39 25 MAY 2023 Weekending Photographs: Dean Chalkley, Shutterstock, Getty images MICK HUCKNALL Myweekend The Simply Red frontman, 62, lives in Surrey with his wife Gabriella, and daughter Romy, 15 Rise and shine or lie-in? Because of getting up tomakemy daughter breakfast over the years, I findmyself waking up between 7.30 and 8am. She likes tomake her own breakfast now, which is great, but my body clock still obeys. Breakfast or brunch? I takemy dog for a walk for about an hour – I’ve got a coton de Tuléar, a lovely little white dog with very soft fur and a great temperament – then I havemy breakfast: a Craster kipper, toast andmarmalade, Darjeeling tea and a boiled egg. Productive or lazy? It depends if a song comes intomy head. If it does, everything stops until I get that out of my system. I rush tomy phone Pub grub or restaurant? We like tomix it up, but I tend to go for Italian, Japanese or central European styles. Wine is my hobby, so I go to places where they’ve got a good wine list. There’s an Italian restaurant in Barnes in London called Riva, which is great. I’m friends with the owner, Andrea, who’s a lovely guy. Cinema or boxset? Boring oldme doesn’t go out at the weekend. I love staying home, and we always make weekends movie nights. Sometimes, it’s nice to watch brain cell-dissolving stu , but Romy loves cinema, so we’re slowly working our way through the top 100movies, like The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and Pulp Fiction. What’s the theme of your new album, Time? In lockdown, I went through this phase of thinking: “Who are you, then?What are you actually about?” And tome, family is the prize. I wrote the songs froma very personal level, and themagic of a song is the listener applies it to their own experience. That’s one of the beautiful things about my profession – your baby leaves the house and becomes theirs. Radio or podcast? Can I say neither? I’ma TV nut. I love astronomy, science programmes, history, politics, documentaries, old British black and whitemovies in the afternoons. It’s all TV for me. Early night or up all night? At home, I’musually hitting the sack just beforemidnight. On tour, the days and nights kind of mull into a bigmashed potato. It sometimes takes three or four days to re-assimilate when I get home, but my girls are very sympathetic. Time by Simply Red is out tomorrow (26May). Interview: EmmaHigginbotham SIMPLE PLEASURES Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction (below); wine is Mick’s hobby and press record, then if I feel like developing it further, I’ll get the acoustic guitar out and start work. But generally, I’ll be relatively lazy and watch TV or go out in the garden. Cook from scratch or buy it in? I’m the house chef, but this weekend the girls want to cook. Romy’s making her grandmother’s spaghetti bolognese, and my wife, who’s half Hungarian, half German, is cooking this Hungarian dish of stu ed cabbage with paprika and soured cream, which I love. Dinner party: host or attend? Both sound like fun. If I was cooking, it would be French or Italian. I lived in Italy for several years, so I learned a lot about Italian food.
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