Me and Huey go way back (he just doesn’t know it)…

Graham’s love of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals proved very useful for one of his clients

It was 1998…or was it ’97…actually, could’ve been ’96 (the ‘90s are slightly vague – we were all trying to keep up with our party animal pacesetters, the Gallagher brothers). Anyway, my best pal - John - was working away at the time, across in Cumbria, with digs in the beautiful, bustling village of Bowness, on the banks of Lake Windermere.

I’d organised to go over to see him for a Summer weekend of alcohol-fuelled shenanigans.

Ever since we met, me and my friends have always been obsessive about discovering the latest, greatest new bands – we all want to take the reflected glory of unearthing the next big thing. So, it didn’t surprise me that I hadn’t arrived but five minutes, when John cranks up the volume on his hi-fi (remember them?!) and hits play on this…


It was the newly-released first single from then unknown New York three piece – Huey Morgan, Brian “Fast” Leiser and Steve Borgovini – aka Fun Lovin’ Criminals.

He played the track loud and then the B-sides (remember them too?!) loud. It was NYC through and through – with bags of attitude and eclectic at every turn: mixing rock, blues, disco and soul with a seismic dose of hip hop…and that voice man!

Huey’s smoky, lazy, UBER-cool vocals gave them the edge, no doubt. His lyrics were street smart, funny, witty, sexy (not for me, for the ladies!) and his delivery was gospel in every line.

I was hooked immediately.

6 studio albums and multiple gigs later…and I’m still hooked.  

So, skip forward from the 90s to now and here we are in 2017. Life’s changed – we all have families and careers…I’ve been working as a radio advertising creative for over 15 years now.

A few weeks ago, I took a brief from one of my clients, Jeep UK, to promote their latest offer on the Jeep Renegade.

The Jeep Renegade is all about attitude, living life to the max, being out there doing your own thing. Jeep is one of those true all-American brands but proud to be reaching out to the UK - and that’s when it struck me…

HUEY. Huey’s the perfect man for this job.

As if to prove the point that “having the idea is only half the job” I then set about trawling the web to discover IF I could locate his agents details, IF he had a voice agent, was he available, was he even in the country at the moment?!?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the dots all connected and a few days later we found ourselves in a recording session with the man himself, every bit the epitomy of cool – the swagger, the charm, the charisma…and the voice to back it all up with.

So, did I lose it in a projectile of frenzied fan appreciation?? “I’m a massive fan Huey…you’re just the best…I love your music…seen you live…you’re brilliant”???

Pah! Of course not, I was too busy trying to match his coolness! In fact, he’s probably writing a blog about me now, you know, about how cool I am.

Maybe.

Graham Bridgewood


The uber cool Huey in all his glory