Mick Hucknall: My career started in Liverpool

Apr 25 2008 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

Laura Davis asks Mancunian musician Mick Hucknall about his Liverpool influences

IF YOU were to take a straw poll over which was “more Manchester”, Mick Hucknall or a parka jacket, it’s difficult to guess which would win.

For, while parkas have become – thanks to the Brothers Gallagher – a symbol of Liverpool’s rival city, the red-haired singer with his unfaded accent and Denton upbringing is a proud carrier of a Mancunian passport.

So it’s pretty surprising to hear him admit that he has Liverpool to thank for the inspiration, not just for his new album, but for the start of his musical career.

“It harks back to a time when I was in Liverpool and discovering that music,” he says of his first solo album, A Tribute To Bobby, a collection of soul classics originally recorded by the legendary Bobby “Blue” Bland.

“It’s very much a big part of my past. With Simply Red, we went more into a more modern era of soul and R ’n’ B, it was more about Barry White and Marvin Gaye.

“With this record, I’m going further back as an influence and paying tribute to one of my favourite singers.”

It was Roger Eagle, co-owner of Eric’s nightclub, located on Mathew Street from 1976-80, who first introduced the Simply Red frontman to Bobby Bland’s songs.

There was an open door policy on the groups that played there, providing an alternative to the more pretentious music venues and inspiring an entire generation of musicians – OMD, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, The Mighty Wah! and Big in Japan among them.

“Roger ended up managing me for a couple of years when I was in the Frantic Elevators. We would rehearse in a warehouse and I would DJ in the evenings in one of his clubs,” recalls Hucknall, 47. “There was a whole scene around Probe Records, on Mathew Street.

“I was thrilled to be in Liverpool because I was very much a Beatles fan.

“I actually dedicate this record to Roger’s memory and he was probably my greatest musical mentor.

“His famous jukebox at Eric’s used to have all this great music on there – dub reggae, R ’n’ B, Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols, all bundled on to one jukebox.”

IT IS as “Mick Hucknall”, not as “Simply Red”, that he will appear at this year’s Summer Pops in July.

The distinction is important, he insists, because he will not be playing any of his old hits. The audience may shout for Stars, but it will be getting songs off the new album.

“I think if I sold the ticket as Simply Red people would justifiably be thinking ‘we want to hear the Simply Red hits’, but they can’t have that complaint when I go out under my own name doing a completely different project,” he explains.

“Going out with brand new music is really exciting. It’s a completely different situation from previous tours because I won’t be performing the Simply Red catalogue and I’ve been doing that for 20-odd years.

“I noticed on the last album we did, Stay, that the second half of the record seemed to be making some kind of transition into a more gutsy, earthy style of music, more a kind of 50s/60s R ’n’ B bluesy type of thing.