Interviews:
18th Feb 2003:
from the 9th of Dec... Copyright Hotpress.com.

“Hang on, I need two seconds on my own,” interrupts Fun Lovin’ Criminal Huey Morgan. “I have to buy a piece of weed here. I’m just going into this drug spot. Hold on a second.”

The phone line crackles slightly, and I hear the muffled murmur of low voices and rustling pockets.

The King Of New York is strolling about his fiefdom, “chillin’” during a five-day hiatus before the Criminals descend upon the UK and Ireland for a tour that culminates with a whopping three-night headliner at Dublin’s Olympia. A few minutes later, Huey re-emerges on the line.

“You haven’t lived if you haven’t seen us live,” Huey assures. “I’d better be good, though, I’m on probation still. Can I get some bamboo please?”

Er, sorry?

“Oh, nothin’. I’m just getting some rolling papers.”

Oh. Okay.

With a Best Of on the shelves, a tour underway and the guts of a new album bubbling up in the studio, our Huey has been grabbing the party bull by its proverbial horns, no more evidently than at the MTV awards in Barcelona where he manned the meet-and-greet mic on the red carpet.

“I’ve never seen so many people take themselves so seriously in all my life,” he laughs. “Man, I thought California was weird. But that was sooo strange. It was boring as hell! We were trying to have a good time wherever we went, but everybody there was just whinging. Last year was cool, though. They had it goin’ off back then. And that was in Frankfurt, man. Of all places! You’d figure it’d be like a big ol’ party and stuff but everybody was wiggin’ out, being real important y’know? Like the Eminems and the Puffys didn’t wanna mingle with any of the people. There were some other bands there who were so in their own ass. It was terrible. We had fun though. We brought out a case of beer on to the red carpet.”

Huey is no stranger to the trappings of super-fame, recalling a particular evening at the house of Versace.

“A few years ago we were in Milan and Donatella invited us over to her house, so, naturally, we went over. We walked into this little room and all these people were hanging out, people like Michael Stipe and Madonna. It was a little bit over the top. There were the guys from Massive Attack and a couple of Spice Girls thrown in for good measure. There was a lot of that standing-around-being-cool-thing, though.”

Having scored a quarter and reminisced over past soirees, how will Huey be celebrating the festivities this Christmas season?

"My ideal Christmas would probably be in New York. Me and my friends would have a little thing at my house. We'd have a fire ’n everything – very Christmassy. We’d sing yuletide carols infront of the fire and I have a roof deck so we could go up there and enjoy the Christmas stars. Food-wise, I’d probably have to say pizza. Is it turkey and cranberry pizza? No, no. That’s a little too much trouble. I don’t want people slaving in the kitchen all day. With a pizza, it’ll be delivered, we can throw the box out and we’re done. I eat more pizza than the average man. What will we be guzzling? Well, everybody likes eggnog, so we just spike ours with Jameson!

“I’m not really into getting gifts, I like giving them though – a lot of the girls get those light blue Tiffany boxes [ooer! – Ed]. I just hope I don’t find coal in my stocking,” he adds ruefully. “I haven’t been the best boy in the world this year.”

Following the aforementioned dates in The Olympia, the Criminals are set to embark upon a monster recording session.

“After we do the tour, we’ll be finishing up the new record so that’s gonna be real interesting,” he says. “It’s coming along swimmingly, as they say. It’s got a few rock ’n’ roll songs on there that I think people are going to be interested in hearing. There’s a lot of rock and roll out there that’s pretty soft, y’know?”

But the Criminals were never really that heavy?

“Well here and there, if you listen to the old stuff – we’ve had our moments. We touch on the heavy stuff once in a while,” he assures. “And remember, we’re like Daddys too to a lot of these guys, like Papa Roach and all that. The laid back side is always going to be evident in the music, but what we’re getting in to now is more of the hard rock stuff. We don’t rule anything out, y’see? I think, a lot of the time when people start bands, they know exactly what they want to do. When we started we had no idea at all what we wanted to do, so it kinda left us open to try different things.

Reviews:
Mountford Hall, Liverpool. 22nd July 2002

I’ve been a fan of the FLC since 1999, discovering them when I was still in high school and being, at the time, bullied. A TFI Friday interview with Huey, promoting the single Korean Bodega, brought a little ray of sunshine to my very depleted soul. Why do I tell you this? Just to underline the fact that I am writing as a fan of this group on a higher level, much more than simply liking the music and / or fancying Huey. This would therefore give me a deeper reason to attend any concert…
Getting to Liverpool from my home town of St. Helens does not take too long which meant I was there in plenty of time for the gig. I went with one of my best mates, Lesley-Ann and her boyfriend Steven. The doors were supposed to open at 7:30pm, so it said on the ticket. When it got to 7pm, I couldn’t help but wonder where the crowd was, Mountford hall, part of the Students Union of Liverpool Uni, was rather huge. Soon enough they all appeared. The ambience of the crowd was quite worrying for me though. No one was visibly excited, other than me, giving the feeling that one was at a wake and not a gig one had paid the princely sum of £17 for. When the doors finally did open me and my mates ran to them and I was the first fan officially admitted that night. I headed into the huge hall and straight toward Fisty’s side of the stage and there we stayed. From past experience of an FLC gig, being at the front of the gig, especially on Huey’s side, is fight of the fittest. Most of the crowd headed right toward the bar, so needless to say the drunks started early that night, with one or two being ejected from the great hall. We were then subjected to the warm-up act. Well, it wasn’t really that bad, but ballads to warm up an FLC gig? The band walked on and off stage without once introducing themselves. On top of that, the drummer was far too heavy-handed and the bassist spent the entire set chewing constantly on gum, detracting from the mood and professionalism of the group. Then we had to wait for the meagre troop of roadies to cart one band’s equipment off and then bring on the others. This was too much for my friend, Lesley-Ann, who promptly fainted and was carried by four mountains of security guards, backstage. I waited with baited breath for my friend next to the door, which was to the right of the stage. Steven was allowed to go to her, and so he bloody well should be too.
Before my friends where allowed out, the band were to make their grand entrance… Huey, Fast and Mackie emerged from the doors. Huey wore cream with a little white hat, I have no idea why. Fast looked splendidly delicious in all black with his hair slicked back, whilst Mackie wore his usual cream suit. I snapped a couple of pictures, but felt guilty instantly for being so excited over my favourite band, when my friend had fainted only recently. Truth be told, I couldn’t hear a damned word being said as I was on the wrong side of the speakers, but I could hear the songs in all their exquisite, soothing coolness. To start things off, we were treated to ‘Where The Bums Go’, a fantastically rocky number that delighted the audience and myself. Bearing in mind the recent release of ‘Bag Of Hits’ the ‘greatest hits’ album of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, we were given every song on it’s track listing. Tracks such as ‘Loco’, ‘The Fun Lovin’ Criminal’ and, my personal favourite ‘Swashbucklin’ In Brooklyn’. Needless to say, we had the inevitable ‘Scooby Snacks’ the guaranteed crowd pleaser. I always feel sorry for the FLC when they have to play that tune at every gig, they must be exhausted, let alone tired with it. Huey though, gave an astounding amount of gusto to it and looked like he was enjoying it immensely.
Seems they are racing down the track toward a new album and the brakes aren’t working. They played some amazing new tracks, due to the afore mentioned problem of not being able to hear what was said properly, I can’t really judge. From what I heard, it seems that the Criminals are fulfilling their desire to create a definitely more up-beat and ‘rockier’ set of tunes. They blasted the audience with this super nova of exciting songs. One involved, from what I could tell, Fisty screaming into the Mic. That I found some what worrying as he could scream higher than I could; your reporter being a girl.
They exited the stage at one point and then re-emerged a few minutes later, much to the delight of the crowd. Possibly one of those ‘make-‘em-want-more’ moments. They finished this short piece with a very silky smooth rendition of ‘We Have All The Time In The World’. Then, finally exiting the stage…
What ever happened Lesley-Ann, I hear you yell, well, she immerged with Steven moments after the band, in full spirits and eager to see the boys in action. Steven had £10 nicked out of his wallet by some sad little greasy stain on the shit stained shoe-sole of humanity. As for me, well, I made a couple of friends and some funny observations.
I follow the guys in the media and on the net with much enthusiasm, so I know what their crew looks like. So when I was introducing myself to Skills and Winston, I couldn’t help feeling like I was talking to celebrities. Both are lovely, especially Winston! A total little sweetheart.
In conclusion, it was a good gig, though not the best I’ve been too by far (the best ever being the One2One gig in Manchester, where I actually spoke to Huey *sigh*). Everyone had a good time and I felt reassured that my idols are never going to topple, no matter what.

By Catherine Gange
scatzz@hotmail.com

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