Criminal intent

If there’s one thing that we like more than Irish musicians themselves, it’s the honorary Irish musicians. The mere mention of New York’s Fun Lovin’ Criminals invokes a certain type of reaction from the Irish, something partly to do with frontman Huey Morgan’s crusade to bring a certain type of New York panache to Dublin’s nightspots with his bars Voodoo and Dice.

“Dermot Doran (the owner of Temple Bar’s infamous Eamon Doran’s) is a really good friend of mine, and we were always talking about starting a little bar up,” he drawls in those famously dulcet tones. “It made sense to do it here as he has a lot of ties here. We were clued in enough to think that another bar wouldn’t hurt… plus, the people need pizza here, like really badly.”
It was this business acumen that resulted in the opening of Di Fontaine’s, now regarded as one of Dublin’s finest and most authentic pizzerias. The city’s pizza-making skills may have left a lot to be desired, but the boys haven’t a bad word to say about Ireland’s musical heritage.
“I love the old-skool shit, Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, and Phil Lynott is the man. Solo In Soho has got to be one of the best records ever”.
I mention Vibe For Philo, an event held every January to commemorate Lynott’s death and life through music and performance.
“Wow, that’s a great idea… I’d love to do it, I mean it’s a bit presumptuous, and it’s really not my place to say that, but I’d love to check it out, see what’s goin’ on there…”
The band’s love of Ireland is certainly right back at them, if the near hysterical crowd at their show in Vicar St. is anything to go by. It certainly seems a far cry from their place within the scheme of things in NYC, where, one would presume, Brooklyn badasses are ten-a-red-cent.
“I was at this opening of Madame Tussaud’s in New York, and they were unveiling this statue of me. I was standing in the lobby in my suit, having a smoke, and some dude comes up to me and asks me to direct him to the bathroom or somewhere, like he thought I was the usher.”
Morgan is also nonchalant about the new wave of New York ‘cool’.
“They’re kind of fashion victims, I think… like they all had real good haircuts so they decided to start a band. The Strokes are all rich kids from uptown, they don’t really understand all of New York City. We’re street level… these guys are high-profile, hanging out at fashion shows and stuff.”
That said, I can’t resist a sly dig at the guy who’s had more than a fair share of column inches directed at his own model-ising/fashion show/film premiere exploits.
“You’ve never been to a fashion show then, Huey?” I venture.
“We’ve gone to a couple, I didn’t like them… we brought in some forties so they got mad at us.”
Back on this side of the world, things are much more rosy and the future is bright…
For a start, they are diving headlong into the world of film, in more ways than one. First off, there’s Irish director Shimmy Marcus’ debut feature Headrush in which Huey plays a drug-dealing transvestite.
“I’m not a man-whore though,” he notes somewhat defensively. “My character is running a little syndicate in Amsterdam and along the way it gets pear shaped and my boys end up killin’ a few people.
“The dressing up thing was really comical. They asked me what I thought I should wear, and I thought it should be ‘jail’ transvestite style. I was wearing slacks, corsets, my bra strap showing, red high heels..oh god, the second I put those things on...I do empathise with you women now, more than I ever did before.”
Perhaps buoyed by their exhilarating experiences on Headrush, the band became involved in film scoring and have recently completed a score for Oh Marbella, a UK/Spanish romantic comedy.
“It’s cool ’cos it’s like we’re polishing shit,” says Huey. “They’ll give us a movie and we’ll think ‘Wow, that needs help here and here, so we’ll add music to support what’s goin’ on. Also, I don’t have to write so many lyrics.”
Incidentally, Fast has directed the video for the forthcoming single and one suspects that watching Huey get shot in Headrush might have given him ideas. In this video, Huey is the victim of various mishaps.
“In it, I get caught jerkin’ off, I get beaten up in front of a club, I get pies thrown at me, and hit on some chick who turns out to be a dude…”
“We didn’t have any money,” interjects Fast. “So we chipped in with our friends in Brooklyn… I think we made it for $87, $47 with the 30-day money back rebate on the tapes…”
“Maybe on the next one,” muses Huey, “we’ll get a big-time director, have him come down on the set and we’ll fire him!

Fun Lovin Criminals' new album Welcome To Poppy's is out on Sept 5