Berlin, October 26th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) — In 1977, The Frantic Elevators were founded. This Punk band delivered tunes that pretty much took the opposite approach of Simply Red. Why would this matter at all? Because a man named Mick Hucknall was the front man of The Frantic Elevators before he founded the other band in 1985.
The new act he established with Elliot Rashman was named after the color of Hucknall’s hair. But “Red” was not enough, in his opinion. That is why he added the word “Simply”. The rest is history. Simply Red became Hucknall’s life project. Hardly any band on the face of the Earth sells 50 million albums. But they did.
What Simply Red delivered had absolutely nothing to do with aggressive or depressive Punk. High-quality Pop music with Soul and Funk elements would be an accurate description of their music. In the mid-1980s, it was about time for some uplifting sounds when Simply Red came along.
“Blue Eyed Soul”
“Rhythms” magazine accurately called Mick Hucknall “one of the truly great blue-eyed Soul singers” many years ago. Apart from him, there are not many artists who fit that description. Singers like Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs, the late Bobby Caldwell, Gino Vannelli or the late David Clayton-Thomas, all of whom delivered before Hucknall did, may be part of his category, but took different approaches and do not sound like him. Nobody does.
Simply Red’s first album “Picture Book” made landfall in 1985, with hits like “Holding Back the Years”, “Money’s Too Tight to Mention” and “Look at You Now”. Some of the next recordings were even more successful. Of course, the group started touring like crazy and sold out most venues because they were brilliant, and because Simply Red appealed to regular Pop fans and Soul lovers alike, meaning their audiences consisted of both radio listeners and quality music folks.
“Blue Eyed Soul” was Simply Red’s 12th album. It was released in the summer of 2019, nine years after the band had disbanded, and four years after it was re-formed. On this recording, Mick Hucknall and the band took the James Brown approach (“Thinking of You”) and they came up with good Soul ballads like “Sweet Child”. The recording “Time” followed in 2023.
Contemporary Approach
The latest albums take a contemporary approach, meaning the productions might sound a little sterile to die-hard Soul and Funk lovers. But Mick Hucknall does a great job, as he always has. His voice saves those albums. He is not just Simply Red, but simply great, especially when they perform live on stage.
It gets better: Simply Red are alive and kicking. And they will seize quite a few stages in Germany soon. The German leg of their “Summer Funk” tour is scheduled to commence on June 27th, 2027, in Munich. Nuremberg, Fulda, Aurich, Hemer, Hanover, Mönchengladbach, Bonn, Halle (Westphalia), Wiesbaden, Regensburg, Leipzig and Füssen are listed on their touring plan too. Yes, this obviously is a major tour.
Simply Red will also be playing in Austria twice.
Tickets for all German and Austrian gigs are available here.
