Elly Roberts reviews
Simply Red: Stars: Collectors Edition
Distributed by
Rhino/simplyred.com
- Feb 2008
- Format: 2 CD & DVD set
- Rating: 10/10++++
It’s not often you get ‘Value For Money’ when purchasing music. This Stars: Collectors Edition is simply outstanding VFM.
Back in the early '90s, Simply Red was arguably the biggest band in Europe and
Asia, and they remain one of the best live acts ever, fronted by blue-eyed
soul boy Mick Hucknall. Stars made Mick Hucknall a superstar virtually
overnight.
With the band set to disband next year, this comes as a poignant reminder of
the massive contribution they’ve made to the pop scene. Fusing classy jazz-soul
funk stylings, Stars was arguably their greatest studio moment, and my personal
favourite, though its predecessor A New Flame was pretty impressive too.
Some might say they’ve never matched Stars ever since, with a run of so-so
albums here and there.
Up until its release I’d seen the band only once at Manchester’s G-Mex in 1988,
then followed by the Stars tour, stopping off again at G-Mex in January 1992.
Now I’ve seen them 14 times and they, despite several line-up changes, remain
one of the hottest live bands. In 1991, lead off single Something Got Me Started,
ahead of the album’s release, got the ball rolling for the best selling album
(2 million copies) in October 1991, outselling U2 and Michael Jackson in the UK,
but faltered at 76 in America.
The Stars CD single, 7" and 12" vinyl, spawned remixes and non-album track
from the Robert Johnson sessions. The Johnson sessions showcase Mick’s incredible
voice to perfection because of the a capella nature, with Johnson’s classic
Me And The Devil Blues confirming to the critics that this boy can –
really – sing, virtually anything with style.
In all, Stars lifted five top 40 singles, the highest being the title track
peaking at 8 in November ’91 shortly after the album’s release. One of Hucknall’s
most beautiful songs ever appeared on the album – For Your Babies. Soon
after Your Mirror, the band released Montreux EP. Though not included
here as an audio, the songs appear on the Montreux Jazz Festival DVD (Disc 3),
which shows the band thrilling the French audience with a scintillating live
set of 25 songs on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Respectfully, they start with some Jazz standards like a mesmerising a capella
rendition of Cole Porter’s Love For Sale. It’s not long before things
really hot up with SR classics like Enough, New Flame, She’s Got It Bad
and later The Right Thing, Stars and Open Up The Red Box setting
the crowd wild, while heavily dreadlocked Hucknall writhed and wriggled to the
funky beats.
Above all, this 25-song setlist allowed them to expand with a more sophisticated
aspect of their repertoire. Also live, on CD, we get six live cuts from their
1992 Hamburg gig, and its sensational stuff, especially the funked-up She’s Got It Bad.
For the devotees (and DJs) we get 11 remixes on disc 2. At some stage they’ve
all appeared on B-sides, all of which are excellent; though Thrill Me (Steppin’ Razor Mix) stands out in terms of overall production and
re-invention. No Simply Red collection would be complete without five promo
videos.
File under: Timeless classic.
For a complete list of the tracks, please check out the Amazon link above.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
