This Saturday sees the 40th anniversary of one of Simple Minds’ most memorable early festival appearances in Europe, at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
By those who were there, it was a magical evening. As far as I am aware, Minds were not the headline act on the night. From what I can see of the acts on and the running order, it was Warren Zevon that was headlining. Simple Minds must have been on in the evening though as when they’re on the stage the sun is setting. One fan who I know was there said it was just the most picturesque of scenes and that it was a glorious evening. The Minds were fantastic, the crowd was really up for it but there was a hush that befell as well – and Jim had them all eating out of the palm of his hand.
Of course by this time they had several festival appearances under their belts, and just prior to this they had been at the PinkPop Festival in the Netherlands and their set was aired on local television. The same happened for the Roskilde Festival.
I feel that even for Jim there was special significance given to the Roskilde gig as when I listen to the track C Moon Cry Like A Baby it includes the line “outside it’s hot, the first of July / and that look in your eye says something is missing” – that was not the crowd reaction he’s speaking of there, but something more personal, I think. I feel as though on Sparkle In The Rain, the personal started to creep into his lyrics more. Prior to that, they were much more observational with the mere hint of something more personal here and there, say – Wonderful In Young Life, for example.
For me, the favourite part of the Roskilde set was the debut airing of Street Hassle. As a “born again” SM fan – I lost count how many times I watched the performance of Street Hassle from Roskilde. Many, many times! I think I even had a little “exchange” with Jim once about its then significance to me. Probably that part when I spoke to him about Sparkle and he told me to “calm down”. Lol. The worst thing you can do to someone who is rather excitable is to tell them to calm down – OR if they are being very animated with their speech and quite vocal, to tell them to “hush”, or to do that onomatopoeic “shhhh!” to them. If anyone tells ME to “shhh!” when I’m animated and mouthy, I’ll fecking box them one!!! Lucky for Jim he’s never had any need to tell me to “shhhh!” Or to ‘haud yer wheesht’ (as he might well phrase it) or he might have got himself a knuckle piece! Lol. Or a Glesga kiss.
Anyway, there’s me off on a tangent.
The Roskilde footage could do with an airing on Danish TV – if the footage is still in their archive. I know the German TV station that showed the Rockpalast gigs has an archive of those gigs and they aired the SM gig in Cologne in 1982 afresh on their channel a few years back. I don’t think the Roskilde gig has been aired since 1983 and so all that there is a VHS recording taken and that’s the only footage I have seen. Hence the footage is of VHS quality. Maybe for the 40th anniversary – if the Danish station has it archived they may air it? Fingers crossed!
For now, let’s enjoy what we have and watch a fabulous set by a band well on the ascent by this time, captivating a crowd of festival-goers, turning them on to their celestial music on a beautiful sunlit evening in Denmark.
Happy MMM and happy 40th to Roskilde Festival, 1983. Posting video and audio of the gig. The final clip is a Dexbam special cleanup of a section of the footage. I wish Dex could have cleaned it all up.
