Simple Minds

SIMPLE MINDS IN THE HOUSE.
"In the house of lovers, the music never stops, the walls are made of songs & the floor dances."
Describes the atmosphere perfectly each time Simple ...Minds are on stage in their hometown. Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr said. "After a year of writing and recording, it felt great to suddenly find ourselves in front of a typically enthusiastic audience in Glasgow last Sunday night. Thanks to all for the warm welcome."

NEVER STOP
"You don't create because life is orderly. You create because it isn't. In chaotic times, the most radical thing you can do is make something." *

I'm ...thinking of that attitude borne out of 'Punk' in '76-'77. Economic collapse. Unemployment. The UK felt like it was falling apart. No future etc. And the response from a generation of kids like us? "Let's make a record. Let's start a band."
Simple Minds have never stopped making things. Through the good, the bad, the highs, the lows, we've kept going. Likewise time hasn't taken the edge off it, as plainly the desire to create through writing and recording is as strong now as ever. So too the 'live force' that carries us the moment we step on stage.
Example? A year ago this week, we played two sold-out nights at the Teatro Greco in Taormina, Sicily. One of the most extraordinary venues in the world, with numerous fans travelling from far and wide to be there, it felt like the perfect way to end a two-year world tour. But after only a couple of weeks recuperation we were back at it... Restless as ever.
First came the release of the book, Our Secrets Are The Same. Soon after that we were in the studio completing what will become our 20th album. But as rewarding as all that's been, nothing matches the anticipation of what comes next - particularly when it involves a forthcoming world tour.
More to be revealed in the weeks ahead.

Jim Kerr. Villa Angela, Taormina, Sicily

*Rainier Wylde

Photo by ToddeVision

Simple Minds are happy to announce they will headline the Closing Ceremony of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The event will take place on Sunday August 2 at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, marking ...the official end of the 11-day multi-sport event.

Ticket link in bio.

“Simple Minds just naturally had this dimension in our music.”

Experience it live when the band return to Australia and New Zealand for the V Tour 2027.

Tickets are on sale ...now.

This week in 1985, Simple Minds took to the stage at Live Aid, the landmark concert that brought the world together to help fight famine in Ethiopia.

Introduced by Jack Nicholson, the band ...performed in Philadelphia to an audience of nearly two billion television viewers across more than 150 countries.

Photo by Anton Corbijn

BRAVO NETHERLANDS: Closing in on the last leg of their Global Tour - SIMPLE MINDS headlined to 38,000 people at "BOSPOP' exactly one year ago today.

One of the Netherlands’ ...oldest and most enduring pop/rock festivals, Bospop was born in the early 1980's and is marked by a slow evolution from a tiny local event - to a major international two-day festival currently.

CHARLIE BURCHILL (pic) said. "From small club gigs, to Simple Minds at the Feyenoord Stadium, and including all in-between. The Netherlands has encouraged Simple Minds from our early beginnings. It's always a buzz to play in front of a Dutch crowd."

Happy birthday to the one and only Jim Kerr!

LET THE DAY BEGIN...
"Here's to the babies of a brand new world
Here's to the beauty of the stars
Here's to the travellers on the open road
Here's to the ...dreamers in the bars
Here's to the teachers in the crowded rooms
Here's to the workers in the fields
Here's to the preachers of the sacred word
Here's to the drivers at the wheel
Here's to you my little love
With blessings from above
Now let the day begin!"

Words : Michael Been
Image: Trent Barboza

BRAVO BELGIUM! Exactly one year ago from today, Simple Minds received an overwhelming response from the audience at Rock Wechter.

Situated in the small village of Werchter (near Leuven) and ...comparable to giant music events such as Glastonbury and Roskilde - with around 320,000-350,000 visitors over four days - the Belgian festival is easily one of the biggest and most prestigious in Europe.

image: Trent Barboza

"Stay until your love is..."

'Alive and Kicking' live from the @bbcradio2 Piano Room.

See Simple Minds headline #R2InThePark in Stirling on Sunday 13 September.

SWEET MEMORIES - ZIGGY AND SICILY.

Some dates never leave. They settle quietly, then echo for years.
On this day in 1973, David Bowie stepped onto the stage at London's Hammersmith... Odeon and ended Ziggy Stardust.
I was 13 and over excitedly in London on a school trip. Thrilled to be buying my first ever pair of platform shoes, even more so to be bound for Italy - when the news came through on radio. "David Bowie is retiring from music. He will never record or perform live again."

That's what the voice on air said. It wasn't quite true though...

Still, life mysteriously finds ways of carrying you forward. Always does. Over the next decade Bowie, forever restless, would go on to work with an endless amount of innovative collaborators while performing live repeatedly.
Likewise, a decade later, my own life was taking shape in ways I could not have previously imagined.

Alongside a few school mates, we had formed a band I had spontaneously named ‘Simple Minds’. By then five albums into our career, including New Gold Dream, we were headed towards Sicily for the first time.

On a ramshackle stage overlooking the mystical Strait of Messina on that first night, we would play beneath a jet-black sky, thick with silver stars - the kind that makes you look up and linger for entire moments. Captivated instantly. It felt as if the island of Sicily was announcing itself to me.

The very next day then brought Taormina, a name that until then meant nothing. Jeez…. I thought I knew beauty. I thought I had seen enough of the world to be unsurprised. I was wrong. The light, the stone, the volcano, the sea - I fell for it immediately.
Earlier this week, walking down from Madonna della Rocca in Taormina, I listened to Bowie’s Aladdin Sane. It brought it all back - sweet memories that never leave.

Jim Kerr. Villa Angela. Taormina. Sicily

Simple Minds’ 1985 album, Once Upon A Time, is now available to pre-order as an exclusive Blu-ray audio edition, featuring an immersive Dolby Atmos Mix by original co-producer Bob ...Clearmountain, alongside other content.
 
On release, the band’s most successful album to date sold two million copies in two months and reached No 1 in the UK and the top 10 in America. It contains the classic hit singles ‘Alive and Kicking,’ ‘All the Things She Said,’ ‘Sanctify Yourself,’ and ‘Ghost Dancing’.
 
In addition to the Atmos Mix of Once Upon A Time, this new Blu-ray edition also includes Atmos, 5.1 and stereo mixes of US No 1 single ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’, a selection of 12” remixes (stereo only) and 5.1, stereo and instrumental mixes of the album.
 
Pre-order the Blu-ray audio of Once Upon A Time exclusively via @super_deluxe_edition at the link in bio.