The Brand New Heavies are celebrating 35 years since the release of their debut single with a new career retrospective.
Bringing together 21 tracks spanning more than three decades, ‘Never Stop… The Best Of’ celebrates the pioneers of London’s burgeoning Acid Jazz scene.
Formed in 1985 by guitarist Simon Bartholomew, bassist /keyboardist Andrew Levy, and drummer/vocalist Jason Kincaid, the band powered through the nineties with extraordinary vocalists and collaborators such as N’Dea Davenport, Siedah Garrett and Carleen Anderson.
They landed Top 10 albums with ‘Brother Sister’ (1994) and ‘Shelter’ (1997), along with 15 UK Top 40 singles, including originals like You are The Universe, Dream On Dreamer, and Sometimes, to canny covers of seventies classics such as Don’t Let It Go to Your Head, Midnight at the Oasis, and You’ve Got a Friend.
‘Never Stop….The Best Of’ includes all their UK hit singles, plus their US tracks Brother Sister, Mind Trips, You Can Do It, and Bonafied Funk, taken from their groundbreaking 1992 album, ‘Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol 1’, which set a blueprint for fusing hip-hop to live RnB grooves introduced The Pharcyde and Gang Starr to the world.
The CD version also includes an additional bonus disc of remixes from such titans of dance music as Masters At Work, Dimitri From Paris and Roger Sanchez, as well as a percolating new remix of Stay This Way by Bob Sinclar, out now.
Liner notes come courtesy of Mark Ronson, who explains: “The Brand New Heavies and their pitch perfect jazz-funk revival were my musical coming out party. They were my introduction to all the incredible music I would spend the next 30 years of my life DJ’ing in clubs as well as triggering my desire to think outside of the basic-ass chords I knew on the guitar and piano.”
‘Never Stop… The Best Of’ is out September 29 via London Records and available to pre-order now.
In support of the album, The Brand New Heavies will embark on a tour of the UK with three special concerts featuring strings from London Concert Orchestra.
Tickets will go on sale in July with a special pre-sale for fans who pre-order the album via the group’s official store.
The full list of dates is below.
NOVEMBER 2023
9 – Barbican Hall, London
11 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham
16 – The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
