fri 29/03/2024

Simply Red, O2 Arena | reviews, news & interviews

Simply Red, O2 Arena

Simply Red, O2 Arena

Mick Hucknall puts Red to bed with a hit-packed show

When theartsdesk asked Simply Red’s PR company for some pictures of the band to accompany this review, the images sent were of Mick Hucknall – alone. Which is probably all you need to know about who Simply Red are. Last night’s audience at this, Simply Red’s final ever live show, needed no reminding that it was all about Hucknall, however he’s billed. For them, his arrival on stage after the band had set the groove drew more applause than the music.

What’s been billed as Simply Red Farewell, The Final Tour began in April in Brazil. Since then, it has wound intermittently through Britain, the Canary Islands, Italy, Hong Kong, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, and has found its final resting place here, at the O2. The demand for Simply Red is so great that tonight’s show is being filmed and simultaneously shown live at cinemas around Britain and continental Europe – cinemas in France and all the Nordic countries were not taking part. The recent Sydney Opera House date on the farewell tour is already available on DVD and this show is purchasable on USB stick on the way out.

Despite all this Red-ness, Hucknall has had some other things on his mind this year. Early this month he issued an apology to the more-than-3000 woman he says he slept with between 1985 and 1987. It’s hard to see how the apology would be accepted – surely it’s more like opening an old wound? Earlier, in August, he joined the reformed Faces alongside ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, taking on the Rod Stewart front-man role. Arriving at this point has been a strange journey – few musicians that began in post-punk bands (in Hucknall’s case, The Frantic Elevators) have come to appeal to such a broad audience. Only the similarly huge U2 have comparable origins.

As to who else was on the stage last night, the core musicians up there have as much claim to be Simply Red as any of the others that have passed through what has always been a fluid line-up. Sax and keyboard player Ian Kirkham was on 1985’s debut Picture Book album. Guitarist Kenji Suzuki came on board for 1998’s Blue. Trumpet and flute player Kevin Ronson joined the live band in 1998. Second keyboardist David Clayton and brothers Pete Lewinson (drums) and Steve Lewinson (bass) all became members in 2003. To his credit, Hucknall introduced everyone else on the stage.

Yet apart from Hucknall and Kirkham, no one tonight was in Simply Red during the Eighties, the decade they so readily define. That said, the second decade of the 21st century is seeming awfully like 30 years ago, with a-ha on their own farewell tour and Heaven 17 making a case for their place in pop history. Although this concert wasn’t an episode of Time Tunnel, it initially felt like it with an introductory film that set Simply Red’s music in the times it was first heard: the Berlin Wall coming down, the Queen’s annus horribilis, OJ Simpson being declared innocent, Diana's death, the fall of the Twin Towers – Simply Red soundtracked it all.

Watch "Stars" from back then

Despite the clunky intro, opening song and second single “Come to My Aid” sounded vital and timeless. The light funk template could come from any era. In sensible shoes, jeans, striped shirt, waistcoat and jacket, Hucknall looked more like he was about to take a country stroll rather than play a stadium. The sunglasses he wore until the encore added to the outdoor effect. The set was largely chronological, which led to some odd tempo and mood disjunctions – which Hucknall acknowledged – but it largely worked and he chose songs that paid tribute both to his past and, with cover versions, his inspirations.

However you cut your cloth, “Stars” is an all-time classic song. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it. Indeed, the woman to my left was crying as it unfolded. Another woman, to my right, was teary during the straight and moving version of Cole Porter's “Everytime You Say Goodbye”. Although unshowy, Hucknall taps emotion, and the audience reaction wasn't due to this being the final show – nobody was crying on the way out.

Hucknall's singing is similarly unshowy. There were moments during “For Your Babies” when it seemed the backing singers were masking the fact that he couldn’t reach the high notes, but at the song's close the high notes were his. Weirdly, this was subtle stuff.

Watch "Stars" from now

Yet it was hard to hug the version of Gregory Issac's "Night Nurse" to your bosom, and “Your Mirror” was a bit boring in comparison with early highlights like “The Right Thing”. A few too many sax solos from Ian Kirkham tried the patience. Still, Hucknall enjoyed them.

What this show rammed home was that some of Hucknall's songs will – in the words of his fellow Mancunians – live forever. “Stars”, “Sad Old Red”, "For Your Babies” are part of the soundtrack to our lives, whether or not you like it. The encore was always going to be “Holding Back the Years” and so it was. Hucknall began it solo with an acoustic guitar, the band came in and the audience swooned.

So that was it. Unfashionable, not cutting edge, but loved far and wide. Will Simply Red be missed? Mick Hucknall is Simply Red, and unless he becomes a hermit or dedicates himself to a new-found fondness of chillwave, Simply Red will always be with us as long as he is. And if you’re not sure about that, the show will be available for download.

Visit Kieron Tyler’s blog

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