Simple Minds, classic or dud?

Sparkle in the rain is execrable apart from Waterfront which is one of the records from that period which tried to take on U2's bombast and actually suceeded.

Aren't they back to doing some trancey electro stuff now?

I totally disagree with Ned, "Don't You Forget About Me," while totally cheesy, is the only Simple Minds song I'd care to hear again (ok, MAYBE "Alive And Kicking" if I get to dance around Bono-style to it).

See, this is the problem, which you must overcome. ;-)

I'll defend Real Life somewhat - couple of the songs on there are OK and are mostly salvaged by Mel Gaynor's incredible drumming (he's #1 on my unheralded drummer list)

* This may not be true, but I can't prove that it's untrue either.

Definitely one of the best in my book, though choosing between it and Empires and Dance is nearly impossible.

What in tarnation?

TS: Miccio's Bono-dancing or Paul Stanley's foxy-dancing!

Andy and Ned have summed it up quite well. Most of the ideas are still present - disco punk (albeit more "30 Frames A Second" than "I Travel", crazy synths, sound collage, weird lyrics - but whereas on Empires & Dance the band focus that down to a relatively consistent thematic approach, Reel To Real is more all over the place. On the one hand, there's more "proper" punkish songs like "Citizen", "Changeling" and "Calling Your Name" (all of which put me in mind of a funkier, glammier Joy Division), and on the other there's quite a few weird but really engaging instrumentals and just totally fucked-up stuff like "Naked Eye" and "Carnival", both of which sound like the backing music for a circus organised by violently pathological schizophrenics. Also Kerr sounds like he's flipping out the entire time, whereas on E&D he sounds much more abstracted/distant.

In many ways I like the "idea" of Empires & Dance a bit more - the collision of dub, disco and punk, basically - but Reel To Real Cacophony has more killer cuts eg. the wonderful "Premonition". I love some of the really outthere stuff on E&D like "This Fear of Gods" but I'm always vaguely disappointed that there aren't more uptempo numbers like "I Travel".

Listening to the old albums this week has been a great but disorienting experience: as a kid, I always blamed SM's downfall on Jim Kerr and his pseudo-evangelical sub-Bono turn, but what's struck me is that even in the good days he was *always* a ham -- maybe more cryptic and less puffed-up, but the Euro affectations on E&D ("hey waiter, I'm first class") now seem like they're cut from the same cloth.

Which leads me to conclude that what really changed was the *music* -- and for some reason, that had never occurred to me before. Maybe because they were often so trance-y and grandiose on the good stuff, it was easy to miss the tight propulsiveness behind it... whereas "Alive and Kicking" is just shapeless, there's no rhythmic backbone holding it together at all. I seem to recall that the bass player defected to Propaganda's touring band between Sparkle and Once Upon A Time, which in retrospect makes a lot of sense (on both sides of the equation -- Propaganda had a lot of the same grandeur, but always with an eye on the dancefloor).

Is that the Kibble Palace in on the back of the sleeve to Celebration?

They could perhaps win the prize for quickest dive from heroes to arse in rock. Street Fighting Years is terrible.

I watched them for a bit at Glastonbury in '95 and it was quite funny; Jim Kerr was leaping around as if he was in front of an audience of 50,000 adoring fans, and in fact there were about 500 bored crusties.

1. Life in a Day (Burchill/Kerr) - 4:06
2. Chelsea Girl (Burchill/Kerr) - 4:34
3. Premonition (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 5:29
4. Factory (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 4:15
5. Calling Your Name (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 5:07
6. I Travel (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 4:02
7. Changeling (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 4:13
8. Celebrate (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 5:10
9. Thirty Frames a Second (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 6:54
10. Kaleidoscope (Kerr/Simple Minds) - 4:17

(Though I love both "Changeling" and "30 Frames..")

You're right, however. The earlier records are stranger, and appealingly so.

Wait that reminds me I must propose to Dan. Oh wait there's a problem there...

I'd probably have more posts than you if it weren't for Tim.

Tracer your euphamisms flow so naturally.

I know that! HMPH. I'll spare my jokes on other people!

(Baby still coming along okay?)

I cannae stand anything post-NGD. Altho, Futurama used "Dont you forget about me" to great (and sniffly) effect on one episode.

I thought “She’s a River” was an attempt to sound like Achtung Baby (or themselves, earlier), but that said, I did watch them at Glastonbury ‘95 giving it all the “Lemme see your hands in the air” to a few hundred disinterested crusties (and me).

Nothing past those is of any interest to me whatsoever. But I like All the Things She Said

Yeah i always liked that one too, there is something beautiful lurking in that song somewhere. The video is charmingly terrible, i dont know if those were state of the art special effects back then, but they always seemed to conjur up some bbc sci-fi show from several years earlier, blakes 7 or something. Jim wears a variety of different costumes, all of them awful. When i saw them live in tbis era he had tight black leggings, a huge white blouse, an embroidered waistcoat and a giant black beret bejewelled with a large green stone that looked like a fucking time crystal or something. what we he even going for? renaissance space nonce?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tytPcvyJASc

rennainonce

it absolutely looks like the intro to 1986-era Doctor Who

they all had naff retro-future clothing too

Oh yeah, "All the Things She Said" is a good song. Jim, Jim, those stripey breeks, what were you thinking?

I've seen someone else claim the Minds in 1995 were trying to do an Achtung Baby themselves, but I cannot hear that at all. They sound like Then Jericho

Or on Hypnotised (which is kinda great): INXS

I'm going to go see Derek Forbes in November. Probably Scotland's greatest ever bassist. https://www.stlukesglasgow.com/events/renegade-communications-presents-a-very-simple-mind-on-tour-derek-forbes-ex-simple-minds/

i was recently flying back to Glasgow from London and Jim Kerr was in the queue in front of me waiting to board. A man came over and said to him "You're someone famous aren't you? Where do I know your face from?" and without missing a beat Kerr replied "Crimewatch".

LOL, nice one Jim!

(xp) There is Jack Bruce to consider too.

Simple Minds did do a 'Pop', I suppose, or rather a late 90s 'electronica' album. The thing about Neapolis though is that if anything it's a roots move, where - at least in theory - they remember the band they were in the early 80s and largely forget the intervening decade and a half. Ofc it's not that simple but I do enjoy it and how it announces its 'we're no longer a stadium band oh noes' from the sleeve alone.

Also,

love a westbury post, even when their taste confounds me.

― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Thursday, 19 September 2024 14:02 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

thanks! but even Simple Minds worked hard to convince me here because ten years ago i did not get Sparkle-era SM at all. I suppose there's no real consensus.

One of my parents' first concerts together was Simple Minds at Milton Keynes, 1991, opened by the Stranglers and OMD. I've never seen a copy of Real Life in the house. How the singles go I struggle to remember. I do wonder how well all those songs, invisible on the radio in the years to come, really went down to such an enormous crowd.

Ever since I heard "New Gold Dream" I've been on this quest to find a song with that sense of openness, of possibility.

The German 12" is the one

Yep, I own the deluxe edition of the album.

The bottin edit is the one!

I went to see Derek Forbes tonight doing a Q&A and live set. He is extremely entertaining and very funny. Lots of great anecdotes. Jim Kerr's ears must have been on fire. He talked quite a lot about Propaganda too and did an absolutely note perfect impression of Claudia Brücken singing.

He then played live for an hour with a drummer (I didn't catch who they were) and keyboard player (Brian McNeil, once upon a time a member of China Crisis). They were truly excellent. Forbes sang (very well). He has still got it - his bass playing sounded incredible and I didn't miss the lack of guitar at all). He played close to my dream Simple Minds set -

Waterfront
Celebrate
Love Song
Changeling
I Travel
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
The American
Theme for Great Cities

Whoa awesome!

oh man, that sounds fantastic! was hoping you'd do a gig report - god, i would've had mad goosebumps at the opening notes of some of those songs

internet says the drummer was probably tony soave who was in the silencers (who i'm sure you already know were the band that fingerprintz turned into, that drummer wasn't in them though)

it was indeed tony soave.

and yes, several mad goosebumps moments.

Wow sounds great.

nice set

The documentary is off youtube now, is Paramount Plus really the only place its showing?

Another person uploaded it on youtube, enjoyed it. I'm still quite new to the band and kind of hoping I'll like some of the albums after the first 5.