Simply Red 'Stars' - Free with the Mail on Sunday

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Not having a go at you (or just you ) but i hate that phrase, think it stinks. It's snobbery, it's patronising and it's arrogant. People like what they like - I might think it's bollocks, and I reserve the right to say so, but I won't diss someone for liking it.

I've got fuck all poetry - some Mersey poets, some Philip Larkin, but it's not really my thing. Is Roger McGough poetry for people who don't like poetry?

It probably is tbh. I can see your point but against that the fact is to be into music in the way you or a lot of other people here are is a pretty time-consuming business which a lot of people aren't interested enough to bother with. I reckon most Simply Red fans are selecting music from a pretty small pool - mainstream stuff that has a reasonably high profile - so the description is often quite accurate. Although probably a bit snobby too.

 

[El Jefe]

I hope you are kiddin, it's a fucking awful song.

I like it. Ain't life complicated.

 

[El Jefe]

It probably is tbh. I can see your point but against that the fact is to be into music in the way you or a lot of other people here are is a pretty time-consuming business which a lot of people aren't interested enough to bother with.

It could be argued that we're the ones with the problem

so the description is often quite accurate.

It's not, though. They DO like music, it's just not an obsession. Meh

 

[RaverDrew]

I like it. Ain't life complicated.

I don't think I'll ever be able to take your attempts at pouring scorn on other peoples musical tastes seriously again ever.

 

[El Jefe]

I don't pour scorn on people's musical tastes, unless I'm taking the piss. I pour scorn on the music. It's a really important difference.

 

[N_igma]

Meh I like Fairground too. Even bands and genres you hate have one or two songs in there that click in your mind and you can't help yourself liking, just music ffs.

 

[Spod]

Not having a go at you (or just you ) but i hate that phrase, think it stinks. It's snobbery, it's patronising and it's arrogant. People like what they like - I might think it's bollocks, and I reserve the right to say so, but I won't diss someone for liking it.

I've got fuck all poetry - some Mersey poets, some Philip Larkin, but it's not really my thing. Is Roger McGough poetry for people who don't like poetry?

OK guilty as charged. Maybe a more accurate and less offensive analogy would be that Simply Red, Lighthouse Family. Dido etc are 'music for people who like music'. Whereas less accessible stuff that you need to seek out and explore but ultimately more rewarding stuff is 'music for people who love music'.

Probably still arrogant and patronising but IME its the truth. Im not saying that if you are into bland commercial stuff then thats wrong, its just personal preference.

 

[BlackArab]

Can I be the token urbanite to say they actually quite like Simply Red ?

Me too. And I bought Stars the first time round. Great album.

 

[Spod]

Also im not saying that just because somethings popular means its got no artistic integrity. The list of popular but great bands/artists is very long.

 

[Idaho]

Mick Hucknell deserves respect for setting up Blood and Fire. It forgives many years of shit music.

Holding back the years wasn't too bad though

 

[foo]

oo. missed it.

damn.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

You can have mine if you like.

Ooh oh, that would be great. Can I PM you?

 

[William of Walworth]

Meh I like Fairground too. Even bands and genres you hate have one or two songs in there that click in your mind and you can't help yourself liking, just music ffs.

I bought Stars on tape in a moment of weakness -- possibly insanity -- about 16 years ago. I doubt I've put it on for 15 or so years, but where would we be if we didn't make mistakes and include some crap in our collection?

I can't even remember the reason I bought it, probably because it was cheap and I liked one particular song for about a day or something. Shit happens ... ALL record collections contain some shite in there, wouldn't be proper collections if they didn't ....

Hucknall's a total twat except for his bankrolling Blood and Fire Records, which commendably he keeps his own stuff well away from ...

ETA : Ahh, OK, just saw that Idaho's beaten me to that last point ...

 

[cybertect]

Just so people are aware of it, here's the Valentine Brothers' original version of Money's Too Tight To Mention

http://www.cybertects.co.uk/scirocco/fun/moneyTooTight.mp4

Stomps all over Hucknall's version. I never could really take him seriously after that effort as a first single.

[apologies for the irritating DJ at the beginning, but an excerpt from some old radio show was the only electronic version I could find to pop up on my site]

 

[gracious]

the mail is the beneficiary init. truth is that since the internet, sales of newspapers have been in long term decline, on top of that, no-one pays for classified ads in newspapers any more.

knock on effect of declining readership is that advertisers prefer not to pay for ads in the mail, but would rather go for online advertising if they want to target closely, or tv if they want to get everyone in the country to see it. end result, the mail (and all daily nationals) business model is going down the pan and they are desperately trying all manner of gimmicks to keep their readership over some advertising industry thresholds (e.g. the telegraph sells a million a day, and if they think they are not going to they give copies away to maintain that threshold, because it matters to dumb advertising execs whether their ad is seen by 1m people or 999,999 people). from the mail's point of view, the cost of losing the ad revenue is much bigger than the cost of giving away a load of copies of a shit album.

sorry to be boring, but that is the answer to your question. ta dah!

 

[hammerntongues]

Simply Red and Mick Hucknall , rather like U2 and Bono , I grew to hate them it wasn`t immediate . I thought Stars was OK when I bought it , if I were to listen to it now it would make me cringe. The man is capable of a great soul voice , shame the fact he is such a cunt overides it.

papers make money from advertisments , advertisments cost more the more people see them , the Mail knows that your average Mail reader is likely to listen to Simply Red and wont have replaced their vinyl copy because it was one of the last albums they bought way back when.

 

[electrogirl]

Martine McCutcheon once vomited in Mick Hucknall's hair when he was trying to woo her in the back of a taxi.

therefore i love her.

 

[Juice Terry]

I seem to rememeber a hard house mashup/mix of Fairground, heard it on Pete Wardmans saturday afternoon show on Kiss the day after a heavy night at Club UK.

We was bouncing round the living room to it

 

[skyscraper101]

Martine McCutcheon once vomited in Mick Hucknall's hair when he was trying to woo her in the back of a taxi.

therefore i love her.

Isn't that why he had to lose the dreads? Shame. LOL!

I quite like some Simply Red, for the record. Something Got Me Started, Thrill Me, Stars, Money's Too Tight To Mention, and Angel - good tracks imho.

Urbanites in closet liking Simply Red shocker!!

 

[electrogirl]

Isn't that why he had to lose the dreads? Shame. LOL!

I quite like some Simply Red, for the record. Something Got Me Started, Thrill Me, Stars, Money's Too Tight To Mention, and Angel - good tracks imho.

Urbanites in closet liking Simply Red shocker!!

Yes! what a legend she is.

When Simply Red suddenly started being in my face all the time like on adverts with theri new album and stuff I said to my boyfriend 'didn't they break up?!' i was sure they had broken up!! or was it just a wet dream?

 

[DotCommunist]

http://www.rathergood.com/bunny_too_tight/

 

[foo]

my colleague has brought this into work today - and is now playing it.

i feel an offical grievance procedure coming on....