May contain a heavy dose of Jim Kerr
It is my favourite Simple Minds instrumental. My favourite David Bowie track of them all is A New Career In A New Town – that “town” being Berlin. I heard an instant parallel between ANCIANT and Kant Kino. Both have an incredible emotional pull on me – both brought me to tears the first time…
Read full post “Empires And Dance Appreciation – KANT KINO” »
The album that did it for me. The one that, during my exploration of the Simple Minds back catalogue, “sealed the deal”. Empires And Dance put me into a state of…I dunno…suspended animation. I quite literally could not believe what I was hearing…that the band responsible for Don’t You (Forget About Me ) – subsequently…
I cannot reiterate how great a lot of Simple Minds B sides are. Most of them became an “also ran” at the expense of a song that makes it onto an album. I would easily swap Special View for Sad Affair, for example. Others would swap Veldt for Kaleidoscope (as although the song wasn’t released…
It’s that … cold war Europe sensibility and style it has. Actually, it’s more post-war (The Great War), 1930’s, really. It’s Christopher Isherwood Berlin. Not flappers and sharp-suited men…later…early 1930s….now more the time of “austerity” (and how relevant does it make this song now?!), mass unemployment – post Wall Street Crash and the Hoover Dam…
It’s taken me a few days to get around to listen to this. I like it. It’s very expertly done. But…I kept waiting for my fix of the chorus to arrive. At least just one time! And…the best part of Mick’s synths are taken away as a consequence, because they lay behind Jim’s vocal in…
It’s a strange thing, research. You can be looking for one thing and will unearth something else entirely! Take a song like Here Comes The Fool, for example. It makes its first known live appearance shortly after the release of Life In A Day and is played at gigs in the summer. Here Comes The…
It was bonfire night, 1980, and Jim recalls it like it’s 2016! (Coincidentally…my first ever visit to Glasgow was that night – Bonfire night, 2016…I had a bankside view of the Clyde from my hotel window and I could see fireworks going off all over from the view I had of the city there. It…
The projection to a Glasgow of 1980, in a film made of the city in 1971. Given the fact that we are told in the film that the task ahead was quite…monumental…did they really think it would be done by 1980? I’m sure quite a bit was in place by 1980, but it seemed some…
Back nearly FOUR YEARS ago now, when I took those tentative steps into exploring the Simple Minds back catalogue and having quickly listened to Life In A Day and Real To Real Cacophony to move onto Empires And Dance and fall instantly in love…it was Twist/Run/Repulsion that was the first track I heard that absolutely…
Read full post “Minds Music Monday – Twist/Run/Repulsion – Isolated Elements” »
The first snippet is dated Dec 6th, 1980. More tour dates for SM…it’s starting to wear Brian McGee out already… Next – a review of their gig at Tiffany’s on March 1st, 1981 (printed in March 14th edition of NME). Brian’s final gig with them in Glasgow. Why they get labeled as being “pretentious” with…