<Li> The Frantic Elevators </Li> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> simplyred.com </Td> </Tr> <P> Michael James Hucknall (born 8 June 1960) is an English singer and songwriter . Hucknall achieved international fame in the 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter of the soul - influenced pop band Simply Red, with whom he enjoyed a 25 - year career and sold over 50 million albums . Hucknall has been described as "one of the truly great blue - eyed soul singers". </P> <P> Hucknall, born at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, was an only child . His mother abandoned the family when he was three; the upheaval caused by this event inspired him to write "Holding Back the Years," which would become one of Simply Red's biggest and best - known hits . He was brought up by his father, Reginald (1935--2009), a barber in Stockport . He attended Audenshaw School . It would not be until the mid-1990s that he would finally reconnect with his mother, Maureen, who was by then living in Dallas . As of a 2008 interview, he had only seen her on two occasions since she first abandoned the family . </P>

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