Brussels December 22nd 2003
Simply Red were an English band which was formed in the mid 1980s.
History
Inspired by a 1976 Sex Pistols gig in Manchester, art student Mick Hucknall decided at the age of 15 on a career as a performer, and within a year he was fronting a punk group called The Frantic Elevators. Hucknall managed to persuade several local labels to release Elevators material, but by the time the group wearily split in 1984, their only success had been limited critical acclaim for their final single, "Holding Back the Years".
Realizing his powerful voice could yet be his fortune, Hucknall next linked up with manager Elliot Rashman, whose enthusiasm for Hucknall's potential knew no bounds. By early 1985 they had assembled a group of highly proficient musicians and enough decent songs to interest several major record companies, and having adopted the name Simply Red (after Hucknall's nickname, which denoted hair color, football allegiance to Manchester United and political affiliation) they signed to Elektra and began recording and rehearsing. The band's original line up was Hucknall, Tony Bowers (bass), Fritz McIntyre (keyboards), Tim Kellett (brass), Sylvan Richardson (guitar) and Chris Joyce (drums). This was a volatile period in which several musicians who had made contributions to Simply Red's development were dispensed with as success loomed, creating bitterness which in some cases endures to this day and establishing Hucknall's reputation as a ruthless operator.
The first single was "Money's Too Tight (To Mention)" (1985, a Top 20 British hit, a cover of Valentine Brothers soul track championed by Hucknall in his days as a DJ. Its energy and Hucknall's blistering vocal established Simply Red as a name to watch.
A run of flops was halted a year later when "Holding Back the Years", a smoky reworking of the old Frantic Elevators song, soared to #2 in Great Britain and later #1 in the United States of America. Suddenly Simply Red were stars, and their debut album Picture Book (1985), an underachiever when first released, began to fly off shelves the world over. Hucknall's image as a latter-day Oliver Twist, with walking cane, woolly jumper and cloth cap covering an unruly mop of red curls was distinctive enough, but soon seemed inappropriate as the platinum discs poured in.
For the second album, Men and Women (1987), a more sober style was adopted, with bowler hats and colorful suits replacing the ragamuffin look. The music has changed too, with the introspection and social commentary of their debut replaced by a bold, funky, soul groove. It was at this point that Hucknall became a target for the tabloid press, who pounced on the suggestive lyrics to the hit single, "The Right Thing", threw in a few lurid tales of his womanizing, and began to portray the singer as a lecherous loudmouth. Despite the bad press, and a roasting from the critics, Men and Women sold well enough to keep the band's momentum going.
Before starting work on the third album, Hucknall made a decision to put together an album of quality music aimed at a mass audience rather than continue the fruitless pursuit of credibility. On A New Flame (1989) the Simply Red sound became smoother and classier, perfectly illustrated by the cover of Harold Melvin's "If You Don't Know My By Now", which became their second U.S. #1 hit and one of the worldwide biggest singles of the year. After that kind of success, there was no turning back. Hucknall began to be photographed with some of the world's most beautiful women and courted by Hollywood celebrities, and Simply Red found themselves firmly in the superstar bracket.
By 1991, Hucknall was declaring himself a European citizen and finally admitting that Simply Red was essentially a solo project. He also produced the sharpest, most articulate songs of his career on Stars (1991), an album on which Hucknall perfected the art of dressing political lyrics in such a way as to avoid alienating his huge, mainly apolitical, audience. (The smoochy ballad "Wonderland", for example, disguised a bitter attack on Margaret Thatcher.) Stars was both Britain's and Europe's best-selling album for both 1991 and 1992, but -perversely- was their least popular in the U.S..
Two more arduous years of touring and promotion followed Stars, but Simply Red returned stronger than ever in 1995. The comeback single, "Fairground", featuring a groove from DJs Zki & Dobri's Goodmen project, established new records for radio airplay even before its release, and it went on to become the band’s first ever British #1. Its popularity gave Life (1995) a welcome kick-start, and by the end of the year it had sold more than a million copies in the UK alone, making it the fourth-biggest seller of the year after just ten weeks in the shops -a remix album, Fairground, followed soon afterward. Blue (1998) is essentially a covers album, with worthy versions of Greg Isaac’s "Night Nurse" and two disastrous attempts to inject life into "The Air That I Breathe" – originally a dire Hollies single.
Not many artists can take such success for granted, but Hucknall has established a bond of trust with his audience which has few parallels in the ever-changing music world, with record company research revealing that ninety percent of his fans would buy the new album before hearing any of it. To them, Simply Red represents reliable quality, inspiring a loyalty that suggests this success story is likely to run and run.
Albums
Hit singles
- 1985 "Money's Too Tight to Mention" #13 UK; #28 U.S.
- 1985 "Come To My Aid" #66 UK
- 1986 "Holding Back the Years" #2 UK; #1 U.S.
- 1987 "The Right Thing" #11 UK; #27 U.S.
- 1987 "Infidelity" #31 UK
- 1987 "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" #11 UK
- 1989 "It's Only Love" #13 UK
- 1989 "If You Don't Know Me By Now" #2 UK; #1 U.S.
- 1989 "A New Flame" #17 UK
- 1991 "Something Got Me Started" #11 UK; #23 U.S.
- 1991 "Stars" #8 UK
- 1992 "For Your Babies" #9 UK
- 1992 "Thrill Me" #33 UK
- 1992 "Your Mirror" #17 UK
- 1992 "Montreux EP" #11 UK
- 1995 "Fairground" #1 UK
- 1995 "Remembering the First Time" #22 UK
- 1996 "Never Never Love" #18 UK
- 1996 "We're in This Together" #11 UK
- 1996 "Angel" #4 UK
- 1997 "Night Nurse" (Sly & Robbie feat. Simply Red) #13 UK
- 1998 "Say You Love Me" #7 UK
- 1998 "The Air That I Breathe" #6 UK
- 1998 "Ghetto Girl" #34 UK
- 1999 "Ain't That a Lot of Love" #14 UK
- 2000 "Your Eyes" #26 UK
- 2003 "Sunrise" #7 UK
- 2003 "Fake" #21 UK
- 2003 "You Make Me Feel Brand New" #7 UK
- 2004 "Home" #40 UK
- 2005 "Perfect Love" #30 UK
- 2006 Double A-side of "Something Got Me Started" and "A Song For You" #127 UK
See also
External links
