In January last year I went and visited Virginia Turbett so I could take a proper and extensive view of her archive of Simple Minds images. She has something like 1000 images or more of the band so you can imagine what total fangirl heaven I was in just even TRYING to view over 1000 images in just a few hours.

One of the vintage prints she had there that I fell in love with was this one below of Jim. As you can see he had just had his make up done, ready for the gig that night in Edinburgh at the Odeon on August 28th, 1981.

In November last year, I visited Virginia again and noticed in the contact sheets that there was a “before” shot of Jim – well, technically a “during”, I guess. There was one of him having his make up applied. I have been wanting a copy of it ever since so I could display them side by side.

FINALLY I received the other photo today (see below). I don’t think I will ever stop seeing this man as the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.

I have them both on temporary display in a frame together but they are different sizes. The vintage print (the “after”) is 10 x 8 inches but “the before” is A4 size. At some point soon I’ll put them in seperate, dedicated frames and display them properly.

But for now…I am “made up”! Oh, Mr Kerr. You are beautiful.

And if you want to check out some of the other prints Virginia has (a very small selection of what is in her archive…just of SM alone, let alone the plethora of other bands and artists she’s photographed!) see www.virginiaturbett.com