Chilean Mixed Bag – Simple Minds – Santiago – 19 September 1995

A new Art & Talk special. Yes, it has taken me a few days to get to it but I did finally listen to it last night. And what a wonderful mixed bag it is.

I had prepared myself for Jim’s ‘lazy crooning’ stuff that he did in the mid nineties – a style of singing he adopted that grates on me more often than not, hence the mixed bag. One aspect of the mixed bag anyway.

Starts off a bit quiet and the mix is a little iffy but it soon sorts itself out. The radio audio ident roughly every 10 minutes is not a real bugbear, other than it freaking the shit out of you when listening on headphones, as it usually creeps in when you least expect it.

The crowd are well up for it and are, as Jim tells them towards the end of the night, ‘fantastic’.

So, the highlights? Well, it starts with a fine She’s A River and fairly good Up On The Catwalk but Jim already sounds bloody knackered one song in. Lol. He’s struggling to sing in key having, I’m guessing, already run himself ragged around the stage. He could have done with pacing himself a bit. See The Lights was grand. None of that “I look right through your disguise” twaddle – just the proper “forgive me love, I’m too proud to cry” lines. Thank you, Mr Kerr!

Along comes The American and I have high hopes for it. That it will be like other versions of 1995 and will have the other lines in it – across a curved earth, in collective fame, the eventful workouts, Nassau club days – those ones. He didn’t disappoint. They were there, yas! So, it was all going swimmingly…

And then Big Sleep happened and the lows begin and we’re on a big old rollercoaster from here. Big Sleep is in the 90s ‘lazy crooning’ style. I just kept shaking my head and saying “noooo!”. Lol. He even tried to win me round by having the ‘valuable friend/immaculate friend – for a lifetime I’m grateful’ lines but…sorry, Jim. This version wisnae for me. Mercifully it was cut short and didn’t go as long as it would be performed in the early 80s. Small mercies.

Great Leap Forward was great, and then we slip right back on down to probably the WORST version of Someone Somewhere In Summertime I think I’ve ever heard. Jim ‘lazy crooning‘ it to death, Mark Schulman, although a fantastic drummer, just slaughtered this version of SSIS. Nope. Sorry. ALL KINDS OF WRONG!

I was trying to get to ‘forgiveness’ mode when Hypnotised was being performed. Jim was still ‘lazy crooning’ but, you know, it’s Hypnotised, so it’s just how it is. I was trying to calm down again. Let There Be Love was good too – and she ‘comes like an ocean’ TWICE – lucky cow! Lol.

Quite a good Belfast Child. Not sure about the Roadhouse Blues segue into Waterfront. If you’re going to do Roadhouse Blues then, you know, be true to the song a bit more … I dunno. Waterfront itself was good.

Still not sure what to make of that version of Love Song…bit of a true throwaway segue of Glory in it as well…not really on a par with the mid 80s segue use of Glory in Love Song.

It just continues to yo-yo. The version of Alive And Kicking was…passable. At least Jim did “follow through” in this version. Ooh-err Mrs! Lol. A goodnight sign off from Jim and then a wait…with a crowd that is ‘going mental’ as he’d say.

Back up again for a encore that begins with a fabulous And The Band Played On, then it all flatlines again (for me) with a Don’t You that I fast forward through (just when it looks like it could be the perfect gig in terms of this monster not rearing its ugly head, along it comes) to get to Sanctify Yourself – and HE DID THE THING! Jim did the thing…in 1995! I didn’t know he had done it that far back! It’s 1995 and he fucked up the second verse! Just like he did EVERY SINGLE TIME this year. I couldn’t believe it! I SWEAR he’s been doing it right at the other gigs I’ve been to prior to 2022 – I’m sure of it. Now I need to investigate. I skipped through it as well as soon as I heard the fuck up with the lines, that was me done.

So, yeah. Started so promising then was up and down all through the set and flatlined by the final two songs. Had I been there in 1995, I probably would have loved it. I certainly wouldn’t have been complaining watching Jim, that’s for sure. Lol. Tits o’clock hunky time!

The goods were the Good News tracks, The American, Belfast Child, Waterfront and (mostly) Love Song. The lows were – Someone, Somewhere in Summertime and Big Sleep, the final two songs and a mediocre Alive And Kicking.

Is it worth a listen? Yep. Sound quality is good. Yeah. If you loved SM live in the mid 90s, you’re gonna love it. For me…yeah. It wasn’t Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, 2022. I don’t know what my ‘worst’ Simple Minds gig is, but whatever it is, would for me be, on the whole, better than this one. This one was too much of a mixed bag for my liking, but I’m glad I listened to it – but it probably won’t be one I’ll revisit, unlike other bootlegs I’ve listened to.