Mick Hucknall

From June 2008

I met Mick Hucknall a few years ago on a bus from Reykjavic to the Blue Lagoon. I did think it strange that he had a thick Welsh accent and it wasn't until he mentioned that he was an engineer that I realised that he wasn't actually Mick Hucknall but a Welshman with filthy red dreadlocks. He had recently split from his girlfriend and had gone to Iceland to cheer himself up. I've got to say that Iceland is the last place on earth you'd choose to go to cheer yourself up and speaks volumes about Wales. I saw him (the Welsh bloke, not Mick Hucknall) later in one of the geothermal pools speaking to two New Zealand girls. The recent split from his girlfriend didn't seem to be preying too heavily on his mind and by the end of the day he might even have washed his hair.

The real Mick Hucknall has had quite a career: apparently at the Sex Pistols gig at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall in 1976 (who wasn't?) he was inspired to form The Frantic Elevators. If "limited local success" is a euphemism for "unsuccessful" then The Frantic Elevators had limited local success. However in 1984 he formed Simply Red and the rest as they say, is history. 25 years & 10 albums later there is no denying that Simply Red have been a phenomenally successful band. If this was not enough Hucknall is a full-time celebrity Manchester United fan, a part-time sex-case, best mates with Tony Blair and for several seasons he played professional football for Fulchester United F.C.

Recently Hucknall has recorded an album of Bobby Bland covers. It will be of no surprise to anyone reading this that until now I had never heard or even heard of Bobby "Blue" Bland but it seems that he is a blues singer of some renown born in Memphis in 1930. Dyed-in-the-wool Bobby Bland fans will be horrified at the thought of Mick Hucknall out of Simply Red singing their hero's songs but for me this is the best album that he has ever recorded. And get this BB fans: Bobby Bland met Hucknall, listened to the album and really liked it.

Hucknall has just turned 48 and there's no doubt that the maturity of his voice is what makes this album; that and an incredibly tight backing band. Highlights are Ain't That Lovin' You, Yolanda and the wonderful Poverty. The latter with its references to Uncle Sam & welfare lines is reminiscent of Money's Too Tight (To Mention) which of course is where it all started 25 years ago. The only slight disappointment is that he didn't see fit to record Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City a Bobby Bland song made famous by Whitesnake. Or for that matter Chas & Dave's Ain't No Pleasing You.

Album of the year so far .....