The final part of the final look through my entire Virginia Turbett Simple Minds photo collection.
Tag Archives: kenny hyslop
The Final Flick-through – Part Three
Part three of the final look at the old Virginia Turbett photo hoard.
Tiffany’s TARDIS Trip Tonight…
Well, that’s tonight’s gig sorted. Fire up the TARDIS…get to that front row. Gawp at the most goegous man, ever…mouth agape. Lol (Oh…and maybe take the odd cursory glance at Kenny too…)
Oh, I dream.
UPDATE: The crowd when Celebrate starts! The roar of applause! It’s fucking awesome! The bass is off-the-scale crazy. I don’t tend to give a lot of praise these days to Derek Forbes but OH MY FUCKING GOD – he was on FIRE at this gig. And Kenny is playing quick time, giving Dan not the easiest job to keep up. It’s mental!
This Fear Of Gods! Wow! I love that bit before it starts as Jim is introing it and then he says “give me some echo, Gallagher” – meaning Frank Gallagher. I love those kind of bits…hearing those kind of machinations. Being privy to them. It’s all so bloody “professional” now. You’d never hear him say “turn me up, GG” or the like to Olivier Gerard – it would all be long sorted before us fans are present.
And then to have FACTORY as an encore?! OMG! IN MY DREAMS! How I would love something other than Alive and Kicking and Sanctify Yourself. I mean…I love those songs…but…I wish I could be surprised a little more often.
Yes, they had fewer songs in the bag back then, but still. The setlists are ssoooo formulaic these days – despite how much Jim can claim they “mix things up” – it rarely happens. And YES, I was ssooo happy for what I got in Copenhagen, and I didn’t expect much change in the setlist of the two gigs, and I know they had to shorten the sets. None of what I am saying here is a gripe on the Copenhagen gig AT ALL. It’s just…a general thing. The past three tours – Acoustic, Walk Between Worlds, and 40 Years Live have had the very same end and encore.
Besides the point. Back to this Tiffany’s gig. I WANT JIM KERRR’S BABIES – Lol! Well, no, I don’t. I’m nearly 50 FFS! Baby making days are looooong gone. And I never wanted to be a mum anyway. PRACTICE. I just want the practice (of the baby-making).
It’s been a looooooooong time, man. Don’t I know it. I reckon my hyman’s reformed by now. Lol. Okay…I’ll shut up now. Just laugh and carry on. Don’t mind me. I’m just expressing some goddamn wishful thinking here.
God I can dream!
By the way…there’s another gig on the way thanks to the amazing Art & Talk. Some of these bootlegs are my life! I mean…damn!
I Wish Life Could Be Swedish Magazines…
The line from Iggy Pop’s Five Foot One could not be a more appropriate title because, right now, I DO wish “life could be Swedish magazines”. Well, newspapers might be more accurate.
Anyway, that’s semantics.
This morning on the Simple Minds Official Group (or should that now just be “Simple Minds Group”?), a Swedish fan shared a few images from local newspapers featuring SM.
I commented saying how awesome they were and gave a thanks for sharing. He replied to me, telling me that the Swedish National Library’s archive is open to the public during April and he’d be searching the archive and found some things.
And there is SO MUCH MORE than he shared on SMOG! A veritable treasure trove of previously unseen photos, articles and gig reviews, etc. It’s a pain in the bum to go through on a Smartphone or tablet/mobile device, so I’ll fire up the laptop tomorrow and see what I can find and try and get a better copy of the things I’ve seen so far – and more.
But for now…here is a small rough sample of the treasures in the Swedish Newspaper archive. The first pic is a very early one from 1979, all the rest are from 1981-1982.
If you are wanting to, you can search through the archive HERE. A huge thanks to Micke for posting about this today.
Am I dreaming this or is Jim wearing ANIMAL PRINT LEG WARMERS???!!!
Kenny or Jim? The tussle is real. Erm…THREESOME?! I WISH! Then again, Kenny’s troosers are worryingly high. Lol. Jim’s are not much lower to be fair…
New (Old) Love Song Video From 1981
I saw this video on Daily Motion back in the early days of my fandom and it was up there in appalling quality. But now there is a clearer version that has surfaced on YouTube.
OMG! Jim Kerr…you beautiful, beautiful man! I adore you!
Classic Scottish Albums Podcast – New Gold Dream
BBC Radio Scotland “Classic Albums” host Davie Scott talks us through New Gold Dream, with input from Jim Kerr, Bruce Findlay, and “rent-a-gob”, Paul Morley (among others).
And…there’s not even a single mention of the bath…even though Jim’s lyrics are discussed quite heavily. (Yep…the old Prip is slowly returning…ever happy to ogle) And you KNOW what I was visualising when we all had to use our imaginations for the visuals of their debut TOTP appearance? That bloody white suit and those black boots. The dyed hair. The pasty make up. Sadly, no nipples on display. Perhaps the BBC didnae allow such FILTH to be aired on a Thursday night? *sigh*
I digress…
Anyway, you can access the podcast HERE – fairly short at around 23 miniutes in length. Roughly Side A of NGD itself. Enjoy!
UPDATE:- I got to thinking…why just sit about imagining it when you can watch it?! Here we go! Mr Snake-Hips on TOTP! HEY, JIM! SHOW US YA NIPS! Lol
Magazine Clippings – 1980, 1981 – Gig Reviews, Band News and Tour And New Music Info
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 their music at this point, I will never know. Anyway, the review ends unltimately positive. Thank fark for that!
The description of Jim walking onto the stage is utterly delicious. Uber cool…sex on legs. Geez, I wish! (Why was I only 10 years old and stuck in Sydney? *weeps into hands*)
Then…the parting of the ways with Brian and the ringing in Kenny Hyslop for his short tenure. (Reported on in the NME, dated July 25th, 1981)
Then finally, info on Sister Feelings Call being (from Oct 16th 1981) sold as a separate entitiy to Sons And Fascination, as opposed to them being twinned together in a package.
Stuart Holland’s G+ Photo Site
I’ve been perusing Stuart’s Google Plus page today. It’s a very good site – you guys should check it out! In particular, I loved seeing the photos he has from the Sons And Fascination tour – the guys on sun beds…Jim reclining on a sun bed – YES PLEASE! GRRRRR! DOWN GIRL! Lol.
Ah…oh so tangible. Probably only about 50kms away from me when this pic was taken (assuming it is coastal Sydney – Coogee, Maroubra, Bronte, Mosman, Manly…something like that). Too bad I’m just about 11 when this photo was taken. I will wish my life away!
Anyway…clicking on the link will take you to Stuart’s page so you can see all the fab images for yourself.
https://plus.google.com/116510993299024354712/posts/aWnRyTpiU5n
The Virginia Turbett Simple Minds Photo Archive – Prints Available!
On Saturday I had the absolute privilege to view the entire photographic archive of Virginia Turbett’s work with Simple Minds. It really was wonderful. I spent approximately three hours, on and off, perusing endless contact sheets of wonderful images of the band, and individual members. Many photos of Jim Kerr. A whole sheet of images of Mick MacNeil. And some fabulous pictures of Charlie Burchill playing the saxophone. These were just the tip of the iceberg.
Some of Virginia’s photos you would have seen. Many have been used in official releases. They appear in the New Gold Dream box set (released back in 2016), just as one example, as well as books…they can be viewed on Getty Images, etc. But…Virginia is NOT ALWAYS given credit for her work, and certainly not always paid.
Many of her images you will NOT have seen.
I would love to have my own personal archive of Virginia’s work. There are so many wonderful photos she has taken of Simple Minds. Iconic photos! And so, over the next, maybe….year to 18 months, I would like to build up my own collection of her wonderful body of work.
Virginia’s main body of work capturing Simple Minds took place between 1980 to 1984. A mixture of promotional photoshoots, pictorial documentation of record deals, sound checks, gigs. So many wonderful things to see.
And if you are anywhere near as big a fan as I am of SM *and* Virginia, you will definitely want to own some of her wonderful images yourself.
With Virginia’s kind permission, here are just three examples of prints available to buy. The first is a new favourite. I always assumed the guys did their own makeup…but as we can see by the image, Jim has been “worked on” by an actual makeup artist. That was one revelation for me on Saturday!
The second print was also a revelation insomuch as I never knew the person next to Jim is Ronnie Gurr!
The third is another photo in the set (the day Simple Minds sign to Virgin Records) that I really love that I had never seen before, of Jim and Ronnie again. It’s absolute horseplay…and will also be one of the next prints I get.
If you are interested in enquiring about purchasing prints from Virginia, please click on the image of Jim to be taken to her website (viewable at: virginiaturbett.com). You really will NOT be disappointed!
Virginia Turbett Prints
I am today in Simple Minds memorabilia HEAVEN!
I ordered some prints from the one and only Virginia Turbett and today they arrived by post.
They are an absolute treasure trove! I ADORE THEM! If you yourself are interested in getting any of Virginia’s prints, you can find out full details at https://virginiaturbett.com
