R&B

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…


Red Hot Chili Peppers Sporting a Jane Addiction

NICK KREWEN The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, March 7, 1996       Dave Navarro considered it a lucky break. Not his joining up as guitarist with California’s The Red Hot Chili Peppers — arguably the hottest funk rock band on the planet, mind you — but drummer Chad Smith‘s snapped wrist that resulted in the postponement of the group’s mid-Autumn North American tour. “I tell you, when Chad broke his…


Montell Jordan: This is How He Did It

PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR Thursday, May 18, 1995   NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator Thursday, May 18, 1995   Montell Jordan‘s South Central Los Angeles is a lot different from the one portrayed by Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ice Cube or Dr. Dre. While most rap stars and G-funkers portray South Central L.A. as a violent war zone, Jordan — whose very first single, “This Is How We Do It”, has topped…


A little TLC is going a long way

PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR     BY NICK KREWEN   If you want a record deal, try your local hairdresser. It worked for TLC, the hot Atlanta baby faced pop trio whose month-long reign at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with the song “Creep” ended last week. Four years ago, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins was a struggling singer looking for the right connection. When she met Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes during…