"I thought, ‘I can’t play now. He’s going to be looking at my fingers and judging me’”: British acid jazz outfit The Brand New Heavies say that Prince came to watch them three times and Stevie Wonder once sang one of their songs to them

(Image credit: Steve Thorne/Redferns; Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Soulful British ‘90s funk band the Brand New Heavies were never afraid to wear their influences on their flared sleeves, which sometimes led criticisms that their music was a little too in thrall to the artists that inspired it.

They must have been doing something right, though, because the acid jazz legends’ fanbase included the likes of Prince, Stevie Wonder and fellow old-school soul revivalist Mark Ronson.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Brand New Heavies founders Simon Bartholomew (bass) and Andrew Levy (guitar) say that Prince came to see them play no less than three times, which is pretty remarkable when you consider their respective schedules. Still a young man in his ‘20s, Levy says that he was scared to talk to His Royal Badness, who unwittingly threatened to throw the bassist off his game.

“I remember shaking his hand just before I walked on stage, and I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, I can’t play now. He’s going to be looking at my fingers and judging me,’” says Levy.

And then there was the time they met Stevie Wonder at the recording of a TV special celebrating the great Ray Charles. “Backstage, someone said, ‘Do you want to meet Stevie Wonder?’ Bartholomew remembers. “So we met him and he sang our song [1990’s Never Stop, which George Michael would go on to sample on 1992 single Too Funky] back to us.”

Mark Ronson, meanwhile, loves the Heavies so much that, over a decade ago, he had them to play at his 40th birthday party, where he credited them in his speech for changing the course of his career.

“He’s like, ‘I was into rock music, then I was in New York and I went to see the Brand New Heavies, and I just changed my direction,’” says Bartholomew now.

While they’re probably not available to play your own big birthday celebration (or maybe they are, if you’re willing to pay), if you want to see what all the fuss is about, Brand New Heavies will be touring the UK next year. Details can be found on the Brand New Heavies website.