Simply Red - Westonbirt Arboretum

Monday 22nd June 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of Simply Red. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 10 / 10.

It might have been 25 years, but, save for the odd grey hair creeping into the red, you wouldn’t have known it.

Even Mick Hucknall could scarcely believe where the years had gone.

“Twenty-five years,” he said, looking out at the sell-out crowd at Westonbirt Arboretum last night.

“Twenty-five years. Jeez. I can’t believe it.”

It all seemed a bit surreal to us, too.

Here was a band, used to massive global stadia – they’re playing the O2 in Dublin and 20,000-capacity gigs across Europe on the next leg of the tour – in the middle of an arboretum in rural Gloucestershire.

The stage was tucked between the enormous trees, lit up in shades of green and blue.

Thousands of fans lounged about under picnic blankets as the sun dropped beneath the trees, hampers open, glow sticks aloft.

Maybe the setting elevated it to magical status, but Hucknall’s voice seemed more mellifluous than ever.

Simply Red, on their Greatest Hits tour, were simply awesome.

By the time the chords came in for Night Nurse, the picnic blankets were cast aside and chairs abandoned.

Less than five minutes in, one sobbing female fan, flanked by two police officers and a ruck of security men, was marched out, presumably for trying to sneak backstage.

But even that unceremonious eviction seemed rather civilised.

Hit after hit followed. For Your Babies, from the Stars album, filled the arboretum, then Holding Back The Years and the soft, quiet loveliness of You Make Me Feel Brand New.

With every track, Hucknall, in a blue suit and purple shirt, seemed to love this gig more. What he didn’t love was security spoiling his fans’ fun.

“I’ve seen security stopping people taking photos,” he announced. “You don’t need to, guys. Take all the photos you like. Video it. Bring a microphone. There’s a thing called the internet, you know.”

The crowed roared appreciation. One security guard hadn’t grasped his point and was trying to collar someone at the front.

“I can see one of them doing it now,” Hucknall said, pointing at him.

“He’s still doing it, look. You’re not listening, mate. Leave them alone, they’re free to take as many photos as they like.”

The exquisite All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe followed, before a wild card track – Oh What A Girl.

The band’s little-known 2006 single has had barely any airplay but 350,000 hits on YouTube, and the crowd loved it.

Ian Kirkham’s sax came into its own in The Right Thing and Fairground. But the three encores sealed the deal.

Money’s Too Tight (To Mention), the band’s first single from 1985, and Something Got Me Started kicked off the final four, before a spine-tingling version of Stars and the last, beautiful, If You Don’t Know Me By Now.

Their Greatest Hits live recording on £20 memory sticks were flying out of the tents, and it’s not surprising.

Twenty-five years on, and Simply Red still sounded as fresh as ever. Absolutely. Utterly. Brilliant.

Tanya Gledhill

This is a Crackerjack review of Simply Red. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.