Review: Simply Red - Leeds Arena

Mick Hucknall walks onto the stage with an acoustic guitar round his neck and starts to play Holding Back The Years, bathed naturally as you would expect in red light. It is a fine and unusual entrance. The last time I saw him do this was at the start of their career in the mid eighties when he made the same entrance at the Apollo in Manchester.

That was nearly 30 years ago and this current Simply Red tour is all about celebrating 30 years of the band. As Hucknall himself says "tonight is a musical journey through 30 years of Simply Red."

The sound is perfect, the first half of the gig concentrates on their more mellow and soulful songs such as Say You Love Me, So Not Over You and Enough. When introducing the songs he informs the audience what year each track is from, but by the time we get to the more uptempo songs he seems to let this go.

It is hard to forget how many great songs Hucknall has written and co-written: Night Nurse was written with Sly and Robbie whilst the aforementioned track Enough was a co written with Joe Sample from The Crusaders. He knows his music and its heritage.

He also has a good band around him and this current line up is no exception, even better, there is a Yorkshire man in the group now too, keyboard player Dave Clayton. Preston born Ian Kirkham has been with the group since just after their initial success; his saxophone playing is almost as integral to the Simply Red sound as that of Hucknall's vocals.

"We like the layout of this place" he says as he gives his seal of approval to Leeds Arena. His approach is warm and friendly and at times it felt like he was talking to old friends, which in reality is what he was doing. Looking around the audience a lot of those in attendance had been fans of the band since they started, that's not to say though that there were not a lot of younger fans in attendance too.

By the time we get to A New Flame the mood is more upbeat, with The Right Thing and Come To My Aid all having stood the test of time.

Fairground closes the set, it's carnival atmosphere bringing the audience to their feet. They return to the stage to remind fans that they released a new album earlier this year, Big Love, as they perform the single, Shine On: it is classic Simply Red and stands up well when placed next to their older tracks.

The band finish with the old standard, If You Don't Know Me By Now which is turned, from the audiences point of view, into a mass singalong.

Simply Red? More like Simply Brilliant. A fine return.

The band play several regional dates outdoors next summer:

Clitheroe Castle 6 July 2016

Scarborough Open Air Theatre 10 August 2016

Doncaster Racecourse 13 August 2016