United Kingdom

Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall On…

As appeared in the late, lamented on-line magazine Magnet, 1996   Stardust, Baked Beans, Orgasms and The Meaning Of Life   NICK KREWEN   The Bowery Boy of blue-eyed soul is back, and man is he stylin’. Although the only reason Mick Hucknall, singer and architect of Simply Red, Britain’s most astoundingly successful R&B export at 26 million records sold and counting, is in Toronto in the first place is…


Michael Scott: Lone Waterboy

  NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator Thursday, February 29, 1996 As founder of Scottish rock group The Waterboys, singer and songwriter Mike Scott gained worldly insight and experience during their 12 year, six-album existence. So it’s surprising when the 37-year-old Scott, wearing a bright red shirt and matching red cap, divulges an unlikely source of inspiration for Bring ‘Em All In, his first post-Waterboys solo album: Dr. Seuss. “I was renting…


Bryan Adams: 15-Year Love Affair

This expanded version was to have been published by Toronto on-line magazine Magnet, which sadly folded after one issue.     BRYAN ADAMS: 15-YEAR LOVE AFFAIR   NICK KREWEN   Before we get started, there are four things you should know about Canadian rock superstar Bryan Adams. First, he’s a strict vegetarian. “Eight years!” shouts Adams, as his voice voraciously leaps off the long-distance line from his home in London,…


Joe Jackson – The Glare accompanying Night Music

PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1995   NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator November 10, 1995   The Glare. It’s the first thing you notice about Joe Jackson when you enter the room: his face is expressionless, and his eyes practically protrude from their sockets as they settle on you for the first time. Unsettling? Yes — especially in light of Jackson’s reported wariness of journalists, a career-long…


Radiohead finding its honey with “Creep”

    NICK KREWEN The Hamilton Spectator April 6, 1995   Being ignored at home was the best thing that ever happened to England’s Radiohead. Unlike other Johnny-come-latelys of the British pop scene, the five members of Radiohead weren’t former plastic surgeons who got bored with their professions, nor are they the byproduct of some horrible laboratory accident. They’re simply a handful of normal school friends from Oxford who practiced…