Mick Hucknall can belt out a tune; that's a given. However, if the whole singing thing hadn't worked for the lad, then a career as a professional footballer was surely on the cards. Just the few cameo appearances he made for Fulchester Utd back in the late eighties/early nineties were enough to guarantee him a place in any right-thinking* manager's starting lineup.But long before Fulchester and Simply Red and even before he used to get mistaken for Sideshow Bob, Hucknall was in a punk band. Judging by this early demo of Holding Back the Years, a very soulful punk band.
And here's the polished version from Picture Book, just a handful of years later, when horn sections and shooting atmospheric videos in Whitby were de rigeur.
* Never one to be labelled right-thinking, Tommy Brown, Fulchester Utd's manager, used to write a regular column in the match day programme. This from 2 April 1990, ahead of their match against arch rivals Grimthorpe City.
'As team manager my job has not been an easy one. I've been sacked, slandered in the gutter press, I've suffered a fatal heart attack, been kidnapped and taken to Mars, undergone a sex change operation and travelled back through time to caveman days. But that's football. You don't take a job on like this and expect to have an easy time of it. Of course at the end of the day my job is to get results. Football is about winning, and when the final whistle goes if there's no silverware in the chopping cabinet, it will be my head on the trophy block. That's what this game of ours is all about.'
Haha! Got to say, though I don't necessarily believe in the thing called 'guilty pleasure' Simply red is probably the closest I have to that (plus a bit of *whisper it* Wet Wet Wet) I think it's because I was a kid when they were BIG so as such they have a certain resonance with me. But even so its a hard heart that can deny they did some good songs
ReplyDeleteI like them. I don't even have to listen to them ironically.
DeleteAlongside Motorhead as the band I've seen most live ever... if anything Simply Red have the nod I suspect. They are Mrs F's favs - always have been. She saw them 3 times on the "farewell tour" - I went twice... but hey what d'you know... they are back again!
ReplyDeleteWe saw them once years ago at the Docklands Arena and something all failed on stage, no keyboards, no bass etc. frantic roadie running about. So Mick did a guitar only version of Holding Back The Years to hold the fort as it were... very similar to that original version if memory serves me well.
I suspect it was staged: Hucknall often performs HBTY on his todd.
DeleteA nice early version with great guit sound. Interesting he hadn't added the 'I'll Keep Holding On' bit yet.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as someone who tries to *write songs* with as few chords as possible, this is genius: you can play the whole thing on Em and Am and it still sounds beautiful.
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