Hue & Cry: Greg Kane talks to Mill’s Robert Blair

Four decades into their career, Hue & Cry remain as eager to get out there as ever. Set to perform at Paisley Town Hall in October, Greg Kane talks to Mill about the band’s longevity, new music and more 

Retaining the audience’s love and attention in an unrelentingly cruel industry is no easy feat. Over the decades, we’ve all seen countless one hit wonders, as well as talented artists whose potential was subsumed by the demons all too readily presented by the music business. 

However, when it comes to Pat and Greg Kane of Hue & Cry, the sibling duo have not only become mainstays in hearts, charts and venues across the country, but have never lost their passion for a second. 

In fact, during his interview with Mill, Greg informs us that they’ve been working on a new “electro-pop” album since 2018 that is just about ready to emerge.

“This album has been through the wars as there were a lot of things happening in our personal lives, so it’s going to be great to get it out,” he divulges. “We’ve been playing some of the tracks live and they’ve been going down really well. I think the hardcore Hue & Cry fan is dying to hear new music.

“We’ve had our own studio here for ten, twelve years, so it’s no skin off our backs to record a new album. In fact, this will be our fifteenth over the span of 40 years, so it’s pretty good going. Pat and I just like it, we enjoy locking ourselves in a room and making something out of nothing.

• Tots United: starting them young in Renfrewshire
• Go West: Peter Cox talks to Mill Magazine
• Blend Coffee Lounge returns to Paisley

“That’s been the fun part, but it doesn’t get much better than taking it out to an audience that’s never heard it before. Watching their reactions is the whole point and if you can connect with them, whether it’s a love song or a political one, that’s what it’s all about.

“We like to write about people being in dilemmas and how they deal with it, but there’s not a song on this new album under 120bpm!” 

Where other artists of their age are perhaps disgruntled by the state of the industry or deterred by the downturn in revenue from sales, this seems immaterial to Greg. In truth, he has no intentions of ever downing tools 

“We’re at an age where a lot of people we know see retirement as the goal and they’re saving up enough money to reach that point,” Greg reflects. “For us, we don’t want to retire. What would I do? I’m not going to do the garden! I’ve got two friends who have just retired and they’re so bored. I’m like, ‘you can’t just wander about Glasgow going to the pub’.”

Possessing songs that transcends the era that spawned them, Greg speaks of his joy of his seeing people of all ages come to the shows. However, what he really relishes is the chance to hear how these tracks have infiltrated lives. 

“The younger generation is coming through where it’s the kids of people who’d played Hue & Cry in the car for years. We get all these life stories because I always try to go out and talk to audiences after gigs.

“Pat can’t really do that because he has to watch his voice and if he picks up a bug, it’s a nightmare. People think lead singers are up their own arse, but they need to lead a kind of monastic life so that we don’t have to cancel things if he gets ill.

“Anyway, we hear about births, deaths, marriages, divorces and everything else, you could spend hours hearing these things. 

“When we were at one of the retro fests, a copper came to the back and he shouted at me,” Greg recalls. “I went over and he recited one of the lyrics and he started to cry. It took me aback as he was this big guy, but he said ‘your music meant so much to me when I was growing up’.

“We played Cardiff recently and the front row was all grown men crying while their wives were at the bar (laughs). 

“You quickly learn the responsibility you’ve got,” Greg affirms. “So, come and see me after the show and tell me your story because I love it and I relay them all to Pat the next day in the van.” 

It’s evident that as long as there’s an audience out there, Pat and Greg will be there to entertainment them and fresh from gigs in Newcastle, Milton Keynes and Worthing, Greg is relieved to see that the live music industry – which faced an uncertain fate in the wake of the pandemic– is flourishing once more. 

“The gigs are getting busier. We used to play this pub in Chester and now, we’re doing this courtyard down there which has double the capacity. Even at a band of our level, you can see it happening and I think the whole AI online world is nothing but good for live music as people are saying ‘bugger that’, I want to go and see something real. 

“We do love doing the retro festivals, we generally play about a dozen of them a year. It’s led us to get really friendly with Nik Kershaw and I’m also very fond of Roland Gift [from Fine Young Cannibals]. Tony Hadley is a f*****g scream too. So, we can do all the classics but it’s great to hear the new stuff and long may it continue.”

Alongside the new album, the duo have been delving into their back catalogue with their ongoing EP series in celebration of their 40th anniversary. Born after Greg “bought a cassette deck from eBay, went through everything and found 150 unreleased tracks”, the result was a documentary that came out every month alongside 15 minute documentaries on YouTube too. 

Away from the retrospectives, the band are set to take to Paisley Town Hall and considering they have a longstanding relationship with Renfrewshire’s biggest town, it’s a show they’re very much looking forward to. 

“See if you get lost in Paisley, you quickly realise it’s quite a grand place,” Greg suggests. “When you drive in and you glance over the river before you get to the abbey and the town hall, it’s an amazing view. The place has always meant a lot to us.

“Obviously there’s the song Looking for Linda with the ‘is this one for Paisley?’ line but we’ve been to the town hall to see shows and perform there. I went to see Go West there recently as I’ve known them for years, they were amazing.” 

Energised and optimistic about the future, Greg and Pat are enthused about both performing and making music as ever. As to how they’ve accomplished this, it’s because the reasons why they got into it were never warped or misaligned by fame or fortune. Instead, it’s always been about the music. 

“Pat and I were never prepared to compromise,” he declares. “The whole thing was to write some songs with your brother and perform them to people and that’s what we’ve done. I’ve been rich, I’ve been poor, but we always seem to make a living out of it. It’s about that for a lot of people, but it’s never been like that for us.” 

Hue & Cry will play Paisley Town Hall on Saturday 11th October 2025 with tickets available now at OneRen’s website.