Simply Red is a British soul and pop band. The first incarnation of the band was a punk group called The Frantic Elevators, whose seven-year run produced limited releases on local labels and ended in 1984 upon critical acclaim for their final single, “Holding Back the Years”.

By early 1985, Mick Hucknall and manager Elliot Rashman had assembled a band of local session musicians and begun to attract record company attention. The group adopted the name “Red” (after Hucknall’s nickname, denoting his hair colour) but then Mick decided it would sound better with the addition of the word ‘Simply.’

Since the mid 1980s, the band has sold more than 50 million albums.