In their 90s heyday, the Brand New Heavies were synonymous with the sound of London’s dancefloors. The quartet’s blend of funk grooves, soulful vocals and thunderous basslines were on regular rotation from Hoxton’s Blue Note to Camden’s Dingwalls courtesy of DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Eddie Piller. Today, their hits Dream on Dreamer and Midnight at the Oasis are more likely to be regular picks for Magic FM’s drive-time slot, while their 11 albums have been released to lessening levels of fanfare, mostly leaving the group to be defined as pioneers of a bygone genre: acid jazz.
So they seem to have a point to prove as they arrive at a sold out Royal Albert Hall, rounding out a tour that’s marked 30 years since the release of their most commercially successful album, 1994’s Brother Sister. Backed by the colossal London Concert Orchestra, original members guitarist Simon Bartholomew (adorned in a feather boa) and bassist Andrew Levy (sporting tight sequined trousers) and new vocalist Angela Ricci launch into a lively two-hour set.
The rhythm section thumps for most of the show and keeps the audience on its feet, with Levy and drummer Luke Harris drowning out the string section on the disco-funk of Sister Sledge pastiche Back to Love and locking in tight for the mid-tempo groove of Stay This Way. While interest drops on slower numbers such as Brother Sister’s title track and the woozy lovers rock track People Giving Love, the room bounces when the band go back to punchy tempos. Dream on Dreamer shows off the group’s knack for uplifting, earworming melody and a sprightly, strings-led version of Never Stop highlights Ricci’s indefatigable vocals. A special appearance from their acid jazz contemporaries – James Taylor on Hammond organ, and Incognito vocalist Tony Momrelle – highlights the genre’s urban-sophisticate appeal, charging through Incognito and Jocelyn Brown’s classy 1991 classic Always There.
Closing out in similarly joyous fashion on the vamping melodies of Forever, the 2025 iteration of the Brand New Heavies demonstrates that there is plenty more party-starting life left in these three-decade-old songs.
