After Dinner Speakers: Mick Hucknall, Girls Aloud, Acker & His Paramount Jazz Band Bilk

With his mop of curly ginger hair, allegiance to Manchester United and left-wing politics, it was no surprise that the band set up by Mick Hucknall in 1985 was going to be called Simply Red. Previously, the young Hucknall had formed a Manchester punk band, The Frantic Elevators, but they had folded in 1984 after little impact. But with his powerful, soul voice Hucknall had no doubts of his destiny as a superstar singer and Simply Red's debut single, Money's Too Tight To Mention (a Valentine Brothers cover), became a Top Twenty hit. A year later in 1986, an old Frantic Elevators song, Holding Back The Years, now drastically reworked, became a US Number One. Simply Red had arrived. Their Picture Book album quickly went multi-platinum. If the first album was full of political insight and social comment, the second concentrated less on lyrical statements and more on the grooves of funk and soul sounds. Men And Women (1987) sold well again, although some in the press were starting to refer to the band's 'designer soul' as lacking in depth. A New Flame (1989) and particularly Stars (1991) continued Simply Red's massive international album sales, while Hucknall was developing the art of hiding potentially controversial lyrical content (like attacking Margaret Thatcher) behind elegant, classy soul for the masses. 1995 saw the release of another successful album, Life. Hucknall has fallen out with several band members over the years and exercises a fundamental, some would say ruthless, control over the whole operation, leading some commentators to view the band as Mick Hucknall plus backing musicians. However, the legacy of song-writing and vocal performances speaks for itself.