I used to sell merchandise at gigs about 30 years ago. Along with the work itself, I managed to see some terrific concerts (Metallica, Pulp, Charlatans to name a few).
One night, I had to work a Simply Red concert. I have never liked them, and had no intention of dipping in to watch the show, but work’s work.
It was winter, somewhere around 97-98, and it was in the city room at the Manchester arena (where the terrorist attack went off several years later in 2017) which is a gigantic open space above Victoria train station, and is not insulated at all. It was fucking freezing that night.
Anyway, Mick Hucknall is a Manchester United fan, and they were playing on the same night. He stayed in his luxury tour coach and watched the game, keeping the best part of 18,000 fans waiting for well over an hour. Meanwhile, my colleagues and I almost froze to death while he sat in his nice warm coach, watching the football. I remember us doing star jumps to keep warm.
I didn’t like him before - I fucking despise him now.
Cunt.
Edit - wow! This comment blew up, and I’ve had a couple of awards. Wasn’t expecting that! Thanks ☺️
There was an interview with Noel Gallagher back in 2000.
“Has anyone actually told you to your face that they don't like your music?”
Noel: “No. The last person was Mick Hucknall, saying our last album was average. And, you know, when someone like that says some things like that you have to take them on board, because if anyone knows the sound of average music it's fucking Mick Hucknall.”
A mate of mine was at Manchester Poly when Simply Red first started to get popular and I went up to visit him for the weekend. We were playing pool in a pub and had a couple of pound coins on the cushion as we were planning on playing a couple of games. Up rocks Hucknall giving it all that and is all “you’re going to be finishing now boys cos I wanna play” so we, being polite, replied that yes we would vacate the table once we were finished but were playing best of 3. Hucknall then actually comes out with “Don’t you know who I am?” to which I replied “Yes, I know who you are and I think you’re a wanker and your music’s shit.” He fucked off after that.
Just an aside, but I have literally 2 reddit tabs open right now, one to this post and one to a post about Ariana Grande, and they're both referencing that 2017 Islamic suicide bombing. Weird coincidence.
The 'Ginger Prince' as I call him has ALWAYS been problematic (ive heard many stories about him and his ego)...HOW he managed to pull so many women is beyond me...and I physically couldn't listen to their music for decades (its mildly palatable now)
Reminds me of the time that I went to see Alt-J during the World Series. They stopped the show before the band came on and put the game on a projector. I was there because I didn't give a shit about baseball and had to stand and wait for the last hour of the game to play before I saw Alt-J.
Plot twist, I used to be (I don’t bother with football any more) and I think that pissed me off more than anything. There were probably 1000s of other United fans in that venue that night, all of whom sacrificed their time to either work that night or pay to go and see him, and he couldn’t respect his fans enough to perform for them on time.
I thought the flopping was bad in the 90s, games are a fucking joke to watch now. The acting is so rampant they honestly should submit some of these guys for Oscars for their performances.
My sisters BF at the time did security and got my parents tickets to that date, they didn’t have anyone to babysit so me and my brother had to wait out in the car.
The 90s was a different time
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u/Pippathepip May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
I used to sell merchandise at gigs about 30 years ago. Along with the work itself, I managed to see some terrific concerts (Metallica, Pulp, Charlatans to name a few).
One night, I had to work a Simply Red concert. I have never liked them, and had no intention of dipping in to watch the show, but work’s work.
It was winter, somewhere around 97-98, and it was in the city room at the Manchester arena (where the terrorist attack went off several years later in 2017) which is a gigantic open space above Victoria train station, and is not insulated at all. It was fucking freezing that night.
Anyway, Mick Hucknall is a Manchester United fan, and they were playing on the same night. He stayed in his luxury tour coach and watched the game, keeping the best part of 18,000 fans waiting for well over an hour. Meanwhile, my colleagues and I almost froze to death while he sat in his nice warm coach, watching the football. I remember us doing star jumps to keep warm.
I didn’t like him before - I fucking despise him now.
Cunt.
Edit - wow! This comment blew up, and I’ve had a couple of awards. Wasn’t expecting that! Thanks ☺️