"YOU HAVE TO BE RUTHLESS"

Simply Red’s soulful pop was one of the most familiar sounds of the 90s and made Mick Hucknall a household name. Despite their commercial domination, they were critical pariahs, dismissed for their smoothness and Hucknall’s reputation as a lothario. Truth is, they were steeped in dub, gritty R&B and post-punk, proud working-class peers of ‘soulcialists’ Style Council and Redskins. Three decades on, they continue to sell more albums than there are ginger hairs on his famous head: the work ethic is strong with this one. “We played to a million people last year,” he points out, and with a new album and tour to promote, he’s only going to be stepping up the professional pace. “You can’t take anything for granted,” he tells Lois Wilson.

- Lois Wilson

If the cap fits – Mick Hucknall circa Holding Back The Years in 1986: "I definitely wasn't expecting it to be a hit. That was a surprise" 

Mick Hucknall is calling Record Collector from his flat in North London to talk about Simply Red’s latest album, Time. It’s the follow-up to 2019’s Blue Eyed Soul. While that one was all about the singers who had influenced him, Time is all about him, his inner workings – as he says, “What makes me tick, where I’ve come from and where I am in my life now.” From the album’s easy-going vibe, it would appear he’s in a happy place.

Today is given over to promotion and he’s already done BBC Breakfast TV. Your reporter stupidly feels the need to tell him, this being about promoting Time, that some of RC’s questions might overlap with theirs. He responds amiably, though, following a brief pause, he does add, with a palpable prickliness to his usually warm Mancunian tone, “Shall we just not bother then?”

After 13 albums including four No 1s (and two Top 20 solo albums to boot), it’s not that surprising he’s fed up with the promotional merry-go-round required of him, but I know there’s a lot of common ground here. We just need to reach it. And with only an hour set aside to talk we need to reach it fast.