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something I’ve never seen him do inthirty years of nocturnal entertaininasked the band for an encore.

The band is called The Heavy, perh because their music is weighted withdiverse yet congr uent influences. Yorecognize the song that got Dave’s aas the theme for a surreal Kia SorentBowl commercial. “How You Like Mis sung with all the nuance the questcontain by Kelvin Swaby, a young man old soul who was gracious enoug

phone in as The Heavy prepares for ever swing through the Deep South

 Birmingham Weekly: It’s been sa

The Heavy are like a group of chemi

You heard it here first: when the new season of American Idol cranks up next year,someone a lot of you know will be in therunning. I wish I could be more specific, butthe litigious drones that toil at the behest of Emperor Murdoch’s network would wreak ahorrible vengeance were I to divulge namesand places.

I mention this only to whet your appetitefor seeing a band from Noid, England, Sat-urday night at Bottletree. When they playedthe considerably larger Ed Sullivan Theatre

on The Late Show , the four gentlemen fromthe little village laid down such a big soundthat Uncle Dave Letterman was roused fromhis usual torpor, shouting aloud, “There’s

 your American Idol right there!” Then he did

The Heavy makes you

happy

Puddle-jumping rockers The Heavy bring their soulful sound all the way fromEngland to Bottletree on October 23. Photo by Will Cooper-Mitchell.

A BAND CROSSES THE OCEAN TO START A SOUL COMMOTION

column Courtney Haden

Getting ready to playOn Tuesday, the BirmiCity Council voted to

funding for the entert

district portion of MayBell’s downtown development plan, and l

groundwork for a vote next week to appro

for a baseball stadium downtown near th

completed Railroad Park . According to a s

the Birmingham News, the council has to

the baseball stadium again next week be

vote on Tuesday was not unanimous. Cou

Roderick Royal was the sole abstainer, cit

detail in the current plan as the reason for

vote. Even if Royal changes his vote, there

few obstacles to the planned stadium, wh

requires an agreement from the Birminghto relocate from their Hoover home.

Stop beating around the bush: As part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a recent

annual survey by the Violence

Policy Center entitled When MenMurder Women: An Analysisof 2008 Homicide Data ranked

Alabama third in the list of states with the highest

rate of women killed by men. The study reached

its conclusion by analyzing a portion of data from

the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s otherwise

unreleased Supplementary Homicide Report.

Alabama received third place with a rate of just

over two homicides per 100,000 people. Way to

reinforce our redneck stereotypes! Beating us in

the beating game are Nevada and, surprisingly,

Vermont. New Hampshire walks away as the state

least likely to kill it’s women with a rate of just 0.30

people killed per 100,000. View the full report at

www.vpc.org.

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8/6/2019 Hotseat Limelight

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experimenting with compounds. Tell usabout the laboratory you work in.

Kelvin Swaby: It can be anywhere, whetherit be four of us or just myself in an airport,

 just working on some beat or chopping up

some horn part that we’ve kind of half-played.Or it might come from just myself and Dan[Taylor, on quicksilver guitar] just workingaround. It really doesn’t matter where theinspiration comes from, we always manage tofind a way to get it down.

We’re not super anal about the way thatthings are recorded, so it means the labora-tory is a lot wider than just being “in a studio.”So many people get caught up with the ideathat you actually have to go into a studioand get this super-slick sound, but a lot of the music that I like sounds—terrible! Therecording does, y’know? I love that . I thinkthat’s what we kind of aspire to.

BW: One interesting aspect of your back-ground is your early DJ work. Are you betterable to get over to a crowd as a performer,now that you’ve learned what works for anaudience in a room w hen you’re playingtracks for them?

KS: I wouldn’t say it’s easier; every room isdifferent, but I think, just because of my re-cord collection, the diversity of music I kindof collect, I try to look back to the old mastersof that music I so adore and try to keep itlike that. That’s the way we try to perform,remaining true and absolutely passionate to

 what we do.

BW: How big is your record collection?

KS: Pretty large. I think I’ve got, 45s, prob-ably only about 4,000. Twelves [12-inch singlediscs] and albums, probably about the same.

But it’s the 45s that really, really move me.The first record I remember stealing frommy father was a 45. Had to be Al Green, “I’mGlad You’re Mine.”

BW: Were a lot of people in Noid into soulmusic when you were growing up?

KS: Well, when my parents came over[from the West Indies to England], my dad was an avid record collector, and he used tohold a whole heap of parties at our family 

home. So it was always great for me to seepeople coming in and dancing to all this kindof music.

BW: What was it about American musicthat grabbed your ear?

KS: For me, personally, it’s the instrumenta-tion. I love the big band thing that’s involvedin a lot of music that I collect from America.Huge horns, huge strings. And I prefer whenthe beat’s just stripped and easy and very,

 very simple. You guys are so good at that. Youhave so many amazing players over here, thiscountry is so vast.

It’s the passion in the soul, but we canalso look at the Sonics, we can look at theWailers, look at Bunker Hill and that wholeside of rock and roll. It’s the same sentiment,

 y’know? It doesn’t sound super-polished, likea Berry Gordy offering, but it’s the same kindof soul, and it definitely hits a nerve with me.

BW: Here in Birmingham, we’re a coupleof hours away from Muscle Shoals, where so

many great soul records were recorded. There you had the anomaly of a bunch of whitecountry kids playing behind Aretha, WilsonPickett and such, playing with authenticity  because they loved that music.

KS: Exactly. It’s not about color, it’s aboutthe passion. I think that’s what people can see

 with us: you’ve got one black dude of Jamai-can heritage, you’ve got Dan who’s half Italian,half English; you’ve got Chris [Ellul, thestalwart drummer] half Maltese, half Englishand Spencer [Page on dense, dense bass] theLondoner.

It doesn’t matter if we have to drive thirteenor fourteen hours to get across the country to get to our show. As soon as we get to thestage, it’s one hundred percent committal, because we know people have come to see our

show. That’s the way it used to be. From allthe documentaries I’ve seen and all the booksI’ve read about the performers I love, that’s what it seemed to be like. We try and do that,not necessarily to replicate it, but to have that

 within our ethos.

The Heavy open for Mayer Hawthorne & The County at Bottletree on October 23.Tickets are $16 in advance and $20 the day of the show. Doors open at 7:30 and you must be 18. Visit www.thebottletree.com for more info.

Read more of this conversation online at www.bhamweekly.com.

Courtney Haden is a Bir-mingham Weekly columnist.Write to courtney@bhamweekly.

com.

Downtown Draw: Downtown

Birmingham’s newest attraction,

Railroad Park, has received a lot

of attention lately, but they’re not

resting on their laurels. Alreadyhosting an impressive array of 

attractions and amenities, including free Wi-fi, a

playground replete with obstacle course, skate park

and of course a fabulous view, they have begun

programming a number of events in the park in order

to attract new visitors. The Railroad Park Sunset Cinemahas begun showing free movies every Friday

at 7 p.m., and on October 24th Magic City Smooth

 Jazz will host Jazz in the Park from 5 – 9 p.m., which

is also free to the public. This Thursday’s free movie

will be the cult comedy Clue. For more information on

 Jazz in the Park visit www.magiccitysmoothjazz.com.

Don’t look now, but Alabama is onfire: According to a recent report by

the Birmingham News, Alabama

is suffering from a rash of wildfires

across the state that so far haveconsumed more than 16 square

miles of forest and fields and

destroyed 85 homes and other buildings. Alabama

has been plagued by drought recently, though not as

badly as in recent years. Jefferson County has seen

its fair share of fires, though many are located in the

south-western portion of the state. However, there

are some forces working in our favor. Dan Jackson,

forest operations division director for the AlabamaForestry Commission, told the News that there has

been a lucky absence of wind this year, which has

helped halt the spread of the existing fires.

www.birminghamwaterworks.com

Birmingham Water Works BoaBirmingham Water WORKS.. . for You!

A message from the BWWB and yo

participating local fire servic

At the Birmingham Water Works, we not only supply wate

for every day needs like cooking and drinking, but we also supp

water to protect your life. With more than 14,000 fire hydrants

our service area, we are responsible for making sure water is ava

able to protect you and your loved ones from the threat of fire.

How can you help?

Prevent Fires• Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove.

• Roll up sleeves before cooking and keep flammable items suc

as dishtowels at least three feet away from the range top.

• Do not allow children to light candles unless an adult is presen

Report water theft . . .Illegal water connections affect water pressure and availabili

Call 244-4000 to report unauthorized use of fire hydrants, wat

theft or illegal water connections.

Fire preventionawarenessOctober is Fire Prevention Month