Simply Red

Simple Minds’ tenth studio album, Good News from the Next World, was released 30 years ago today.

Recorded at the band’s own studio in Loch Earn and finished in Los Angeles, the album ...saw the band reunite with producer Keith Forsey.

“Keith is fantastic. We had always loved him. He had continued making hit records, and we thought he might open us up to more of a pop sensibility; the sacred art of the three-and-a-half-minute radio song. It didn’t work out that way, but that was the initial idea.” - Charlie

40 years ago today, Simple Minds released ‘Sanctify Yourself’ 🕊️

Listen to the 40th anniversary editions of Once Upon a Time - available on vinyl, CD, and digital at the link in bio.

LIGHT TRAVELS: SIMPLE MINDS from the album Graffiti Soul - the fifteenth studio album by Simple Minds, released in May 2009 and seen by many as part of their late career creative resurgence.
UK ...chart performance: Reached number 10 in the UK Albums Chart, their first UK Top 10 since 1995.
Writing locations included Rome, Sicily, Antwerp and Glasgow, reflecting a very mobile, on the-road writing phase.
Recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, returning there for the first time in almost three decades.
Produced by Jez Coad. Written by Sean Kelly. Mixing was handled in Los Angeles by Bob Clearmountain, with mastering by Bob Ludwig, giving the album a polished, radio ready sound.

Listen to LIGHT TRAVELS SIMPLE MINDS on Youtube

MOSCOW UNDERGROUND - SIMPLE MINDS (KERR/BURCHILL)
"Descended from a world of darkened places. Descended from a world that’s lost control
Suspended between time and fractured places, ...waiting for the fall here on my own"
(listen on youtube)

The early metro stations in Moscow were built in the 1930s–1950s as a showcase for the Soviet Union, using marble, granite, mosaics, and chandeliers rather than purely functional finishes. The idea was to create a “palace for the people”, so commuters descended each day into spaces filled with heroic imagery, classical columns, and elaborate lighting.

While the Novoslobodskaya is famous for its stained-glass panels framed in brass, depicting workers, artists, and other professions in a style reminiscent of a glowing underground gallery, Ploshchad Revolyutsii near Red Square is lined with 72 life-sized bronze statues of soldiers, workers, students, and animals; locals are known to often rub the noses of the bronze dogs for good luck!

Pic: davidburdeny.com

This month in 1984, ‘Speed Your Love To Me’ was released as the second single from Sparkle in the Rain, with backing vocals provided by the brilliant Kirsty MacColl.

“I wrote ‘Changeling’ on the guitar: a picking riff at the front, and a sequence heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones in the verses. That was almost a proper song, and it became quite ...popular in the incipient New Romantic clubs in London.” - Charlie

Released as the lone single from Real To Real Cacophony this month in 1980.

SATELLITE OF LOVE: Forty-eight years ago today, on January 17, 1978, Simple Minds made their live debut at Glasgow’s Satellite City. Supporting the reggae headliners Steel Pulse, the original ...lineup—Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Brian McGee, Tony Donald, and Duncan Barnwell—delivered a lean, high-impact, minimal set.

The performance opened with 'Act of Love' and closed with 'Pleasantly Disturbed' flanking another Burchill/Kerr original 'Wasteland.' They also paid homage to their influences with a cover of Lou Reed’s "White Light/White Heat" and revisited their roots with "Pablo Picasso" by Johnny & The Self Abusers.

With a ticket price of £1:50, their debut success sparked a rapid ascent. With the same band line-up in place, Simple Minds soon secured further dates at The Third Eye Centre (see pic) and established legendary residencies at Glasgow’s Doune Castle and Mars Bar.

It was during these pub gigs that future Burchill/Kerr staples like 'Tonight,' 'Take Me to the Angels,' 'Caught in a Dream,' and "Chelsea Girl" began to form the backbone of their evolving live sound.

Pic: Peter McArthur

This month in 1995, Simple Minds released ‘She’s A River’ as the lead single from Good News from the Next World, reuniting with producer Keith Forsey for the first time since ‘Don’t You ...(Forget About Me)’.

This week in 1978, Simple Minds took the stage for the very first time at Satellite City in Glasgow. If you still have ticket stubs or photos from those early days, share them and tag us for a chance... to be featured on the band’s official channels 📸

Photos by Laurie Evans

The Southside Sanctuary: Where Simple Minds Began

When people discuss the embryonic beginnings of bands, they usually conjure the same cliché images: damp basements, dingy strip-lit ...rehearsal rooms etc. Those cold, concrete spaces would eventually come for Simple Minds—but that was all in the future. The original fuse had been lit much earlier, in a very different kind of room.

Surrounded by the gatefold sleeves of Roxy Music, The Doors, the New York Dolls, and David Bowie, the first seeds of the band were sown in Charlie Burchill’s bedroom in the southside of Glasgow. While the rest of the house moved to the domestic rhythm of a busy Burchill family—kettles whistling, doors clattering, the sound of chatter from adjoining rooms—Charlie and I were immune to it all, while hunched over guitars and scraps of paper, determinedly stitching together our first songs.

We had nothing then but borrowed records and cheap instruments. There was no recording equipment and no one else with us. Much like Morrisey and Marr, Robert Smith, Kate Bush, and many others, all of whom began building 'their universes' from inside tiny bedrooms - the feeling that something was taking root was undeniable.

Every time I had made my way to Charlie’s—two or three nights a week—he had something new waiting: a half-formed riff or a strange chord sequence he’d been turning over in his head. Each visit felt like turning a fresh page in a story we didn’t yet realize we were writing.

Fifty years later, we are still here and still writing songs. Our band, Simple Minds, remains still at the very core of who we are.

Jim Kerr

Pic. Charlie Burchill 1979: Paul Forrester

BRAVO BILLY! Billy Sloan went out in a blaze of glory last night, sounding every bit as vibrant as he did on his BBC Radio Scotland debut eleven years ago. To many, the station’s decision to end ...his run feels like a spectacular own goal. To me? I’ve a feeling we’ll hear his voice presenting again before long. Think, blink of an eye!

The highlight was the inclusion of The Velvet Underground’s What Goes On in last night’s playlist — instantly transporting me back to a Thursday evening in October 1979 listening to The Billy Sloan Show - back then on Radio Clyde.

There I was, sitting in a traffic jam, frustration rising, when that very song came blasting out of the car radio in its live version. Within seconds, my mood flipped from weary to elated. For all I know, that might have been the only time that gem ever surfaced on mainstream radio — until once again, last night. If Lou Reed was looking down, he’d have been smiling. Grateful too, like all of us who’ve benefited from Billy’s endless encouragement and support.

It always makes me wince, even if meant kindly, when Billy is described as Scotland’s very own John Peel.
Sloan’s taste and never-ending enthusiasm for all the good stuff in life, plus his instinct for the human connection makes him utterly his own — as unique and enduring as the glowing signage of Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom - his reputation today, like those famous lights, shining just as bright.

Jim Kerr

Search: The Velvet Underground - What Goes On (Live At The Matrix)