News of the release date of the Jim Kerr/Charlie Burchill memoir (which can fall under the genre of “creative non-fiction”) is Thursday 2 October 2025. At least that is the date given on Amazon for its release. More details can be seen HERE on the tax-evading Bezos-founded book shop.
It is an interesting title; named of course, after the Simple Minds’ ‘never released as a stand-alone’ album. It was a crime that happened in all honesty, as it was a much stronger album in my opinion than the others that immediately followed (in recorded chronology); Neon Lights and Cry.
If they are declaring by the title of this memoir that their secrets are indeed the same … well, what will we even learn from its pages? I fear a book of fiction is what we’ll get. Certainly just one very likely skewed and obviously blinkered one side of the story, which was already blindingly evident from Everything Is Possible.
For me, the obscure Australian band called Tall Tales and True springs to mind – maybe that’s the title Messers Kerr and Burchill should have gone with? Or mabbies Nae NDAs, Eh? ? Or perhaps going by the rather strange choice of the book’s cover Southside Scallywags? The image does pander to the whole “poor working-class boys made good” story arc. The imagery is strange…and of course airbrushed to within an inch of its life. Were there really no images of the two of them together and alone that could have served better? Hey ho.
Will I buy a copy? For shits and giggles, possibly, aye. I won’t be pre-ordering it though. I’ll wait until it comes out. Or maybe borrow a copy from Govanhill library…
I really do try not to be snarky when I report band news but I just cannae help myself. I will endeavour to do better next time.
Adios!