Indie pop

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…


Big in Europe, dance band tries to get Sparks flying at home

Sparks talks Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins   NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator March 30, 1995 Credited as the inspiration for British electronic dance pop combos Depeche Mode, Erasure and Pet Shop Boys, Sparks is a modern music anomaly: a California duo that is revered in Europe, but ignored in their own backyard. With the release tomorrow of their 16 th album, Gratuitous Sax And Senseless Violins, Sparks linchpins Ron and…


Ron Sexsmith reveals his Secret Heart

NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator Thursday, March 2, 1995       “Secret Heart What are you made of? What are you afraid of?”   — from “Secret Heart”, written by Ron Sexsmith, © 1995 Ronboy Rhymes Inc./Interscope Pearl Music/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., BMI.   French fries. When I first met Ron Sexsmith, his two favorite foods were French fries and Yorkshire pudding — mainly because they were British. At the time,…


Tori in the Pink

Published in the Hamilton Spectator on Thursday, November 3 1994 in advance of a November 5 concert at Hamilton Place   TORI IN THE PINK   NICK KREWEN   Tori Amos has a hard time keeping a secret from anyone these days. “They know everything, these kids,” she is saying from New Jersey, another stop in a grueling 10-month world tour that brings the London-based singer and songwriter to Hamilton…