Money too tight to mention?

Not many bands can boast 28 former and present members. Simply Red can but to most of us the name is synonymous with Mick Hucknall - the man who made being ginger sexy, or so some journalists would have me believe.

Simply Red will be performing in Bahrain to a select crowd of Gulf Air guests during the Bahrain Formula One race weekend.

The visit has caused controversy after Al Asala bloc MP Abdul Haleem Murad called for a parliamentary probe into an agreement Gulf Air has signed with Simply Red, according to our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

While the airline is in a most critical financial and administrative situation, it has paid $700,000 (BD264,600) to the band, he said. Also, chief executive Bjorn NŠf has assigned 60 air hostesses to escort VIPs and guests during the event, Mr Murad claimed.

However, the band started humbly in 1976 after a Sex Pistols gig motivated Mick Hucknall to put a band together and start down his path to the music history books, kicking off as a punk group called 'The Frantic Elevators'.

They lasted seven years with only limited local attention before they finally split and went on their merry ways, but Mick wasn't ready to give up his dreams and teamed up with manager Elliot Rashman.

By early 1985, they had put together a team of session musicians and took on the name Simply Red - a nickname of Mick's that has as much to do with his football allegiance (Manchester United) and political views (left-wing) as it does the colour of his hair - and signed to Elektra and released their first single, a cover version of The Valentine Brother's Money Too Tight To Mention. It was an instant hit, going into the Irish and UK top 20 charts as well as the American, Dutch and French top 30. It was followed in the same year by a debut album, Picture Book.

A year later they re-recorded a song The Frantic Elevators had no success with and Holding Back the Years became a major hit that turned Simply Red into a worldwide name and remains to this day one of the band's most recognised songs.

The line-up of Simply Red was changing so regularly that by the 1990s it was effectively known as Mick Hucknall accompanied by musicians.

The 1991 album Stars was the year's best-selling album, topping the charts for 19 weeks and giving birth to various top 10 and top 40 hits, including the title track Stars and Something's Got Me Started and by 1993 it had garnered worldwide sales of 8.5 million copies - outselling much-hyped albums by U2, Michael Jackson, Guns 'n' Roses and Dire Straits.

Breaking free from mainstream recording labels, Mick Hucknall set up his own SimplyRed.com label where his Home album was released in 2003.

Simply Red's popularity can be easily explained by the fact that the music is mellow yet soulful and funky enough to appeal to a widespread audience.

"Mick Hucknall has such a great voice and his songs have a real feel-good factor," said Radio Bahrain news reader Sarva Velamuri. "Despite not being the most attractive man, he was certainly quite something in his hey-day but these days we don't really hear much about him or Simply Red the band."

Fans, however, remain loyal. Diana Smith posted on whosdatingwho.com that Mick Hucknall gave the 'most amazing performance ever' when he took to the stage. "His voice glides through every song without strain or struggle. Absolutely amazing!" she added.

As Simply Red rose to dizzy heights Mick's personal exploits became fodder for the tabloids.

Despite once being voted Sky One's 'No. 1 British Celebrity Minger' he was romantically linked to beautiful actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones and Martine McCutcheon, tennis star Steffi Graf and super model Helena Christensen.

He eventually gave up his womanising ways when he got back together with former girlfriend Gabriella Wesberry in 2003 and in 2007 Mick became a father at 47.

Last June, Romy True Hucknall was born in London at 3pm weighing 9lbs. The Manchester Evening News reported that Mick began dating Gabriella, a company director, in 1995 but the couple split before the singer embarked on an 18-month tour.

They were reintroduced by a mutual friend in 2003 and have been together ever since.

Some of Mick's songs, such as Broken Man and Love Has Said Goodbye Again, were inspired by Gabriella, who is in her 30s and speaks six languages.

Born in 1960, Mick was raised in Manchester by his father after his mother walked out when he was just three years old. Mick's loyalty to his father meant that he didn't want a relationship with his mother and only ever saw her once more, when she asked to see him before she died.

Mick has previously blamed his inability to commit to relationships on the fact that his mother left when he was such a young boy but as a father, he now says: "I can honestly say I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. I wake up every morning and think that this is just great. It's perfectly natural for me to be totally committed to this relationship - totally committed to bringing up my family. It's wonderful to have someone who's your lover and your best friend."

Taking a break from music for a while to get to know his daughter, Mick has said that Simply Red will tour again in 2009 before finally splitting up after 25 years in the business saying to Times Online: "I've kind of decided 25 years is going to be enough, so I intend that the 2009 tour will be the last Simply Red tour."