Simple Minds

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Simple Minds

Background information
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genre(s)	Rock, New Wave
Years active	1978 to present
Label(s)	Sanctuary

Simple Minds is a rock band from Scotland, which had its greatest worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s. The band, from Glasgow's Southside, produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s, and later went on to produce some politically inspired and critically praised work.

Simple Minds has had a string of successful hit singles over the years, and the band is known for its number-one worldwide smash, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", from the soundtrack of the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club.

Founding members Jim Kerr (vocals) and Charlie Burchill (guitar), along with drummer Mel Gaynor, are the core of the band, which currently features Mark Taylor on keyboards and Eddie Duffy on bass guitar.

1 History
2 Personnel
3 Discography
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Life in a Day

Charlie Burchill and Jim Kerr formed a punk band in 1977 that was heavily influenced by Lou Reed, and after one unsuccessful single as Johnny & The Self Abusers, they shuffled the line-up to include former Abusers Brian McGee on drums and Tony Donald on bass guitar, the latter of whom was quickly replaced by Derek Forbes. In addition, keyboard and synthesizer player Mick MacNeil was also recruited. The band's name was changed to "Simple Minds", which was taken from a line in the David Bowie song "Jean Genie": "...so simple-minded, he can't drive his module."

Simple Minds' commercial first album, Life in a Day, took a cue from fellow Post-Punk forebearers Magazine, and was somewhat self-consciously derivative of the late-70s punk boom, with AOR crossover potential alike that of The Cars. Life in a Day was exactly the kind of item the band's label, Arista, wanted to promote. However, expectations for follow-up "Lives in a Day" were to be disappointed.

[edit] New Wave experimentation

While still categorisable as 'rock', Simple Minds' second release, Real to Real Cacophony, had a darker edge, and announced some of the New Wave experimentation that would become the band’s trademark sound over the next two albums. These innovations included the occasional use of unconventional time signatures, and minimal structures based around the rhythm section of Forbes and McGee.

The next album, Empires and Dance, was a far more radical departure, and signaled the influence of Kraftwerk, Neu! and similar European artists. Indeed, during this period Simple Minds promoted themselves as a European band, not a Scottish or UK band. Many of the tracks on Empires and Dance are extremely minimal, and feature sequenced keyboards. McNeil's keyboards and Forbes' bass became the main melodic elements, and Burchill's guitar was heavily processed. With this album, Kerr began to experiment with non-narrative lyrics. While not consciously so, Empires and Dance was essentially Industrial in its aesthetic, and preceded by a couple of years the Industrial-pop crossover of Cabaret Voltaire's album The Crackdown. The band's label, however, demonstrated little enthusiasm for such experimentation, and in 1981 Simple Minds switched from Arista to Virgin.

Simple Minds' first release on Virgin was actually comprised of two albums--the Steve Hillage-produced Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call. The latter album was initially included as a bonus disc with the first 10,000 vinyl copies of Sons And Fascination, but it was later re-issued as a separate album in its own right. (For the CD release, it was paired on a single disc with Sons And Fascination--at first with two tracks deleted, but on later issues, in full.) Sons and Fascination perfected the formula that began with Empires and Dance, and showcases the band’s musicianship during their most prolific period. Indeed, the band’s musical virtuosity set their orientation somewhat toward the realm of Progressive rock, and distanced them from the flippancy of many other New Wave musicians. The album impressed Peter Gabriel enough that he selected Simple Minds as the opening act on several European dates, which increased the band's visibility. "Love Song" was an international hit (Top 20 in Australia), and the instrumental "Theme For Great Cities" proved so enduring a composition that it was later re-recorded in 1991 as a B-side to the single "See the Lights". These minimalist, dance-oriented compositions--like those of Neu! before them--were examples of Man-made Trance well before Trance itself.

[edit] The "New Romantics"

New Gold Dream (1982)

Simple Minds' sixth studio album, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), released in 1982, was a significant turning point for the band. With a slick, sophisticated sound thanks to producer Peter Walsh, Simple Minds were soon categorised as part of the New Romantic outgrowth of New Wave (along with Duran Duran and others), and the record generated a handful of charting singles including "Promised You a Miracle" and "Glittering Prize", which both hit the UK Top 20 and Australian Top 10, continuing the band's early success in that latter region. In addition, jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock performed a synth solo on the track "Hunter and the Hunted."

Despite the success of the album, some early Simple Minds fans criticized the band's more commercial orientation. While some tracks ("Promised You a Miracle", "Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel") continued the formula perfected on Sons and Fascination, other tracks ("Someone Somewhere in Summertime", "Glittering Prize") were undisguised pop. The album's direction no doubt was influenced by the departure of drummer Brian McGee, who had tired of touring. The album features three different drummers, Kenny Hyslop, Mike Ogletree, and Mel Gaynor, who would thereafter become the permanent drummer.

Soon after leaving Simple Minds, McGee joined the synthfunk Endgames, considered at the time to be a supergroup due to the pedigree of its founding personnel, which included former Berlin Blondes bassist David Rudden on lead vocals and bass and ex-Zones leader Willie Gardner as guitarist and backup vocalist. Endgames would end up releasing its most successful album (1982's Building Beauty) and doing its second Peel Session with McGee as their drummer.

The formula that had defined Simple Minds' New Wave period had run its course, and the next record, Sparkle in the Rain, was a complete departure.

Sparkle in the Rain (1983)

Produced by Steve Lillywhite, who also produced U2's first three records, Sparkle in the Rain is an aggressive, rock-oriented album in much the same vein as U2's War. Some long-time fans along with a number of music critics accused Simple Minds of brazenly stealing their new sound from the Irish foursome--a curious assertion, given that U2 frontman Bono was quoted in the official Simple Minds biography The Race is the Prize as saying the "glorious noise" sound and feeling achieved on the Simple Minds album was one to which his band aspired. It may be more accurate to characterize this period as one in which both bands were mutual admirers. The eventual result of this shift in musical direction gave rise to hugely successful singles like "Waterfront", which hit number one in a few European countries and remains one of the band's signature songs to this day, as well as "Speed Your Love to Me" and "Up on the Catwalk."

[edit] 1985-1986: The Breakfast Club and worldwide success

Once Upon a Time (1985)

Despite the band's newfound popularity in the UK and Europe, Simple Minds remained essentially unknown in the US. The movie The Breakfast Club changed all that. Released in early 1985, this Brat Pack drama from writer/director John Hughes was a box-office smash and made household names of many of its young stars, including Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez. It also broke Simple Minds into the US market almost overnight, when the band achieved their only number-one US pop hit with the film's opening track, "Don't You (Forget About Me)". Ironically, the song wasn't even written by the band, but by Keith Forsey, who offered the song to Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry before Simple Minds agreed to record it. The song soon became a chart-topper in many other countries around the world.

Taking advantage of their newfound popularity, Simple Minds released their most unashamedly commercial record, Once Upon a Time, which was tailored specifically to appeal to the stadium-rock sensibilities of American audiences. Reviled by some long-time fans yet embraced by millions of new listeners and critically well-received, the record reached number one in the UK and number ten in the US, even though "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was not included. The band made it clear in interviews prior to the album's release that they would not include the song, believing that it would devalue the rest of the album, which they felt could stand on its own merits.

Once Upon a Time would go on to generate four worldwide hit singles: "Alive & Kicking", "Sanctify Yourself", "Ghostdancing" and "All The Things She Said", the latter of which featured a cutting-edge music video directed by Zbigniew Rybczyński that used techniques later employed in music videos for Pet Shop Boys and Art of Noise. Because of Simple Minds' powerful stage presence and lyrics that trafficked in Christian symbolism, the band was once again criticized by some in the music press as a lesser version of U2, despite the fact that both bands were now heading in different musical directions. However, the two groups were well-acquainted with one another, and Bono joined Simple Minds onstage at the Barrowlands in Glasgow in 1985 for a live version of "New Gold Dream." For Once Upon A Time and its subsequent world tour, the band also featured Robin Clarke as an additional lead singer, and she was heavily featured in Simple Minds' music videos at this time as well.

[edit] The late 1980s: political activism

To document their successful worldwide Once Upon a Time tour, Simple Minds released the double-live set Live In The City of Light in 1987, which was recorded primarily over two nights in Paris in 1986. Following the lead of other socially conscious bands, including U2, Simple Minds' tour promoted the work of Amnesty International.

Inspired by Peter Gabriel, with whom they toured in the early 1980s, Simple Minds headlined a series of concerts throughout the US and Europe in 1988 with numerous other politically minded artists (including Gabriel) known as "Freedomfest," designed to highlight the evils of apartheid in South Africa. The band wrote the song, "Mandela Day", specifically for this series of concerts, and the song would appear on their next album.

Street Fighting Years (1989)

After this lengthy period of touring, Simple Minds finally went back into the studio and recorded the politically charged and distinctly radio-unfriendly Street Fighting Years, which was released in 1989. Ironically, the first single from the record, the six-minute opus "Belfast Child" based on the traditional Celtic folk song, "She Moved Through the Fair" was the band's first and only number-one hit single in the UK. The album shot straight to number one and received glowing praise, including a rare five-star review from Q Magazine. However, in the US, it was another story entirely. Street Fighting Years received a scathing review in Rolling Stone, which blasted the band for the positive lyrical refrain in "Mandela Day", which proclaimed "Mandela's free, Mandela's free," even while Nelson Mandela was still in prison in South Africa (The song ultimately proved prophetic, as within a year, Mandela was released from prison and apartheid was dismantled soon afterwards). "This is Your Land" was chosen as the leadoff single for the US, and even with guest vocals from the band's idol Lou Reed, the single failed to make a mark on the pop charts. Then, after a concert in Brisbane, Australia in late 1989, keyboardist Mick MacNeil quit the band, citing health concerns. That year also marked the first and only time the group headlined Wembley Stadium solo, [1] where they were supported by fellow Scottish bands The Silencers and Texas.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The 1990s: decline and reinvention

Real Life (1991)

In 1991, Simple Minds returned with a much more radio-friendly collection of their political concerns, Real Life, which was critically well-received on both sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, Real Life had the misfortune of being released in the same year that grunge broke through to the mainstream. Nirvana was now the band of the moment, and even U2 radically changed their musical direction with Achtung Baby. Unfortunately, the highly-polished pop/rock of Simple Minds was now considered passé by most of the record-buying public. As a result, "See the Lights" would be the band's last Top 40 pop single in the US.

Good News from the Next World (1995).

As the 1990s progressed, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill became the only active members of Simple Minds, so the duo decided to go back to what made them popular ten years prior as a way to spark new interest in their music and prove that Simple Minds was still relevant. The band hired Keith Forsey, the force behind "Don't You (Forget About Me)", to produce their next record, which returned to the uplifting arena rock of their Once Upon a Time days. Echoing that period, Kerr grew his hair long once again, and the band released Good News from the Next World in 1995 to good reviews but weak sales, at least in the US. In the UK and Europe, however, the response was much more positive, with the album generating the two pop hits "She's a River" and "Hypnotised."

Three years later, after being released from their contract with Virgin Records, Simple Minds decided to musically reinvent themselves once again, this time reaching back to their Kraftwerk-inspired, early electronic pop days. Derek Forbes returned after a 16-year absence along with drummer Mel Gaynor, who became a full-time member from this point forward, and the resulting album, Neapolis, was an interesting if uneven work, which charted poorly and received mixed reviews. However, it is notable for being the only Simple Minds album released by Chrysalis Records, who refused to release the album in the US, citing lack of interest. As a further nod to Simple Minds' European musical heritage, the music video for "Glitterball," the album's leadoff single, was the first production of any kind to film at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Neapolis (1998)

After the disappointing reaction to Neapolis, things became even more challenging for the band. In 2000, Simple Minds' next studio effort, Our Secrets Are The Same, originally slated for release in late 1999, became mired in lawsuits when EMI declined to release it, and became further compromised after it was leaked onto the internet. As a stop-gap measure, and as a way to acknowledge their musical debt to artists that inspired the band in its early days, Simple Minds released the cover album Neon Lights in 2001, featuring the band's reinvention of songs from artists as varied as Patti Smith, Joy Division and Kraftwerk. However, music critics wondered if this was the last gasp from a band that had run out of ideas. A 2-CD compilation "The Best Of Simple Minds" was released soon after, and this at least repaired some of the damage that the largely unacclaimed Neon Lights' had caused.

[edit] The 2000s: creative rebirth

Cry (2002)

Simple Minds forcefully countered that concern in 2002 with the oddly-titled Cry, featuring arguably some of the band's strongest work in more than a decade. For the first time, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill turned to outside writers for a number of tracks, and the heavily keyboard-driven album won generally favorable reviews. Although the album didn't sell in great numbers in the US, Simple Minds felt confident enough to mount a North American leg of their Floating World Tour (named after the instrumental track which closes Cry), their first in seven years. Although the venues were small compared to the larger venues they consistently sold out in Europe, the concerts were well-attended by passionate, long-time Simple Minds fans, many of whom brought their teenage children along with them. In a nod to the recent influence of trance and techno music, the band used those stylings to update their very early tracks, including "New Gold Dream," "The American," and "I Travel," the latter of which had not been performed live for several years.

Our Secrets are the Same (2004)

Finally, in 2004, Our Secrets Are The Same was remastered and mixed by Simon Heyworth as the final disc in a five-CD compilation entitled Silver Box, composed mostly of previously unreleased demos, radio & TV sessions and various live recordings from 1979 to 1995.

Black & White 050505 (2005).

Simple Minds' latest album, Black & White 050505, released in late 2005, was previewed on the band's official website for several weeks prior to its release, then later toured throughout Europe, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand to support the album in the first three quarters of 2006. Although Black & White 050505 generated some of the most positive reviews for a Simple Minds record in many years, and the first single, "Home," received airplay on alternative rock radio stations in the US, the album did not make a significant impact on either side of the Atlantic, and as of early 2007, has still not been officially released in North America.

Technically 2007 sees the band's 30th Anniversary, however so far only a short tour of Australia & New Zealand is going ahead, as guests of INXS, while Burchill & Kerr will perform a set at the forthcoming 40th Anniversary Tribute to Glasgow Celtic's famous Lisbon Lions European Cup winning team.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Current line-up

Jim Kerr - Vocals
Charlie Burchill - Guitars, keyboards
Mel Gaynor - Drums
Eddie Duffy - Bass guitar

[edit] Additional members

Mark Taylor - Keyboards
Andy Gillespie - Keyboards & Programming (studio based)

[edit] Former members

Tony Donald - Bass guitar (1977-1978)
Derek Forbes - Bass guitar (1978-1983 & 1997-1998)
John Giblin - Bass guitar (1985-1988)
Malcolm Foster - Bass guitar (1989-1995)
Robin Clarke - Vocalist (1985-1986)
John Milarky - Guitars, vocals, saxophone (1977)
Alan MacNeil - Guitars (1977)
Duncan Barnwell - Guitars (1978)
Brian McGee - Drums (1977-1981)
Kenny Hyslop - Drums (1981-1982)
Mike Ogletree - Drums (1982)
Mark Schulman - Drums (1994-1995)
Jim McDermott (formerly of Kevin McDermott Orchestra) - Drums (1997)
Michael MacNeil - Keyboards (1978-1989)

[edit] Discography

Please see the Simple Minds discography for listings.

[edit] External links

Simple Minds

Jim Kerr | Charlie Burchill

Mel Gaynor | Andy Gillespie | Eddie Duffy

Discography

Albums (mk.1): Life in a Day | Real to Real Cacophony | Empires and Dance | Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call

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