Simply Red's Hucknall not so vocal offstage

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): Fame can fall from the sky, but keeping it is trickier. Hence, some celebrities gripe about the media but still set time out for spotlighting interviews.

Publicity is a tango, and smart stars know that they need the press as much as hackers need sound bites. But a quarrelsome personality can kill the rule of mutual back-scratching. Reticent interviewees can reflect one, or a combination, of the following: shyness, weariness (media blitzes often mean a dozen interviews in a day), cluelessness, bitterness, and/or a very big ego.

Recently, The Jakarta Post talked to Mick Hucknall, lead singer and songwriter of British pop giant Simply Red, in a brief interview at the Regent Hotel, Jakarta. The tete-a-tete was not to promote a concert. Instead the red-headed singer was here strictly to plug Simply Red's latest album Greatest Hits. Yet it was still an opportunity to probe the man whose voice -- once referred to by himself as one of the world's greatest -- has sold 30 million records. Mick Hucknall is Simply Red, simply because, since its formation in 1985, so many musicians have joined and left the band.

Sure, not much discussion can be had in 20 minutes, and it's unfair to appraise someone's character in such short a time. Also, the appointment was delayed by more than an hour and there were past articles warning that it's Mick's ego, and not his singing, that is truly astounding.

One could appreciate that having 12 years experience in the spotlight, this is someone who's heard the same questions a thousand times, who's gone through countless character assassinations. But such sympathetic inclinations could vanish upon hearing his comments on music journalists.

The following are excerpts from the interview.

Question: Why are you here?

Answer: Why am I here? I'm here to promote our greatest hits album. We're doing a promotion tour of the Far East.

How do you like Indonesia?

It's great, I'm really enjoying it compared to other places. It's just something about the spirit of the place, even though obviously, Indonesia has problems like the other countries. When I see how organized the elements are here, even among the poor, compared to organization among the poor in Britain, it seems to be much more socially cohesive.

What do you think of the Britpop phenomena? What's your role?

In Britain, we're going through the most exciting time possible since the 1960s. It's a great time to be living there, it's a great time to be creating music. I'm halfway recording our new album, it's going to be finished at the beginning of next year.

What's it going to be like? Because a lot of Britpop is pop- rock and what you do is soul ...

We're Simply Red. We're not Britpop. We've never been part of any musical community, that's why we've been around for so long.

So what's the new album going to be like?

Well it's difficult to say, I'm only halfway through it. I'm not going to know until it's really finished.

Will it have collaborations, like with the Fugees (on the latest single Angel)?

No, there are no more collaborations on this album.

Do you feel pressure to maintain your reputation?

No, I don't really feel pressure, I just like to enjoy my work, and I'm still enjoying it. It's early days, we've only made five albums, I think we've got a long way to go.

You've been around for 12 years ...

U2's been around for 20 years, Elton John's been around for 35 years, Phil Collins' been around for 40 years. We're still young.

But music's a very fickle business ...

Well it can be, if you're not a very good musician, or if you don't know how to play the game.

And what is this game, how do you play it?

Firstly, you've got to be talented. Secondly, I feel you should stay away from fashion, because the problem with fashion is that you're rarely in fashion, so the only way to go is to go out of fashion. We've never been part of any movement, so we've been criticized every single step of the way, but the people out there seem to enjoy our music and buy it.

Do you find you are more popular outside of England?

No, I think England is probably our strongest fan-base, and then Germany, other European countries, Australia, and now Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, hopefully here. So Simply Red is really a worldwide thing, because we're also popular in South America.

But England is probably your most critical market. The music press there is very tough. How do you feel about that?

Well I don't really care. I don't respect them. I don't feel they have much to say. They only rarely talk about music. I don't have much time for them.

I'm sure you've been asked about this a lot, but how do you answer to comments about your music being "white" soul?

Well that's music journalists talking, they don't know what they're talking about. Ask Frank Sinatra, ask Glenn Miller, ask the Rolling Stones, ask every single white Western performer in this century and they'll tell you that they've been influenced by black music. So, if music journalists don't take the time to study their own culture, that's not my fault.

And how do black artists feel about your music?

I don't make the distinction between black and white artists, I have people of all colors and cultures working for me and I've never even thought about it. Britain is a multicultural society, it's as simple as that. There's nothing more to say really.

Have there been changes in your music in the last decade?

I think it's developed in its own way, slowly, consistently, and it's just changed with the times.

Fairground was dance music ...

So was Something got me started, so was Money too tight to mention when it first came out. There's been no real change.

What about doing covers? Why do you do them?

Doing covers is just like doing singing somebody else's songs. That's the only difference. I choose the ones that I think I can do an interesting version of.

But some of your covers are not very familiar to audiences.

I don't think it matters. I think it's journalists trying to be self-important.

Well if you don't like journalists, why do you do promotions ...

I told you I don't like journalists, but we're talking about British journalists. That's where you get your information from and it's not even accurate. I don't blame you for that, I just blame them for being lazy. They think that they're judges and juries of the music, but the people are.

Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin once said that they don't erect statues for journalists, and it's true. It's like a forgotten word, you read it and it's gone. You listen to a great piece of music, it stays there.

We were listening to the Beatles and the room was singing along; you think they were thinking about music journalists and getting good or bad reviews? I got a bad review for the Stars LP but it became the second-biggest selling LP in the history of British music.

So, who are these people? To me they are meaningless. They're snobs. They get given music every day. You have to find people who love music, who go into record stores and buy it. These people sit behind their desks and throw records around.

I read that when you were younger, you did reggae and punk ...

Do you know any of my albums?

Yes I do.

Well on every single album there's some reggae.

It was the punk that I was surprised about ...

Well, with punk it was not really the music. But I started making music when punk happened and any band that started at that time was called punk. We were happy to be called punk because we didn't want to be called rock. I was 16 and it was really the energy that was really exciting, not so much the music.