Have a criminally fun night of music with the Fun Lovin' Criminals in Leamington

Fun Lovin Criminals are marking 21 years since the release of their debut album

New York swagger is on its way to Leamington this month when the Fun Lovin' Criminals play at the Assembly.

The multi-platinum group burst onto the music scene in 1996, gatecrashing the euphoric Britpop party with a cocktail of rock n’ roll, funk, blues, soul, hip hop, jazz and latin styles, allied to a sense of cool mischief.

Their debut album Come Find Yourself featured the hit Scooby Snacks – a phrase added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016, with the definition citing the song’s lyrics.

Their success continued into the 21st century, with the band’s third studio album, Loco, reaching number 5 in the UK album chart, with the eponymous single becoming their biggest hit yet, also hitting number 5.

Frontman Huey Morgan, who has become a Sony Award-winning BBC radio broadcaster, said: “We always bring a mucho grande style.

“In my half Irish, half Puerto Rican vernacular, this means we’re going big. Of course we want everybody to come along for the ride – we wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for the fans.

“The bigger the party the better, so come join us.”

The band celebrated the 20th anniversary of Come Find Yourself with a series of shows last year in which they played the album in full.

Huey said: “Playing those joints was really cool. It give you an opportunity to look back and be proud of what you have achieved.

“I wrote them when I was a new jack and now as time has passed, I feel good that when I was younger that I wasn’t some idiot with no sense. I guess you’ve gotta be grateful we are still out there doing it.”

“We have been moving on the margins since we started and doing what we did naturally is different from a band that is conceived to make money and be commercially viable.

“We enjoy what we do and we enjoy it most when we can see the audience enjoy it. That’s what made us want to keep going after the 20th last year – the fans.”

Huey added: “I think that FLC was born out of a love for all good types of music and that was a real representation of how we are as people. The music in my life is as varied as a summer day in Scotland.”

Fun Lovin’ Criminals play at the Assembly on Saturday February 18. Visit leamingtonassembly.com to book or for more information.