, a great diversion from their ‘I Love You’ sort of stuff and that’s quite an important song for them and for the rest of the world. You know, probably Dylan had a big influence on that. ‘Blowing in the Wind’ is quite a good song to choose from. What about you? What would you wish you’d written apart from apart from ‘Highway to Hell’ or ‘Let There Be Rock’ by ACDC? [laughs]
Sean: Well I’m no musician but I’ve always loved Uriah Heep’s ‘July Morning’ – it has a bit of everything in it for me. Its got a proggy sound – keys, heavy guitar riffs that build, great lyrics and vocals.
Simon: I’m going to look it up.
Sean: Simon, thank you so much for you time. We wish you a safe flight to Australia and hope to see you next Monday at Astor Theatre.
Simon: You have to come down. Be great to catch up. We’ve been doing some really great shows. The band’s really on fire and it’s really been going good. And we’ve been asked back already, which is always nice to hear.
Sean: Well thanks again and enjoy some well earned sleep.
Simon: Sean, it’s been awesome. Great to meet you. Take care.
THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES 2025
Friday 14th February
Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Saturday 15th February
Hamer Hall, Melbourne VIC
Monday 17th February
Astor Theatre, Perth WA
Tickets available here
