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…


‘Better, not bitter’

Carlos Santana’s strategy for success has kept him on top for 20 years   Nick Krewen Hamilton Spectator Friday, July 24, 1987   It was 20 years ago today that Carlos Santana taught his band to play. The summer of love may be best remembered for The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,  but 1967 should also go down in history as the year Latin rock surfaced to the…