Executive Decision

In the music industry, production is a fascinating area. The job description has not evolved that much since the early days. The tools change, but you still need to be parts musician, engineer, diplomat, psychiatrist, best friend, mother, father, nursemaid, babysitter, sounding board, whipping post, gopher, drug dealer, rehab sponsor, dinner partner, and whatever whim comes to an artist’s mind. And that’s on a good day!! Then you have to balance all this with what the record label side wants and expects. Release dates, promotional opportunities, deadlines met, studio time, musician costs, engineers, instrument rentals, equipment rentals, hotels, per diems transportation…BUDGET!! A BUDGET for their PRODUCT! And all you really wanted to do was make some fucking music! It’s a wonder any music gets made at all sometimes.

As a producer, some records you have to battle to have made and some just come together on both ends magically. Usually the artists you’re trying to develop and maybe take to another level are the ones you get the most label resistance from.  Everyone wants to invest in a solid seller, and not so much in potentials. Two such artists that I had personally worked with that illustrate this point were MC Breed and Trudy Lynn.

MC Breed (Eric) was a rap artist out of Detroit who had built a name for himself as a solo artist (“Ain’t No Future In Yo Frontin’”) as well as his later collaborative projects with varying people, including Tupac Shakur and a song in an Oliver Stone film. He sold a lot of records for the label, and in terms of rap, he was relatively well known. Let me clarify that in the early and mid nineties, rap was not as commercially accepted as it is now, so the masses and media had not yet assigned the “hip-hop” moniker. All of it was called rap and anyone who did it was a rapper. For years, the term rap carried negative connotations before it suddenly became a sub culture of our society. OK, history lesson over…back on track…

Almost without exception, if Breed asked the label for studio time, he got it. If he asked for money, he got it as well. Hell, he even asked for a house once and guess what? Yep, he got it!

I liked Eric. When he wasn’t busy posturing for his posse he was a fairly down to earth guy who had decent instincts. Unfortunately, he didn’t always trust them and thus started listening to the wrong people. There were a lot of members in his posse, and whenever I would see them all at the studio with him, they had their hands in his pocket the whole session. I think he knew he needed to keep an eye on his money but hell; he was doing a CD called “Big Baller” so maybe he felt he needed to walk the walk.

When Breed would book time at the studio you almost dreaded it. Mainly you knew you were going to have a full house and our place was not that big and it was hard to keep up with so many people. And yes, you did have to somewhat keep up with them all. Imagine inviting a friend and their date over to your house and an additional 35 people arrive as well; same kinda thing. Also, though Breed would book the studio, he would just as often not show up keeping an engineer sitting, waiting there for hours on the off chance he would show. Most times he would get derailed at Magic City or some other local strip club and that would be that. It was usually a better than 50/50 shot he would not show. Bottom line is, he sold records and the label tolerated this even if it meant keeping other artists out of the studio in the hopes he would show. We still billed his time out, as I had to pay at least an engineer whether he showed or not so if he said he was coming at 7pm the meter was turned on unless he called ahead. This applied to any of the artists, not just Eric. We were doing a LOT of records back then and usually ran sessions from 10am until 4am. So we didn’t have a lot of time to sit idle.

Trudy Lynn was a blues and soul powerhouse out of Houston, TX. This woman could just flat out SANG! She had control, versatility and a great work ethic in the studio. In the early days when her career was first starting to take off, she would open for a lot of artists passing through Houston including Ike & Tina Turner. Over time, she became well known in the Houston music scene and was branching out playing clubs in other parts of the country.

Trudy found her way to the record label via BB Coleman. BB was a bluesman (with a name like BB you’re kinda pre-destined) who had been kicking around for some time and was constantly traveling the states and playing every blues club available. Because of his extensive touring, BB was to supply the label with a wealth of Blues talent. However, to me, Trudy was his shining star.

To my great fortune, after BB’s initial straight ahead blues record on her, Trudy was turned over to me to produce. The 1^st record I did on her I co-produced with fellow musician/producer Bryan Cole. We tried to maintain the blues foundation as BB had established, but we also wanted to add a little of that Denise LaSalle type of funky soulful blues as well hopefully introducing her to a wider audience.

After that 1^st record, I took sole production responsibilities. I should note that almost every record that came out of the studio for almost 10 years had a piece of each of us in it no matter what our official involvement. Bryan would search material for me, play drums or just offer his advice. I would play keys, arrange, or throw in my two cents worth on his productions..  Our chief engineer, Jimmy O’Neill would play guitar for anyone or clean up any part of a song that needed taking care of. Edd would offer ideas for recording or follow up and tweak a mix with fresh ears or lay down a percussion part if needed. For the most part the entire staff (4) was involved with each other’s production.

After having done about 3 or 4 records on Trudy and having had toured Europe and Japan with her as her pianist, Ichiban could see the impact she was having on her audiences. The audiences were aware of certain songs on the records and would sing along, or immediate applause would break out from recognition of an opening riff. John (president of Ichiban and often tour manager) and I thought that maybe she was due for a greatest hits type record. Neither of us wanted to repackage her previous records, so after some consideration of the material, we came up with the idea of recording a greatest hits “live in the studio.” Typically live records don’t sell as well but this was just a bit different, so the label agreed and we were underway with planning.

It’s difficult enough planning a schedule and a budget for an album, but as this was to be performed in the studio, and we only had the weekend to do this, each detail had to be worked out in advance. Musicians had to be booked, flights for those coming from out of state, hotels, per diems, arrangements, transportation, etc…everything! The budget was set and our fearless leader John approved it all before dashing off to Europe on some business. We would be recording no less than 14 people in our tiny studio 2 keyboardists, 2 guitarists, drummer, bass player, 3 background singers, the Muscle Shoals horns (4) and Trudy! On top of that we would have 2 engineers to make sure it all went down on multi-formats (multi-track, 2-track, DAT) without a hitch.  (No there was no Pro Tools as yet) This was shaping up to be a huge undertaking and I was hoping beyond hope the studio would be large enough. The entire building was needed to accommodate everyone. We had the Muscle Shoals Horns in the kitchen, guitar amps in the bathroom, background singers in the front reception, and the rhythm section and Trudy packed into the main room with Trudy somewhat isolated.. Jimmy had even rigged a video camera and a monitor for the horns to see cues while we tracked.

A few days before the session was to take place the 4 us at the studio pitched in to start setting things up. As you can imagine there were a LOT of mic lines and everything needed to be checked as to ensure a smooth session. There are enough things that can go wrong on any session, so with this one being so large and only having the weekend to record, it was imperative we went the extra mile in preparation.

Well it’s Friday afternoon and we are about 24 hours from making a record. It’s all getting pretty exciting now. This will certainly be THE largest session we’ve done at one time. All mics and headphones were in place, line checks had been done, and musicians confirmed… we were ready!

Right before we are heading out the door, the VP of Ichiban, Nina (John’s wife) calls and asks me what is going on in the studio over the weekend? I’m excited and go on about how we are cutting Trudy’s record and we have all these musicians and…Huh? Excuse me? You want what?  By this time Bryan, Jimmy and Edd are looking at me puzzled. I hang up the phone in disbelief. She had just told me (and I do mean told) that MC Breed wanted to come to the studio this weekend both Saturday and Sunday. I explained how I could give him any days starting Monday but she was not having any of it. I kept trying to tell her we had this scheduled for weeks now. Hotels, per diems, musician fees, etc had all been laid out. Nina’s response? I will point out here that Nina is from Finland and has an accent. However when anyone at Ichiban or the studio imitated her, it was with what can only be described as an Arnold in Terminator accent. “Breed sells records, Trudy is just a blues singer.” “But what about the reservations and all the money, and…” I counter. “I could care less, Breed booked the studio. Cancel Trudy’s session!”

I was stunned to say the least. John had approved this record and she was just blowing it off. Someone suggested that I contact John and just go over her head. As appealing as that sounded, I saw that causing many more problems in the long run for all of us. I thought about calling Eric, but needed to think this through a bit more first. If I had told him what was happening, he would surely have said he was coming without a doubt, then not show up, just so he could wield his power.

This was a serious dilemma. We had already invested a lot of time into prepping this session. If it were to be cancelled, it had to be done almost right away. As we were talking and trying to think of any way to switch things, Jimmy very casually said, “Yeah, knowing Breed, he probably won’t even show up.”  DING! We all had the exact same thought simultaneously. Breed had a hard enough time coming in during the week; we couldn’t imagine him much less showing up to work a weekend. We all agreed that the session would go on. I think we were so sure of him not coming; we didn’t even have a contingency plan in the event he did show.

Well Saturday high noon rolls around and of course we are all wondering, if Breed was going to show at all. The musicians started filing in with their personal gear, the Muscle Shoals horns arrived on schedule, the drums were set and tuned, Trudy was there and ready to go, the background singers…well they were on the way. Everything was in place. Bryan, Jimmy, Edd and myself were all brimming with nervous excitement. Aside from the 4 of us, we had not told anyone of what was going on.

By the time everyone was set up and we had a bit of a live sound check, an hour or so had passed and no sign of Breed as yet. Perfect! Just as we were only a few minutes from rolling tape, the phone rings. I took the call in the midi suite where it was relatively quiet just in case it was Eric or someone else we didn’t want to know what we were up to. It of course was Nina. She wanted to speak to Breed. I told her we had been waiting for a couple of hours so far and no sign of him. She told me to wait, and that he would be there, but experience had taught us better. There was no way he was coming on a late Saturday afternoon. No way! And we were done answering the phones.

Our hunch paid off for us. We recorded the entire record that afternoon and into the early evening. Everyone was on and a smoother session no one could have asked for. All the musicians and engineers worked their asses off and the atmosphere was just relaxed and party-like.

The entire recording was done in about an 8-hour session, and the best part of it? Since Nina was so adamant as to cancel Trudy and allot the time to Breed, as studio manager, I made an executive decision and charged the entire session back to Breed!! Trudy’s account was not charged a dime for anything except the mix and some clean up, which took maybe 20 or so hours of studio time. Jimmy and Edd had done such a great job engineering that there were only some minor levels to iron out and I think we may have cleaned up a few parts on the 24- track. Most likely some of my Hammond parts. One of the most expensive blues records we had ever done was brought in for about the cost of a demo! And the record proved to be a success for Trudy and her fans in Europe.

Breed eventually finished Big Baller and it did great! Nina never questioned the cost of all these musicians on a rap record and I think John was pleased that Trudy’s record was brought in well under budget. It was years later, after John and Nina split up, when I told John about what had happened that weekend. He had no idea but I think was amused by it all on some levels. Of course Eric never knew and it was at least a couple of years after before I even told the others at the studio. And until if and when she reads this, Trudy to this day has no idea what happened!

Part 1 of the Blue Canoe Records interview

Who's The Boss?

The year was 1990. Curtis had a new record out and though it was not the huge hit we all had hoped for, it resulted in more work for him, not only abroad but in the US as well. Until this release, Curtis’ gigs in the US were few and far between as a headliner. When he did play a show at home, it was usually part of some package with The Impressions and or Jerry Butler. Now he was appearing on Letterman, The David Sanborn Show and performing more and more gigs in the states as a solo artist again. He was on his way to making a return to public eye and deservedly so. More tours and TV appearances were sure to put him back in the forefront again.

Due to his new found popularity and his increasing tour schedule, and my schedule in the studio as a producer, it was time for me to make some career decisions. I had my dream gig, and although I loved touring and going new places, my schedule was becoming increasingly more difficult and I could not continue to do both effectively. I had to leave one and I had decided the touring was going to have to go. This was not an easy decision. Curtis had opened up many doors for me. My current gig as a producer was due in large part to him. He had become more than just an artist to tour with. He had become a true friend and I loved and respected him as one and not just as a mentor/boss.

After many talks, we agreed I would finish up after the west coast tour he had booked. We were to perform in several clubs in and around the LA area and ending with Curtis doing a speaking engagement in SF at the university, where I was to accompany him.

We had a couple of nights under our belt and were gearing up to play The Strand. I don’t think it was in LA but can’t be certain. It was most likely a nearby city, but apparently it was an important venue for Curtis, so we needed to be on!

On the night of The Strand gig, (as I remember) Curtis had a great show. Yeah, I can tell you what venues the shows were good and which weren’t, just don’t ask me to name the exact cities all the time!

After we finished playing I had gone back to the green room to decompress and change clothes. Since it was rare that Curtis played on the west coast, the green room was swamped with people and Curtis had hardly a chance to breathe before music journalists, fans and the like assaulted him. He was usually pretty gracious and he seemed to be handling it all in stride like the pro he was. I’m not much for crowds and typically just want a bit of solitude after a gig. So this night I ducked out of the green room and headed back into the club. By this time, most people had cleared out but there were still a few folks milling around. I no sooner walk into the club when some guy approaches me. Great. So much for solitude. Anyway, this guy comes over to me and starts saying how great Curtis sounded and the band was tight, blah blah blah. Don’t get me wrong; I do enjoy hearing a compliment as much as anyone. I try and take them with a dash of humility, say thank you and move on. However this guy was not letting up. He wanted to talk about several of the songs and just things in general. After a few minutes of standing around chatting he invited me to the bar to have a drink. Considering the green room was full and extremely noisy this seemed as good of an alternative as any so I accepted and thanked him.

We made our way to the bar and he asks me what I would like to drink so I ordered a Bailey’s and excused myself for just a second as I headed to the restroom. As I was just about to push the door open, this girl rushes over and practically accosts me. I’m usually ok with stuff like this but when ya gotta go, ya gotta go right? Well she’s waiting for me when I get out and I’m thinking, hmmm this might be better than a drink at the bar with some guy after all! Then out of left field, she asks excitedly, “Would you introduce me to Bruce Springsteen?” I’m not sure WHAT she’s talking about but I play along just the same. Maybe this is some weird LA (or surrounding city) mating ritual like “I’m an actress!” or something. All I could think to say was “…uh sure, if I ever meet him …” She looks at me with that “what planet did you just arrive from” look, (now THAT I’m used to) and she says “well you’re sitting with him at the bar!” I just sort of laughed it off and excused myself. I’m thinking to myself uh huh, sure I am.

I made my way back to the bar where my bar mate was sitting. I’m not a visual person in general and have a tough time recognizing people I don’t see on a near daily basis. On most days, I barely recognize myself in the mirror. Anyway, I sit down where my Bailey’s is waiting and thank him for the drink all the while really focusing on him. After a clink of the glasses and cheers, I then ask, “Hey, are you Bruce Springsteen?” Well I’m sure this is not a question he’s asked too often by a fellow musician but he handles it pretty well. He just smiles and apologizes for not introducing himself. I did the same and we shook hands and hung out until Curtis and the band were ready to leave for the hotel. We talked about some of Curtis’ music as well as his tour plans, etc. Pretty much the usual musician banter; exchanging road stories and the like.

I get word that the green room has emptied out and Curtis is about ready to go, so I ask Bruce if he’d like to meet Curtis. He downed his drink and we headed to the green room where he and Curtis got a chance to meet and hang out a bit. My work was done!

The Colour Of Money

 During my tenure at Ichiban Records I had several job titles. The main two were staff producer and studio manager. When I wasn’t busy working on a project with an artist of mine, I was responsible for over seeing the day-to-day operations of the studio. Things like, booking time for the artists, scheduling the engineers, deciding who worked what sessions, ordering tape and other supplies (yes I said tape…this was the 90s) and just making sure things ran relatively smooth.

In addition to the day-to-day stuff, I along with all the staff at the studio, were asked to keep our ears open for any possible samples our artists might record. This was just as sampling was getting immensely popular and people were “borrowing” from just about every artist conceivable. Ichiban had sent me to LA in the early 90s for a convention hosted by publishers, labels, entertainment lawyers and the like. The purpose was to discuss the laws regarding sampling at the time and what precedents were actually being set. In essence, it was then as it is now; if you sampled something, you must have it cleared. The law stated that should you fail to clear a sample, the artist AND the record labels were both held responsible. Seems fair enough I’d say. After all, if you are going to use someone else’s music, is it too much to ask for a little credit and a license fee? Apparently, to many it was just that. At the convention they gave us examples of groups like De La Soul who made nothing on their debut record. In fact, they went deep in debt because of all the sampling issues. MC Hammer was another artist who by sampling Rick James’ “Superfreak,” requested permission to split the publishing with Jobette Music (the owners of the song) for writing new lyrics to it.  The head of Jobette was present and read his reply to Hammer. “Who asked you to? We’ll take 100%” So as you can see, record labels and publishers were finding a wealth of hidden money in songs that were being sampled. Both were hiring people to go through all the popular songs and albums of the day, digging for sample usage. The pressure was on for record labels to really scrutinize the music of their artists that made use of sampling. If an artist, group, or producer came to the studio and they were recording hip-hop, it was part of our gig to know where the sample came from. One major un-cleared sample could break a small label like Ichiban. Just as an aside, we originally released Vanilla Ice's “Ice Ice Baby” but for unrelated reasons quickly sold it off as it was blowing up. That sample from Queen cost over 1 million as a back license fee not to mention royalties.  That would have shut us down before ever getting started!

Artists were asked to fill out a sample clearance form, but not always could they be relied upon to do so. The mindset was “we can mangle this sample up so badly NOONE will ever know!” Arrogant thinking by arrogant artists. One such artist sampled the piano intro to “Hey Bulldog” by The Beatles. (a “gangsta” riff if ever there were one) When I pointed out that he could in no way use this, his response was priceless. First, he at least copped to the fact it indeed was a Beatle sample. Score one for the artist. BUT, his logic about using this was his true arrogance. Very matter of factly, he proceeds to tell me, “Well only you white boys are gonna know this song ‘cause black people don’t listen to the Beatles, only white folks.” This statement was incredible on so many levels. I would have busted out laughing then but I could tell this guy was very serious in his thinking, so I just said, “ Well Yoko Ono ain’t white either and she listens to The Beatles and SHE’S gonna fuckin’ know!” He dropped the sample. I don’t even remember his name and it’s probably cause I ruined his career for not letting him use that sample. I apparently suck.

Now one guy I will mention who recorded on Ichiban was Kilo Ali who was known only as Kilo back then. He was working on his Bluntly Speaking record at the time. His producer was a guy known as Red Money. Kilo and Red showed up together initially, but after the introductions I guess Kilo figured he had put in his day, so he left. That left Red myself and the engineer together to sort through the project As Red was tracking the first song, a sample jumped out at us. The engineer, Jimmy O’Neil and I, picked up on this almost simultaneously shouting out “Just The Two Of Us” by Grover Washington. We were so excited ‘cause at that moment it felt like we were on Name That Tune or something. I think we were even half expecting Don Pardo to tell us what we won. What? An artist’s producer lied to us about using a sample? How could this be? I explained how I had just returned from a conference regarding sampling and how labels are cracking down and all. I very nicely explained that this was Richard Tee on Rhodes piano, and it had a very distinct sound that makes it instantly identifiable. He was pissed but seemed to accept it and said he’d lose it. Great.

The next tune he started he wanted to use the intro to Rocky but, having learned I was a keyboardist, asked me if I could play it and make it a little different. I told him yeah be glad to. I was trying to build that relationship so that we at the studio would not be looked at as the stool pigeons we kinda were. We had to look out for ourselves, the label and also in some noble way, the music we loved. So I played the intro theme and he was happy.  He learns Jimmy plays guitar and he asks him to play as well. Everyone was laughing and having some fun so maybe the initial “bad footing” we started off on was behind us.

About 2 weeks later, he comes back and he wants to lay a new track. Let’s do it!  Surely we’ve got this sampling thing behind us now right? He’s got the beat going and everyone in the control room is nodding their heads and it’s all good. Then, like a flare in the night sky, Richard Tee’s piano part on the song lights the track up! You have GOT to be kidding me!! Parts of it were reversed and cut up (the arrogance of we can mangle it) but there was just NO mistaking that piano sound or that songs chord progression; no matter what direction it was playing. I asked, Red if I could see him for a minute. He came to my office, which doubled as the reception desk …I think truer to the case it was a reception desk that doubled as my office. Anyway, I tell him he STILL could not use that sample without first obtaining a license. He was livid and immediately started trying to deny that he was using it, but as I said, there was no mistaking it. Again! I’m not sure what he ended up doing on that song if anything, but that sample didn’t make an appearance again. But the “real” fun was yet to come.

One afternoon Red showed up alone to dump a couple more songs. Kilo was to come in later and add his vocal. I guess Mr. Money felt if he was going to get busted out on something then he didn’t want his artist there. That was fair enough. I never confronted him in front of Kilo or the posse. I would always ask him to step into my “office” when he had a chance so as to not put him or anyone else for that matter, on the spot. So he, Jimmy and myself are sitting in the control room. At this point, things between Red and us are more than a little strained to say the least. I know the label is making him work at the studio because they can control budget somewhat. He is essentially stuck with us as we are with him. Fail all the way around. However, during these situations all you really want to do is get through the sessions without incident, make everyone happy and move to the next project. Anyway, we’re transferring his songs to tape and we have all the beats down. So far so good Red. He lays down another half dozen or so parts and not a sample in the bunch. Maybe this will go smoothly after all. Uh-oh! What’s that? Damn it! Jimmy glances over at me with a “here we go again” look. He knows it’s a sample but doesn’t recognize from exactly where. With the cast of characters we had working at the studio, we covered a lot of musical territory. Rock, pop, country, jazz, R&B, classical, one of us usually could tell. This one fell more into my musical area. I looked at Jimmy, shaking my head and then at Red Money. Very calmly I said, “Red, you can not use this sample. This is a piece of Charlie Parker’s break on the song “A Night In Tunisia.” He looks back at me and has the balls to say “ No it’s not. That’s ME playing the trumpet!” I’m thinking holy fucking shit is this guy serious? He HAD to have anticipated this and rehearsed that response. Jimmy reached for a Tums. I was seriously trying to not laugh. And with a great deal of excitement in my voice (albeit sarcastically) I said, “Damn Red, if this is you playing trumpet and you play like THAT, not to mention that your trumpet playing sounds AMAZINGLY like a saxophone, then let's stop this session IMMEDIATELY! I want to call a rhythm section in and cut a record on YOU and we will ALL be famous!” He was looking really pissed now. All he could do was look at me and in that schoolyard voice kids have said, “Yeah? Well you know what?”“ That shows what you know. It’s not Charlie Parker; it’s a guy named Bird…asshole!” I nearly fell out of my chair from laughing so hard, which I’m sure infuriated him more. Finally I had to tell him that Parker’s nickname was Bird. Then I think I muttered something to the effect that, the only “bird” in the room was his brain. This of course is mumbled, due to the proximity of my face to his fist. I walked out of the control room and he walked out of the studio and never came back. I did however. Every day!

I am sure the label was not thrilled with how things went down because they obviously had to finish the last couple of songs at another studio.

In the long run though I guess Red had the last laugh. As I recall, he didn’t list any of us at the studio in the credits. Gee thanks pal!

Simply Red...In The Face

                  

So I’m hanging backstage at London’s prestigious Towne & Country theatre where we are about to do a show. Now one thing about playing with a high profile artist like Curtis Mayfield is you never know whom you will meet or what situations might arise.

On this particular night, a young guy with rather bushy red hair comes backstage and is gushing over Curtis. He is going on and on about how he grew up listening to Curtis and how he is his idol. Not a particularly unusual sight but this was a famous artist in his own right and was acting more fan than peer. The guy introduces himself and it turns out to be none other than Mick Hucknall, the lead singer for Simply Red. Curtis is very receptive as he usually is to fans and fellow artists and spends some time talking music and generally enjoying the attention and holding court, even though he has NO clue as to who Mick or his band are. They spend about 20 min or so together and then it’s time for us to get ready to hit.

Ok, I should mention that since Curtis had that brilliant falsetto, we rarely played very loud on stage. He sang so lightly that in order for the monitors to have his voice hot enough, we just kept stage volume to a minimum. We were of the mindset that we could play with a quiet intensity and let the PA do all the work for the audience. So it was not unusual to be able to verbally communicate cues or any changes to the set while we played.

During an instrumental section of a song, Curtis had walked over to me at the keyboards and leaned in and asked what was that guy’s name he met backstage and who his band was. Very slowly and articulately I said “Mick... Huck... Nall... Sim...ply... Red.”  I was sure the first several rows could read my lips enough to understand what I was saying if not even hear me!

It wasn’t often that Curtis would do this, but since the young man was such a fan and made such an effort to catch the show, Curtis steps up to the mic and announces, “Ladies and gentleman, we have a very special guest in the house tonight.” Remember Curtis is a very soft spoken, sweet man. Always has a good intention. He continues “ I am very pleased to have at the show tonight a young gentleman you all know. From the group Symphony Red, ("ohhhh shit!") Nick Huckleberry!” I was mortified but probably not as much as the crestfallen Mick. This is his idol and he knows he’s going to be introduced from stage by his idol, and he is now Nick Huckleberry from Symphony Red! The guys in our band looked at me like this is the info I gave Curtis. Probably the audience felt that way too! I’m sure I was standing there shrugging with the “it wasn’t me I swear” look on my face. (while secretly laughing too) Finally there was a burst of applause for “Nick” as I think it only took but a millisecond for the audience to decipher Curtis’ faux pas. Those Brits are smart like that! I can only imagine what Mr. Hucknall felt after that. For Curtis, it was a sincere mistake, however one that was never brought up again afterwards.