European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 3, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Hoey Lewis on stage during his concert in Frankfurt. Huey Lewis and the news fans flock to concert Halls to hear or. Nice Guy a greeting to inv tons. 5lory and photos by Anita Gosch staff writer -.-,. It s Early evening in Frankfurt West Germany and Huey Lewis and the news Are bit Slage at the concert Hall. The husky voiced Singer turns in look nut the window overlooking the tvs Shalli funds where March in a steady Stream into Tiu concert Hall. Come on in Lewis yells Btu of turning Back to i he reporters gathered for .1 press conference. We love i m-i1 people come in the Hall. I Cople have been flocking to is u Lewis and the news in concert since the release of the mull grammy award winning sports in 1983. That album and the follow up. Fore sold in excess of 15 million copies worldwide. Their latest Sill Ivor of released 2vi months ago already has sold morn than 1 million copies in the United Stales alone. The press conference is an easy going affair. The Friendly Down to Earth Bay area rockers joke and banter with each other and Lewis lakes sardonic slabs at every ulna from the music Industry to himself and questions he hears Over and aver. Take his or. Nice Guy . Weil you work real hard ill ii because see that s the key. Is to be a Nice Guy Lewis quips. So if there Art any Young bands Oul there who need a Litile advice they need t work an their music they it teen t work on the songs. They just have o work on being Nice Guys and they la be very then there s Golf Long Lewis prime off Slage passion and a favorite interview topic. These Days with the publicity surrounding Rock stars who have up the sport Lewis shrugs off the subject. It s a Hig Deal now. All the Rock n Roll bands play Udolf which is silly,1 think cause who cares whether. They play Golf or not. We were Kinda the first ones. Out of the., golfer s closet. We re terrible golfers for she most part it s just away to get Oul of the there Are the rumours that come with being a Ruck Star the one about the current tour being the band s final one we want those rumours to to i5l it s Good for business when we do our next tour Lewis says v and the one a year ago Aboul his divorce my wife and i fool heard it the same Day on the ratio it s silly he says. Bui i Kinda like those rumours we Don t like that clean image we about the Only thing Lewis Takus seriously is his music the energetic top 40 of such hit songs As the heart of sock n Roll 1 want a new drug and heart and soul from sports the Oscar nominated song the Power of love recorded for 1985 s largest grossing movie. Back to i if future hip to be Square Anil stuck on you from fore and the current hits perfect world and Small world. Compared to fore which was difficult for Lewis to write because of the pressure following the Meja Success of sports Small world was a labor of love he says. On the album Lewis and his band mates venture into jazz on the title track reggae and african influences Bobo Tempo and better be True and cajun inflected music Lorl ant one s. It was musically challenging to try to do that stuff. We explored some of that third world stuff a Little bit we be been fans of in for a Long time. It was a Challenge to try to act Watly play it another Challenge for the band was performing with jazz saxophonist Stan Getz who makes a guest appearance on the instrumental Small world part the Lewis says he met Getz about three years ago at a Benefit concert he attended with his father. I m Sittin there and my dad who used to be a jazz drummer says Here comes Stan Getz and Getz goes hey Huey Lewis i be always wanted to meet you Man my old Man could t believe it. To was blown away. Stan says hey Why Don t you let me play in some of that crap i can play that stuff he left me a card have sax will ttovel.1 Lewis was born Hugh Anthony Gregg my in new York City and grew up near san Francisco. He attended Cornell University for a year then bummed around Europe with his Harmonica before returning to Marin county and joining the country Rock band Clover in 1972. He changed his name to Huey Lewis when he formed the news in late 1 979 with keyboard player Sean Hopper Lead guitarist Chris Hayes and three members of the Bay area group Soun holc drummer Bill Gibson Bass player Mario Cipollina and rhythm guitarist saxophonist Jonny Colla. The lineup has t changed since. Huey Lewis and the news self titled debut album in 19bo flopped but the follow up. Picture this in 1 9h2 had he top 1 0 Hlls Workin for 3 liven and do you believe in love. Recording the latter song writ i in by producer mull la nge was a very cheap Deal with the Devil Lewis says. He did l particularly care for it but he knew it would be a hit. With Small world Lewis says he has recorded the Type of music he s always wanted to record. The title track for instance originally was a lengthy Jam that f was divided into two Carlsr Small world part one was edited Down to a singles format Small Wolti part two remained the instrumental segment. If we had thought anything More Aboul in we would have actually Dona that edit previous to the album Lewis Wys. " the song went on then Here was thai Well it s Loo Long whal Are we Gonna do now let s Cut it in half. Had we been sort of More commercially minded i think we probably would have edited in All Down i Ike we did for the single.". Lewis the father of two preschool age children says maintaining a family life while being constantly on the Road is Tough but again he s heard thai question often. People must be sick of hearing How hard in is he says. Nobody mates us go on the Road and we re pretty Well thai Nice Guy Alli Lude of his though in t Tough. You remind yourself thai there Are thousands of people out there who would Trade jobs with you in a second he says. And we re not Spring chickens Needles o say. I m 30 years old and i turned 30 with about 400 Bucks in the Bank so t was already Loo late to develop ony altitudes Al thai Point. I Lus we know each other really Well and if anybody tried to cop an attitude i Don t think the others would let him get away with sometimes Lewis admits a touch of smugness docs come. Out. But he says he quickly comes Back Down to Earth. Sometimes on a Long Lour ,. You gel complacent along about the loll a show or the 7slh show and that s when you have to Check yourself and you have to say look i m Lucky to be Here and there s a kid out there who s never heard us before. And he deserves in. He paid his 20 Bucks and he. Deserves in a a ctn a i. Tuum in uni Loc Orgdon. Or Ltd
