Simple Minds performed at Carré Amsterdam in 2017. At the last minute, I decided to buy a ticket and I have never regretted it for a second. I thought the magic might have faded a bit, but nothing could be further from the truth; Alive and Kicking!
About Simple Minds
Simple Minds is a Scottish band that scored several big hits in the 1980s, including 'Alive And Kicking', 'Sanctify Yourself', 'All The Things She Said' and 'This Is Your Land'. Simple Minds reached number one twice in the Netherlands, with 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' and 'Belfast Child'. They recorded the song 'This is your land' with Lou Reed. When it comes to an artist whose entire discography is impossible to cover without writing a lengthy article, Lou Reed is certainly one of them.
Ian Cranna
The young men recorded a demo, which was quickly noticed by Ian Cranna, a journalist for NME. This brought Simple Minds a lot of media attention and they were soon regarded as one of the hottest new bands from Scotland. Simple Minds signed a contract with Zoom Records, which is part of Arista.
Albums
Kerr and Burchill are fans of 1970s glam rock and German avant-garde. This is clearly audible on their debut album Life In A Day from 1979 and its follow-up Real To Real Cacophony. Neither album was a commercial success, but both established the band's name. It was only on their third album, Empires And Dance, released in 1980, that the band developed their own sound: a combination of symphonic music and a strong dance beat. Early signs of a leaning towards mysticism and Scottish identity were also evident. The single ‘I Travel’ became a hit in the club circuit. In 1981, the band switched from Arista to Virgin Records and began working with producer Steve Hillage. This resulted in Sons And Fascination and Sister Feelings Call, which were released together.
Definitive breakthrough
The definitive breakthrough for Simple Minds came with the single ‘Promised You a Miracle’ from the atmospheric album New Gold Dream in 1982. The song was a big hit and marked the band's transition from cult band to crowd favourite. A period of extensive touring followed, including as the support act for The Pretenders, laying the foundation for their breakthrough in the United States. With producer Steve Lillywhite, the band recorded their sixth album a year later, titled Sparkle In The Rain, featuring the hits ‘Waterfront’ and ‘Speed Your Love To Me’.
Don't You (Forget About Me)
The worldwide breakthrough finally came in 1985 with the single ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. The song, written by Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff, was part of the soundtrack of the hugely popular youth film The Breakfast Club. It was a major international hit and also reached number one in the Netherlands. The band's performance at the legendary Live Aid Concert is widely regarded as one of the highlights.
Once Upon A Time
The album Once Upon A Time was a huge success and the singles ‘Sanctify Yourself’, ‘Alive and Kicking’ and ‘All The Things She Said’ were big hits in the Netherlands. The world tour that followed was documented on the double live album Live In The City Of Lights, after which Kerr took a reflective break.
Belfast Child
Simple Minds were still seen at the Nelson Mandela tribute in London in 1988. Eventually, only Burchill, Kerr and MacNeil remained, but the band made a strong comeback with the calm and controversial ‘Belfast Child’. It was the precursor to the album Streetfighting Years, produced by Trevor Horn (among others Seal).
Gold in the Netherlands
Then MacNeil also left the band, leaving Simple Minds as just the duo of friends Kerr and Burchill, supplemented by session musicians. In 1991, Real Life was released. The album was not well received by the press, but went gold in the Netherlands within a week and produced the hit ‘Let There Be Love’.
Fortunately, the men still don’t know how to stop! In October 2022, the album Direction of the Heart was released by BMG. Most of the songs on this album were written in Sicily (where both Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill live). Because the group could not travel to the UK due to COVID-19 quarantine rules, the album was recorded at Chameleon Studios in Hamburg. The first single was Vision Thing.
Top 2000
In the 23rd edition of the Top 2000, Simple Minds are featured with the following entries:
Sunday Morning Classic
On 15 March 2020, the album "New Gold Dream" was spinning on our turntable during Sunday Morning Classics. A tribute to one of the most beautiful albums ever made.
Hadn’t we secretly had enough of all that gloomy new wave? Weren’t the last records by The Cure and Echo & The Bunnymen just too dutiful repetitions of dreariness? Secretly, we thought so and longed for a new sound. The shutters could be opened, time for some sunshine. That came on 2 April 1982, a new spring, a new sound. Sparkling synths, a bassline that didn’t pound you into the ground but rather lifted you up, and a singer who didn’t wallow in cynicism and nihilism but was enthusiastic. ‘Belief is a beauty thing’, sang Jim Kerr in the second line of this Promised You a Miracle. Dare to dream the impossible, that was Kerr’s message: ‘Everything is possible.’ It took some getting used to, both the sound and the message. So much optimism in the lyrics and a euphoric sound that immediately pushed you onto the dance floor.
Simple Minds had found their new sound on the New York dance floor, Kerr would later say. It was provided by a temporary drummer, Kenny Hyslop. As always, Kerr wrote the lyrics only after the instrumental track was finished. He recognised the positive message in the film Fitzcarraldo (1982) by Werner Herzog, in which Klaus Kinski wants to realise his dream of building an opera house in the jungle. ‘Only dreamers can move mountains’ is also the underlying idea of Kerr in the songs he would later write for the album New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), which was released in September 1982.
The positivity radiates from the songs, not only in Kerr’s lyrics, where it is always summer, a ‘brilliant time’ in which all the dark years are definitively left behind, but also in the music. The synths sound light, almost ethereal, but the rhythm section emphatically does its job to really stir things up. New Gold Dream, as the album came to be called, without the four years that symbolised present, past and future, continues the tone set six months earlier by Promised You a Miracle: there would be a reckoning with gloom, cynicism and pessimism in pop music.
Thinking back to the spring and summer of forty years ago, I still see sun and colours, whereas the years 1980 and 1981 mainly evoke black-and-white images. The shutters were thrown open by Simple Minds. Thanks to Promised You a Miracle, post-punk gained colour and transformed into what the British called New Pop.
source: Wikipedia, NPO and Volkskrant photo: Sven Mandel and Stefan Brending
