{"id":966,"date":"2025-05-14T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/simple-minds-is-alive-and-kicking\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T15:00:00","slug":"simple-minds-is-alive-and-kicking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/simple-minds-is-alive-and-kicking\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Simple Minds is Alive and Kicking"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2149449389.jpg\" width=\"1290\" height=\"860\" alt=\"Simple Minds performs at Forum of Assago on April 20, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Credit: Sergione Infuso\/Corbis via Getty Images)\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>When I am introduced to Charlie Burchill, Simple Minds\u2019 guitarist,<\/strong> the first thing he asks me is, \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d It\u2019s a complicated question for me to answer, but it doesn\u2019t surprise me that he\u2019s curious about it. In an early scene of the Simple Minds documentary, <em>Simple Minds: Everything is Possible<\/em> (viewable in BBC iPlayer and receiving its theatrical release on June 13), Charlie\u2019s musical other half, the group\u2019s vocalist, Jim Kerr, is in a library in their hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. Jim shares how he was encouraged by his father to read, and how invariably, his choices veered toward titles that were about traveling to foreign lands.<\/p>\n<p>A few minutes later, when I am introduced to Jim, he also immediately asks me where I am from. I proceed to give my complicated response, the middle part of which involves the years I lived in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. I leave out Simple Minds\u2019 lifesaving impact on me during that time, which still continues. We have to know each other a little better before that reveal.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/oasis-reunion-no-album\/\">Manager: No New Oasis Album Amid Reunion Tour<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/reznor-ross-future-ruins-festival\/\">Reznor, Ross Celebrate Film\/TV Score Favs With Future Ruins Fest<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/wilco-celebrates-mothers-day-in-chattanooga-tennessee\/\">Wilco Celebrates Mother\u2019s Day in Chattanooga, Tennessee<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1151\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/SimpleMinds-byDean-Chalkley.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/SimpleMinds-byDean-Chalkley.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/SimpleMinds-byDean-Chalkley-340x326.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/SimpleMinds-byDean-Chalkley-768x737.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/SimpleMinds-byDean-Chalkley-498x478.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kerr and Burchill. (Credit: Dean Chalkey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t take long for me to feel like Jim and Charlie have absorbed me into their two-person ecosystem. Their friendship was established over half a century ago and has only become stronger with time. They followed each other to the municipality of Taormina in Sicily (the location of <em>The White Lotus<\/em> Season Two) where they set up residence. Jim owns a scenic boutique hotel in Taormina,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hotelvillaangela.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Hotel Villa Angela<\/a>, where its popularity makes getting a booking there difficult to secure. (I know, I tried.) I ask if they live near each other and Jim says, \u201cThrow stones\u201d as he mimes the action, then chuckles at the fact that after all these decades, he and Charlie are still attached at the hip.<\/p>\n<p>Jim and Charlie have always had wanderlust. Even Jim\u2019s owning a hotel is a key symbol of being on the move. \u201cThat\u2019s a great word,\u201d Jim says. \u201cFor some people, the world ends at the bottom of the street. For us, that\u2019s where it begins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As soon as they were old enough, Jim and Charlie went hitchhiking. They found themselves at the Verona Arena, a Roman amphitheatre in Northern Italy where they slept in the archways. In<a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/simple-minds\/1989\/arena-di-verona-verona-italy-3cb410b.html\" target=\"_blank\"> 1989<\/a>, Simple Minds played Verona Arena, and<a href=\"https:\/\/ticketsarenaverona.com\/tickets-and-events\/simple-minds-verona-tickets\/\" target=\"_blank\"> this summer<\/a>, they will perform there again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the reasons the band is still attractive to us is it is escapist,\u201d says Jim. \u201cI don\u2019t know what we\u2019re leaving behind, or what we\u2019re running away from, or towards, but that\u2019s as much why we wanted to be in the band as the music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year marks several milestones for Simple Minds, which, at this point only includes Jim and Charlie from the original lineup. There is the aforementioned documentary, the ruby anniversary of their landmark album,<a href=\"https:\/\/simpleminds.ffm.to\/onceuponatime\" target=\"_blank\"> <em>Once Upon a Time<\/em><\/a> whose deluxe editions include \u201cDon\u2019t You (Forget About Me),\u201d which they performed on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ks4XSbT1Ckc\" target=\"_blank\"> <em>Jimmy Kimmel Live<\/em><\/a> earlier this evening. Plus, the extensive<a href=\"https:\/\/www.simpleminds.com\/tour\/\" target=\"_blank\"> \u201cAlive and Kicking Tour\u201d<\/a> with support from Soft Cell and Modern English, as well as a live double album released in April,<a href=\"https:\/\/simpleminds.lnk.to\/LiveInTheCityWE\" target=\"_blank\"> <em>Live in the City of Diamonds<\/em><\/a>, recorded at Amsterdam\u2019s Ziggo Dome during the group\u2019s 2024 global tour.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1290\" height=\"857\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-1290x857.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-1290x857.jpg 1290w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-340x226.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-498x331.jpg 498w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121-1668x1108.jpg 1668w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-85031121.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Simple Minds in the \u201980s.  (Credit: Virginia Turbett\/Redferns)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A click through the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.simpleminds.com\/category\/tours\/\" target=\"_blank\"> tour section<\/a> on Simple Minds\u2019 site and it\u2019s apparent the group have played live every year, pretty much, since their start. The number of tour dates have ramped up in recent years, with no fallow years. \u201cUsually you take a break,\u201d says Charlie, \u201cBut there is such a demand. It just seemed to grow. Last couple of years there has been a lot of touring. But it was great because it opened up a window where we could spend more time here [in the U.S.].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Simple Minds dominated the Southern California festival<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2023\/12\/duran-duran-2024-cruel-world\/\"> Cruel World<\/a>, which took them by surprise. \u201cWe\u2019ve got fans and college radio was really good to us back in the day, but I couldn\u2019t believe it when we turned up there,\u201d Jim recalls. \u201cThere were a lot of acts on. I thought once we start playing, because I\u2019m confident of the band, people will come from the other stages. Forty-five minutes before we went on, people were waiting as far as I could see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year, Simple Minds\u2019 North American tour kicks off May 16 and goes for five weeks. \u201cIt\u2019s blown our minds that we\u2019re getting a chance to come back to work, and so extensively,\u201d Jim admits. \u201cWe didn\u2019t work as hard as we could in America, or as hard as we should have, and we regretted that. We didn\u2019t think we\u2019d get a chance again. We\u2019re getting a bit of a chance now. We know what we\u2019re doing live, and we\u2019ve got to do it for a lot more people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since their inception in the late 1970s, Simple Minds have released almost 20 studio albums, with less than a handful of years between each one. There was an ongoing evolution in the group\u2019s sound, especially over the course of the first few albums from post punk and new wave to stadium-ready songs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe year before punk rock, the idea that you would dare to form a band or start your own fashion label or do your own documentary or do your own fanzine, you just didn\u2019t do that,\u201d says Jim. \u201cBut suddenly this punk came along with the homemade ethic. Anyone could give it a go. For about six months, we were in this punk band. It was a pretty lousy attempt. We knew that wasn\u2019t right. But at the heart, there\u2019s something that works. We\u2019ve gone to the same pubs and the same clubs and people didn\u2019t go crazy. But when we played, people would go crazy. That was the oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1290\" height=\"860\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-1290x860.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-1290x860.jpg 1290w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-498x332.jpg 498w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214044971-1668x1112.jpg 1668w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Arena Ciudad de M\u00e9xico on May 7, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico.  (Credit: Medios y Media\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe diversity of music in the \u201980s, a lot of color and imagination,\u201d says Charlie. \u201cNo fear of melody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until their fourth double album, <em>Sons &amp; Fascination\/Sister Feelings Calls<\/em>, that Simple Minds made any significant inroads outside of the U.K. In the U.S., the group became household names in 1985 with \u201cDon\u2019t You (Forget About Me)\u201d from the teen classic movie <em>The Breakfast Club<\/em>. It was a No. 1 hit for the group, and the song they are best known for. The group\u2019s resistance to recording the song, which was not written by them, is the stuff of legend as laid out in SPIN\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2015\/02\/simple-minds-dont-you-forget-about-me-oral-history-breakfast-club\/\"> oral history of the song<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes it comes across that we\u2019re ungrateful at the opportunity that the song gave us,\u201d says Jim (who still hasn\u2019t seen <em>The Breakfast Club<\/em> outside of a rough cut, nor has Charlie). \u201cWe felt guilty about the success of it. It took three hours to do. Let\u2019s just do it. Record company will get off our back. It\u2019ll be a B-side or a bonus track or something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In my experience with high school students, if there is ever a chance for them to watch a film, their first choice is, invariably, <em>The Breakfast Club<\/em>\u2014even 40 years later. I tell Jim and Charlie this and confirm that it is, in fact, a good movie. But if they relent and watch it, then they wouldn\u2019t be able to say that they\u2019ve never seen the final version, which is kind of gangster.<\/p>\n<p><em>Once Upon a Time<\/em>, the album on which \u201cDon\u2019t You (Forget About Me)\u201d appears, cracked the top 10 in the U.S. When Simple Minds perform the song on <em>Jimmy Kimmel Live<\/em>, the multigenerational, multicultural crowd instantly sings along when Jim points the microphone in their direction. The song ignited Simple Minds\u2019 career stateside.<em> <\/em>The three subsequent singles from <em>Once Upon a Time<\/em> all landed in the top 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not these chart and commercial achievements from which Jim gets his confidence, which he has in abundance, and he is comfortable owning it and he acknowledges that. \u201cWhat I am above anything else is an enthusiast,\u201d Jim explains one of the sources of his confidence. \u201cBecause I\u2019m not a musician and never wanted to be one, it\u2019s all magic to me. But I know when I feel it. There is a certainty that comes with it. It\u2019s a humbling feeling. I was more confident than the guys. They were still working it out, but the hair at the back of my neck would be standing up. If I feel it, they\u2019re going to get it.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/Simple_Minds_Vinyl.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/Simple_Minds_Vinyl.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/Simple_Minds_Vinyl-340x340.jpeg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/Simple_Minds_Vinyl-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/Simple_Minds_Vinyl-498x498.jpeg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/figure>\n<p>About the other source of his confidence he adds, \u201cEvery time we played, people would go crazy. I wish everybody could, even once, feel as we get to feel, even before we play a note. You would feel 10 feet taller. As soon as the gig is over, you turn into a shrinking guy. But when you\u2019re up there, pumped up and the music is doing it all for you. Everything changes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My growing up experience could not be more different from Jim\u2019s and Charlie\u2019s. When their first album was released in 1979, the Islamic Revolution has taken its firm hold on Iran where I was living at the time. Three years later was when I heard, and saw, my first Simple Minds song, \u201cPromised You a Miracle,\u201d from <em>New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84)<\/em>, taped off <em>Top of the Pops<\/em> on a bootleg Betamax. It\u2019s electropop deliciousness resonated strongly with me and Simple Minds were added to my collection of musical lifelines.<\/p>\n<p>At this point in our conversation, I feel comfortable sharing this with Jim and Charlie. From <em>Everything is Possible<\/em>, I saw how and where they grew up, in \u201cpost-industrial wasteland\u201d Glasgow, in tower blocks. This is far removed from the privileged mix of Western sensibilities and Middle Eastern traditions with which I grew up. But we have the library in common, as well as reading, music, traveling, and supportive parents.<\/p>\n<p>Jim tells me a great saying of his mother\u2019s: \u201cYou\u2019re not better than anyone else, but nobody\u2019s better than you.\u201d And he recounts the first time he heard the Doors, and how he felt hearing Jim Morrison\u2019s voice speaking from a distant California. \u201cI remember being transfixed and feeling that connection with this other Jim from so far away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was in Bangkok, sitting in a restaurant with three 20-year-old Chinese guys,\u201d Charlie shares. \u201cOne of them decided to chat to me to practice his English. When I said I was from Glasgow. He said, \u2018Our favorite bands are from Glasgow: Mogwai, Texas,\u2019 and one of the other guys says, \u2018Simple Minds.\u2019 I asked him what his favorite album was and he said, \u2018<em>Street Fighting Years<\/em>.\u2019 I asked my manager, who\u2019s been to China, \u2018Why would these 20-year-old Chinese guys be interested in an album we did in 1989?\u2019 and he said that was the first year that China was closed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are many insights like these in <em>Everything is Possible<\/em>. The Simple Minds stories have been told for almost 50 years, but it\u2019s different seeing it put together in this way. The cultural context is invaluable. The input from the likes of Bob Geldof, Depeche Mode\u2019s Dave Gahan, Primal Scream\u2019s Bobby Gillespie, <em>Trainspotting<\/em> author Irvine Welsh, as well as music industry icons Richard Branson, Jimmy Iovine, managers, producers, and radio presenters, gives the Simple Minds story even more perspective. The best parts, however, are when the film follows Jim and Charlie around. It\u2019s heartwarming to see Charlie visiting a guitar shop in Glasgow. It\u2019s a delight to hear Jim speaking to a local restaurateur in Taormina, in flawless Italian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe weren\u2019t really interested in ourselves,\u201d says Jim. \u201cWe went through things without trying to analyze them. But recently we\u2019ve been asking, \u2018Why did we do that? What was the real thinking? What was the explanation?\u2019 There wasn\u2019t a plan. It wasn\u2019t a strategy. We were just living it, 24 hours a day, nothing else in our lives, at least for the first 10 years. If we didn\u2019t do a documentary, someone else would do it. We\u2019ve got no intention of stopping working, but we\u2019re tidying things up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I am introduced to Charlie Burchill, Simple Minds\u2019 guitarist, the first thing he asks me is, \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d It\u2019s a complicated question for me to answer, but&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,24,488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-pushly","category-simple-minds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}