2_75.jpg) British pop soul band Simply Red has an official expiration date. Lead singer Mick Hucknall told the U.K.'s Gold Radio that the group plans to split up in 2009, after 25 years together. Simply Red's current CD, Stay, will be its final release, and the group will disband after completing a series of tour dates. "I've kind of decided that the 25 years is going to be enough," Hucknall said Wednesday (October 24th).
The singer added that he wants to focus on a solo career, where he can "invent a new form of music" influenced by R&B tracks from the 1960s. "It's a big challenge but I can't do it under the name of Simply Red," Hucknall said.
Recording his first solo project, which is already completed, led to the decision. "I've just recorded an album that is a tribute to Bobby Bland, a blues and R&B artist," he explained. "It's a solo project and I've really enjoyed it -- so much that I feel the time has come now to just put a book-end to the Simply Red story."
Simply Red formed in 1984with three ex-members of the band Durutti Column -- bassist Tony Bowers, drummer Chris Joyce, and keyboard and brass player Tim Kellett -- as well as guitarist Sylvan Richardson and keyboardist Fritz McIntyre. The group charted its first single in 1985 with "Money's Too Tight To Mention" from their debut Playbook. The band subsequently released nine more albums, including the current Stay, their first issue on the SimplyRed.com label.
Simply Red's performance of the Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes classic "If You Don't Know Me By Now" earned a 1989 Grammy Award for writers Gamble & Huff as best R&B song.
Simply Red is releasing a new version of "The World And You Tonight," as their last single.
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