New Fforde Grene – Simple Minds’ Debut In England, 1979

It’s a daily ritual to check whether “new” content under the banner of “Simple Minds” has been uploaded to YouTube. And I try to remember to check every morning. Sometimes (not very often, granted!) it slips my mind but I usually check at least once every day.

This morning I was on top of it pretty early and went to YT for a quick gander and this immediately caught my eye. Initially because I love seeing those photos of Jim in that white jaiket. For a young man of 20, he just looks “the biz”, you know?! He’s just meant to be right where he is at that moment the photo was taken. Right place, right time, right look, right man.

Then I see that it’s Fforde Grene and I think “Oh, it’ll sound shit! A tape of a tape. Copy of a copy of a copy, handed down over the past 42 years. Hmmm – but we’ll see. Let’s give it a quick listen.”

First thing that hits me is…I can hear what Jim’s singing during the original version of Scar! “Why did you change the lyrics, Jim?” Questions I eternally…INTERNALLY ask. I wish I could go back and ask him 40 years ago, instead of wanting to ask him now and expecting or hoping he’ll remember something from that far back in time and give an erudite answer.

I arrive back from my dwam to see if the sound of the crowd could be detected. I’m listening through my iPad Mini, just out through its speaker but I can’t really detect any sound of the crowd.

Then Here Comes The Fool comes in and I can tell almost immediately that it isn’t a version I’ve heard before. If this IS genuinely a recording from Fforde Grene, then it’s the best damn version I’ve heard.

I go to Dream Giver to check the date the gig is said to have been recorded from and yep…they played Fforde Grene that night alright! And not only that but it is their debut gig on English soil and one of a few dates before they hit the road supporting Magazine on the Secondhand Daylight Tour.

I got half way through “Fool” before stopping to write this out and post the YT upload. I’ll get back to listening to the rest of the gig this afternoon.

I’m just so happy to hear what is sounding like from the few minutes I heard, a pretty great copy of a really fab gig.

I wish TARDIS’s were real! But seeing as they’re not, this is the next best thing. To all those who put their heads above the parapet and risked being banned from venues, etc, to record these gigs – THANK YOU!