Derek Forbes

Derek Forbes (born 22 June 1956, Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish bassist, vocalist, and sometime guitarist, best known for his work with the Scottish band Simple Minds, which he joined in 1978, and recorded on their early demos and 1979 debut album, Life in a Day until shortly after their 1985 hit, "Don't You (Forget About Me)").

He was dismissed from the band, apparently due to petty jealousy, as cited by Jim Kerr, who stated that it was a regrettable mistake, prior to the release of the global success of Once Upon a Time. Forbes has claimed that he wrote on 60% of the album, yet remained uncredited. Assuming he would quickly be asked to re-join the band, no legal action was taken. Forbes reunited with the band for a three-year period, before and during the recording of Néapolis from 1995-1998 and, along with Mel Gaynor, were to find out a few days before the Kosovo show at Glasgow's SECC, that they both weren't included, much to the confusion of the fans, as they had been told that both Forbes and Gaynor were not available to play, but were onstage directly before the Minds went on. Forbes states that he has never left the band, and Forbes has cited that he wasn't happy with the final mix of the album. Forbes and Mel Gaynor appeared at the Scotland Rocks for Kosova in 1999 performing Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", whilst Simple Minds also appeared on the bill with Mark Kerr on drums and Eddie Duffy on bass.

After Simple Minds, Forbes went on to play in number of other bands, including Propaganda (Germany) and Oblivion Dust (Japan). He also played in Fourgoodmen, a Scottish supergroup, between 2005-2007 and formed XSM, who were originally to consist of Forbes, MacNeil and McGee from the original Simple Minds line up. XSM recorded an albums worth of tracks, but Mick MacNeil didn't want to play 'Live', so Forbes and McGee took the band out, along with 'one Hit Wonder' Owen Paul (McGee), sibling of Brian McGee. The guitar and keyboard player roles were twofold, with Steven Curley (version 1) on guitar, followed by Ant Seaman guitar (version 2) and Gary O'Hagan keyboards (version 1) and Andy Gall keyboards (version 2).

Forbes was voted 'Best Bass Player in the World' in 1982, and 'Best International Bass Player' in a music poll in Australia, the same year. Forbes was also voted 'Best Bass Player in UK'. Forbes is highly respected by his peers and fellow musicians, including Adam Clayton, Peter Hook, Nicky Wire, Tony Butler, Pino Palladino, JJ Burnell, Bruce Foxton, John Giblin and Malcolm Foster.

In 2009, Forbes was voted 'Scotland's Greatest Ever Bassist' by the readers of Dear Scotland,^[1] and his life and work is the subject of a biography in both print and film by writer/director Ethan Dettenmaier.

Forbes had his own Hollywood radio show on LA Talk Radio for two years, before joining Big Country which, stopped production of his show 'May the Forbes Be With You'.

Forbes was a featured extra in the film 'This Is Not A Love Song'.

Forbes was the bass player with Scottish band Big Country, replacing the longstanding Tony Butler who retired from the band, but left the band in 2015.

Freemasonry

Forbes, along with Simple Minds colleague Mel Gaynor is a Freemason and both are members of Lodge Shalom 1600 on the Roll of The Grand Lodge of Scotland.^[2][3]

Discography

On 22 June 2016 Derek Forbes released a solo album titled "Echoes", which contains 11 songs he composed with the Simple Minds in the early years and re-recorded as the only musician involved in this project.

References

External links

• Official Blogspot
• Official Myspace
• Fourgoodmen Myspace
• Vigier Basses
• A special "Synthesize Me" interview with Derek Forbes 19/6/16