Elly Roberts reviews

Simply Red: 25 The Greatest Hits

Distributed by
SimplyRed.com

Released: November 2008

Rating: 10/10

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Glorious band career comes to an end. Sadly.

In an interview on the Stars tour in Hamburg Germany in the late 80s, Mick Hucknall said he wanted to be around a long time, like Frank Sinatra.

Few could have imagined, maybe even him, that that ambition would actually be realised. The job is done.

Love him or hate him, Mick Hucknall and his evolving band Simply Red (there’s been 28 members), they have been one of Britain’s best musical exports of all–time, racking up 50 million album sales (not all great - Life, Love And The Russian Winter, Blue), 30 Top 40 singles, two Ivor Novello awards bagged, a MOBO, and three Brits.

His musical journey began with neo-punksters The Frantic Elevators in the early 80s, but he found his ‘voice’ and mojo when he went back to his love of 60s soul music, in particular Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland. And so emerged a pulsating cover of Money’s Too Tight To Mention by The Valentine Brothers in 1985.

As we wave goodbye to ‘Old Red’ and his soul-jazz-reggae-pop templates, we can now sit back and admire, or not, the back-catalogue chart entries that won him legions of fans in Europe, Japan, Australia and Latin America: the States weren’t so smitten.

Like it or not (I’ve seen them 14 times since 1988 and hope to again on their farewell tour 2009) Simply Red are one of the most consistently best live acts ever, and if anything, Hucknall’s tubes are better than ever at 48 years.

We mustn’t forget, that 25 is just a celebration of charting, and not necessarily the ‘best of’.

First three albums Picture Book, Men And Women, New Flame were sensational. After Stars, it was slowly down hill. He lost his mojo, releasing unbelievably bland material, and his sharpness and bite, resulting in a move away from East West Records. He re-emerged with a solid Home (on his own label SimplyRed.com), and he was beginning to blossom once again. So, as with many greats, (Elton John suffered a similar wobbly period in the early 80s) it’s been an up and down affair, and a lot of jealousy from the media towards his success – the British way?

On 25, there’s a fair representation of his hits, the best being Stars, A New Flame, The Right Thing, Fairground (sampling The Goodmen’s Give It Up), Something Got Me Started (ah.. memories of a mad night in Fortezza Nightclub in Rhethymnon Crete 1992), Money’s Too Tight.., the biggies. When Huckers really got his teeth into something, it was nothing short of magical, but when he didn’t get it right which wasn’t often, it was a disaster.

Vocally, his finest moment ever, is the incredible Angel where he gives a performance un-matched by any blue-eyed soul pretender. Bravely, he covered jazz standard Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye and nailed it. Even better was Harold Melvin’s 70s classic If You Don’t Know Me By Now, which if truth be told, was better than the original: that took some doing. Holding Back The Years, a song usually reserved for show encores, will always be his signature tune, though his last offering (remember disasters?) the Moody Blues’ Go Now is a very very disappointing final curtain to a magnificent career.

File under: You gotta ‘ave it!

Weblink: simplyred.com

The full list of tracks included are :

Disc 1: 1. Sunrise 2. Stars 3. A New Flame 4. Holding Back The Years 5. It’s Only Love 6. The Right Thing 7. Your Mirror 8. For Your Babies 9. The Air That I Breathe 10. Night Nurse 11. Ain’t That A Lot Of Love 12. Fake 13. Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye

Disc 2: 1. You’ve Got It 2. Say You Love Me 3. So Not Over You 4. Angel 5. Never Never Love 6. Home 7. You Make Me Feel Brand New 8. Something Got Me Started 9. Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) 10. Fairground 11. If You Don’t Know Me By Now 12. Go Now

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008. For prints of any of Elly's concert pics online, email Elly or call 07765 862017.

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