{"id":88163,"date":"2025-10-19T13:18:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88163\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T13:18:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:18:15","slug":"women-i-was-like-a-kid-in-a-sweet-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88163\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Women? I was like a kid in a sweet shop\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mick Hucknall knew he was famous the night he sat with Whitney Houston in a dressing room while the superstar put on her make-up. It was at the Grammys in Los Angeles in February 1987, and Hucknall had only just come off the dole. That evening he sang a duet with the \u201cyoung beauty\u201d Houston to a TV audience of 28 million. \u201cThen Miles Davis comes up and says, \u2018Simply Red, right? love your album!\u2019 \u201d Hucknall says. \u201cI\u2019d been on the f***ing dole for four years and then he knows who I am?\u201d<\/p>\n

How did fame affect him? \u201cWell, your ego goes out of control right away,\u201d he says. \u201cYou must figure out how not to become an utter monster. Everybody says, \u2018What does Mick want? What can we get?\u2019 \u201d He mentions a scene in the spoof documentary This Is Spinal Tap when the band moan about the size of a sandwich backstage. \u201cI\u2019ve been there! I related. Fame is so f***ing weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are cocooned at a corner table in a west London hotel bar having coffee, surrounded by the chatter of various meetings. The only time Hucknall gives away that he is a globetrotting pop star worth roughly \u00a360 million is when he pops his blue-tinted sunglasses on over his blue eyes \u2014 while very much indoors. Mostly, though, the 65-year-old is softly spoken, even humble, his Mancunian vowels still intact despite not having lived in his home city for years. And, yes, the man is a still a redhead, albeit with the dreadlocks long gone, the ponytail in the bin.<\/p>\n

It is 40 years since Simply Red released their debut album, Picture Book \u2014 the one Miles Davis loved \u2014 and Hucknall is celebrating with an arena tour and a collection of 40 new versions of classics including Money\u2019s Too Tight (To Mention), Stars, For Your Babies, Something Got Me Started, Fairground and, best of the lot, Holding Back the Years, written by a 17-year-old Hucknall as a way of dealing with a childhood in which he was raised by his father, Reg, after his mother, Maureen, abandoned her son when he was just three. <\/p>\n

\"BIRTHDAY<\/p>\n

With the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones in 1998<\/p>\n

SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

\u201cI found fame incredibly culturally shocking,\u201d Hucknall explains. \u201cI just didn\u2019t have any social skills, because boys really look up to their mothers to see how to talk to girls, or behave. I had none of that. Once my babysitter stopped looking after me when I was ten, I looked after myself. So when I became famous I didn\u2019t know what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maureen\u2019s absence comes up a lot. She\u2019d had issues with Reg and, wanting the best for her son, believed he would be better off with his dad. So Hucknall frequently came home from school to an empty house while Reg was out working as barber: \u201cI had no mother, so music was my best friend.\u201d He struggled with criticism: \u201cI was hurt by it because I didn\u2019t have a mother \u2014 being abandoned was very deep, so criticism was seen as a rejection that hit me really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reg died in 2009, aged 74. When I ask if he knows whether Maureen is still alive, Hucknall shrugs. \u201cYou see, this is where people struggle to really relate,\u201d he says, almost smiling. \u201cBecause it\u2019s hard for anybody who had a mother and a father to comprehend that I don\u2019t know her. Strangely, I was also fortunate it happened so young. I feel sorry for kids who go through separations in their teens, or around eight years old. Their whole life gets upturned \u2014 but I have no emotional affiliation to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

He met her once in the mid-1990s, at the peak of Simply Red\u2019s fame. He does not want to dwell on this. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing there,\u201d he says quietly. \u201cI don\u2019t hate her, don\u2019t wish her harm. But I don\u2019t know who she is. Nothing in my character was instilled from any lessons I learnt from her \u2014 there is nothing she ever taught me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Simply<\/p>\n

When Hucknall\u2019s daughter, Romy, was born in 2007 he took time off from his career in music to raise her. I ask if that was because he had been abandoned. \u201cWell, it\u2019s a slight opposite,\u201d he says. \u201cMy father was incredibly devoted to me and it was more that than anything. I stopped touring because I knew I wanted to be there for her in the way my dad was for me. It\u2019s the best thing I ever did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hucknall was born in Manchester<\/a> in 1960 and raised in Denton, a suburb five miles east of the city. Reg\u2019s time in the Royal Air Force had instilled in him \u201ca sense of time and rhythm, punctuality\u201d and he passed that discipline down to his son \u2014 \u201cI thank him for that.\u201d Hucknall started working when he was nine or ten, delivering milk and papers, and his father wanted him to end up as a marine biologist. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t even going to attend my biology O-level!\u201d Hucknall laughs incredulously. \u201cI got three O-levels.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSchool was the worst time of my life, without doubt,\u201d he continues. But he made it to art school, then studied fine art at Manchester Polytechnic. \u201cAt art school they almost took pity on me. I had no qualifications to get into a foundation course, so just went in with these images of album covers that I\u2019d drawn in my maths class. I had nothing. I was getting in trouble a lot. Some guys I hung with ended up in prison or in borstal. But my wonderful further education in fine arts injected hope in me. I thought I could have a future. It saved me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Diana<\/p>\n

Meeting Princess Diana with George Michael in 1993<\/p>\n

GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

What did his father think when musical success came? \u201cHe was slightly embarrassed,\u201d Hucknall says. Reg had bought him his first record player, but had told him in no uncertain terms to pursue anything other than music.<\/p>\n

It was at Manchester Polytechnic that Hucknall first started to vote Labour. He says his politics are simple and that he just believes children from working-class areas should \u201cget a shot at life\u201d, like he did. \u201cIt sounds naive, but what\u2019s wrong with that? If you become wealthy, working-class people say, \u2018What does he know? He\u2019s in a bloody ivory tower!\u2019 But it\u2019s hard not to care. The system worked for me and it was Labour \u2014 what else am I meant to feel?\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago, though, Hucknall said he felt \u201cpolitically homeless\u201d and did not vote for Jeremy Corbyn or Ed Miliband. Did he vote for Keir Starmer<\/a>? \u201cYes,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause he was more middle-of-the-road.\u201d How does he think he is doing? \u201cI do have one dig,\u201d he says. \u201cI was expecting to pay more income tax. I thought, stick a couple of per cent on me \u2014 I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look,\u201d he continues, \u201cwhat I am more against than anything is political extremism \u2014 far left, far right. I want politicians to serve people, not impose dogma. Political dogmatism has these empty slogans without solutions. \u2018Save the whales!\u2019 \u2018Free Palestine!\u2019 OK, so how are you going to do that? Because it\u2019s really easy to say but I\u2019m more interested in how you get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MICK<\/p>\n

Watching Oasis at Knebworth with the actress Martine McCutcheon in 1996<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

How would Hucknall feel about a fan who had been to a Unite the Kingdom protest heading to one of his gigs? \u201cI don\u2019t like to pass that kind of judgment,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of that has come about because people feel disenfranchised and powerless.\u201d<\/p>\n

He smiles mischievously. \u201cBut I am mildly amused at the irony, because the dreaded B-word\u201d \u2014 he means Brexit \u2014 \u201csent mainland Europeans who\u2019d trained here back home, because they felt unwelcome. Then we realised we had work shortages, so had to relax visas in Africa and India. So the very people these bigots resent now come to do this work untrained. And since a lot of them are racists, they complain because these people have different colour skin. Yet their actions by voting Brexit brought them in. And they are blaming Starmer!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mick Hucknall: \u2018What can I say? I\u2019m genetically blessed\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Rock\u2019n\u2019roll lore has it that Hucknall was alongside Morrissey, members of New Order and the Buzzcocks at the Sex Pistols gig in Manchester\u2019s Lesser Free Trade Hall in 1976. \u201cWell, I\u2019ve seen them twice,\u201d Hucknall says, \u201cbut I don\u2019t fully remember where.\u201d Punk, though, was exciting. At the time of his first band, Frantic Elevators, it proved to him that he could, musically, stick to the basics, which led to him writing Holding Back the Years despite only knowing three chords. These punk roots might seem a world away from Simply Red\u2019s jazz, R&B, reggae and pop fusion, but he has always blended genres, offering a shrug when I tell him he is on a Reddit list titled: \u201cSongs by white people you thought were black\u201d. He says \u201cthe concept of cultural appropriation is ignorant\u201d and tumbles into a history of how Duke Ellington liked Stravinsky, and Elvis was influenced by African-American music. In 1997 he walked away with the outstanding achievement award from the Mobo (Music of Black Origin) awards.<\/p>\n

\"Top<\/p>\n

Simply Red performing on Top of the Pops in 1989<\/p>\n

He has covered Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Barry White. Would he wrap his soulful tones around anyone new? \u201cI\u2019ll be frank,\u201d he states. \u201cI\u2019m 65 and I\u2019m not going to pretend for one minute I\u2019m down with the kids.\u201d What about 18-year-old Romy? Does she play new songs he likes? \u201cShe\u2019s a massive Dylan fan! She\u2019s worse than me! But, no, I\u2019m out of touch. And I\u2019m not losing any sleep over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cackles. \u201cJesus Christ!\u201d Something has popped into his head. \u201cI was on holiday in the mid-1990s in Jamaica and Marianne Faithfull, God rest her soul, was there too. But she and I had a moment of tension because at that time I had just discovered Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, 2Pac, and I played the shit out of them. She was horrified by all this \u2018Yo, motherf***ing ho!\u2019, and I don\u2019t know what was wrong with me but I perversely enjoyed her horror. Like digging the knife in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I am very uncomfortable with all that now,\u201d he adds, rather seriously, of rap lyrics. \u201cI don\u2019t like the terminology. To denigrate women? It\u2019s just wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rock\u2019n\u2019roll lore also suggests Hucknall has slept with more than 3,000 women. In 2010 he told The Guardian that \u201cbetween 1985 and 1987, I would sleep with about three women a day\u201d and, well, you do the maths. He has since denied he was being accurate or serious and when I ask about all the sex, he just cheekily says: \u201cI was a kid in a sweet shop who couldn\u2019t believe his luck\u201d \u2014 meaning lots of shagging.<\/p>\n

\"REG<\/p>\n

Hucknall, aged eight, with his father, Reg, a barber who had served in the RAF<\/p>\n

REX FEATURES<\/p>\n

\u201cMy poor wife,\u201d he says of the art dealer Gabriella Wesberry, 54, whom he married in 2010. \u201cHow she\u2019s stuck with me, I don\u2019t know.\u201d This is not, I hasten to add, because Hucknall is off philandering, but because most people think that her husband spent three years in the mid-Eighties bedding 3,285 women. Over the next decade he was also linked to Catherine Zeta-Jones, Helena Christensen, Steffi Graf and the actress Martine McCutcheon, who accompanied him to see Oasis at Knebworth in 1996. <\/p>\n

Has he spoken to Romy about the gossip? \u201cIt\u2019s so far in the past,\u201d he says with a sigh. \u201cAnd I have this peculiar old-fashioned morality. I\u2019m not religious but I take marriage seriously. I\u2019ve done it once and don\u2019t intend to do it again. My wife knows that and my daughter does too. I\u2019m completely devoted to the family and, again, that may be something to do with the amazing dedication that my father showed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did he talk to Reg about his lothario lifestyle? \u201cTo be fair, I didn\u2019t talk to him about anything \u2014 he\u2019s not that generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what of MeToo, which shifted what might constitute consent? Did any past encounters worry him? He shakes his head. \u201cIt was always mutual,\u201d he says. \u201cYou want to be attractive and, in my psychology, imposing yourself on someone is the complete opposite of being desired. Somebody desiring you is what makes me tick. Imposing myself on somebody does not make me tick at all.\u201d He smiles. \u201cLet us put on our amateur psychologist\u2019s hats\u2026\u201d Sure. \u201cMaybe the need to be loved came from [my mother\u2019s] rejection. And the want to be desired is just part of the fulfilment that I get from my job. Because people? They love my arse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sticky<\/p>\n

With his wife, Gabriella, a German-Hungarian art dealer, in 2017<\/p>\n

DAVID M BENETT<\/p>\n

It is hard to fathom the cash that artists such as Hucknall made in the 1980s and 1990s, the pre-streaming era of CD sales. Hucknall says he did well because he was a punk as a kid; it made him cynical of the industry and, as such, he wanted to make as much money as possible (which perhaps isn\u2019t that punk). Every time Simply Red had a hit, Hucknall and his management would renegotiate their deal with the label \u2014 and they had lots of hits: 10 Top Ten singles and 15 Top Ten albums, of which five went to No 1, selling 60 million units in total. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would call up the record company and go, \u2018He\u2019s not happy \u2014 we need more,\u2019 \u201d Hucknall says. \u201cI was fighting not to get screwed because all of my heroes have been f***ed over. Those great injustices made me a rottweiler. It made me alienated by the industry.\u201d How so? \u201cI\u2019m overlooked. I\u2019m not listed in the top ten greatest singers by whoever, but I don\u2019t give a shit. As long as I\u2019m selling tickets, I don\u2019t care about your accolades. That\u2019s the punk in me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a conveyor belt of exploitation, you know?\u201d he continues about the industry, mentioning his contemporaries from the 1980s \u2014 Whitney Houston, Prince, George Michael, Michael Jackson \u2014 who are all now dead. \u201cIt\u2019s the system that killed them. And they don\u2019t care, they just move on to the next\u2026\u201d Hucknall says. \u201cIf you allow the system to control you, it works you into the ground. You lose your sense of reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000068764077\"<\/p>\n

Watching Manchester United in 2014 with the club\u2019s former manager Alex Ferguson<\/p>\n

MARK ROBINSON\u2009\/\u2009THE SUN<\/p>\n

He says he dabbled with cocaine and heroin, but it was never a big problem. \u201cA lot of drug use comes from overwork, unhappiness,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there was a phase when I was unhappy in my personal life and it got a bit dark, but I never got deeply into all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Success rather than excess, then. That said, what is the most ridiculous thing he bought? \u201cMy manager used to complain that I wasn\u2019t spending enough,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cAll I used to spend money on was music and travel, that was it.\u201d But you travelled around in luxury hotels at least? \u201cOh yeah, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, everything is calm. He is in that autumn phase of rock stardom when all the money means you can relax. He, Gabriella and Romy live in Surrey, where his main vice is a \u201cfew glasses of wine\u201d. He used to own a vineyard in Sicily \u2014 they did not simply do reds. <\/p>\n

\"Mick<\/p>\n

Hucknall photographed last month for The Sunday Times Magazine<\/p>\n

PEROU FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE. GROOMING: EMMA LEON. STYLING: NATALIE READ. BLAZER BY GRESHAM\u2019S BLAKE BURGUNDY FLORAL SHIRT BY HARVIE &AMP; HUDSON<\/p>\n

I think that you can learn a lot about Hucknall from the fact that he only fell in love with Manchester United when his club got relegated in 1974. The boy had the glory of George Best, but only when they went down was he all in. \u201cAs a 14-year-old I thought, \u2018My team needs me!\u2019 \u201d he says, grinning. He was part of the Denton Reds gang, a group of supporters who would gather at the scoreboard end, and he beams as he recalls the fashions, the violence and, above all, the losing. \u201cI went to every home game in the second division and some away too,\u201d he says. \u201cYou need to accept defeats because then you can start rebuilding. And to rebuild, you need patience.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the team\u2019s current malaise? At the time we went to press Hucknall wanted to stick with their beleaguered manager, Ruben Amorim, but also believes they should not have sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Would he want them to be relegated again? \u201cThat\u2019s probably going too far.\u201d <\/p>\n

Forty years is a hell of a career in what is meant to be a young man\u2019s game. When did Hucknall know that he did not need a plan B? \u201cI knew that I would do this for a lifetime, but didn\u2019t know to what level of success,\u201d he says. \u201cI probably would have been satisfied singing on a cruise ship. I just love my job.\u201d
Recollections by Simply Red is out on November 21<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mick Hucknall knew he was famous the night he sat with Whitney Houston in a dressing room while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-88163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}