Promised You A Sweat In Bullet Miracle

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You know what? Well, I was worried about why I had been blocked from the Decade 77-87 Facebook page. And I was genuinely scratching my head wondering why the hell it would be that I was. Then this evening, with a new share of a Simple Minds video compilation they had put together, I realised what potentially may have caused it.

Last year they shared a clip of Factory from Folllies – the Belgian music show. When they shared the clip, they made the claim it was exclusive to them. But it wasn’t. It appeared just a day or two before on YouTube, and they clearly had just copied it off from there. And I said as much. So…if that is their gripe and why I was blocked from their page? Meh! I just told the truth.

Subsequently, that clip WAS taken down from YT and only their clip of Factory remains. (As a superior colour clip. There still is the inferior black and white clip on YT) One could argue they had the last laugh.

So…tonight, this new clip from them shows up! One of SM on Get Set For Summer in 1982. Jim looking UBER lush and beautiful (no apologies for my ovary exploding fangirling tonight). There are two parts to the clip. Them doing Promised You A Miracle – which I had NEVER seen before, and a snippet of them doing Sweat In Bullet – which I had seen before, in appalling quality, on Daily Motion (Daily Motion really is NOT the place for clips these days!).

So, seeing as it had appeared on the Decade FB page, I thought “Oh, there must be an original source on YouTube. Let’s have a look.” Lo and behold, there it was! It had been up there for seven months already. Damn!

Anyway, here’s the original, full YouTube clip. Promised You A Miracle starts at around the 11 minute mark. I skipped through the rest of the clip, wondering if the bit of footage I saw of them being interviewed was in it too – the one where Jim pretends to whack Peter Powell on the head with the microphone (should have done it for real, Sir!). No such luck. Not that I saw anyway.

There’s a curious thing around the 25 minute mark. They are interviewing some head huncho at the Grandstand studio about some sporting event being broadcast and I SWEAR for all the world it’s Steve Coogan – more fittingly – Alan Partridge. Except Coogan is only 16 at the time of the airing of this show, so it CANNOT be him. But, the voice and mannerisms are unreal!

Just watch it! Shortly after it is the Sweat In Bullet snippet.

Enjoy!

New Warm Skin – GMack Remix

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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 the chorus.

As much as I liked it, they took away the best part of the tune for me.

I mean, duh…I love the verses too (Kerr lyricist uber fangirl that I am) – but for me – the hit…the melodic FIX comes from the chorus, and the fade out repetition of “Is this a war? Is the is a god?”

Maybe one day I’ll have a go at one of these remix things myself. Lol. As if I’d be any good!

Might have been fun to have mixed the demo version to the full recorded studio version. Mix up some of Jim’s rewritten lyrics. Just a thought…

One Wish – Reimagined?

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Today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Street Fighting Years…and I think I just ended up exhausting myself with having interviews for Life In A Day to try with more.

I couldn’t bring myself to ask Bruce for more time. As it was he started to worry I wanted to go though every single Simple Minds album with him. Lol. So…I just couldn’t bring myself to ask for one last interview session for a SFY retrospective.

The only others really relevant to it are Mick, Jim and Charlie…Mel too, I guess…and there are a few others. Trevor Horn…

And on that note! Minus any post Jim may do about the anniversary of SFY (I’ve got to say, I am actually STUNNED there is no box set release to coincide with the anniversary….but perhaps along with the Rejuvenation sets and RSD ltd ed. Graffiti Soul release, it was all deemed too much?) – I would DREAM of a reveal of he and Charlie being Trevor Horn’s special guests at the “Reimagines” gigs in July. At least the Glasgow one.

One can but keep dreaming, I guess…

Mick Produces Tales

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Mick MacNeil’s show last night on Indy Live was the most brilliant one so far. If I had asked to interview him myself, I could not have asked for better. He literally picked up where I had finished off with my interview with Bruce – for Mick talked about the producers of Simple Minds albums, namely John Leckie and Jimmy Iovine, but he also brushed upon the Steves – Hillage and Lilywhite.

The anecdotes that came with them had me in stitches. I was enthralled with it all. I could listen to tales of the early days of Simple Minds for eternity and NEVER get bored. It’s the only way I have, personally, of getting a sense of being there and in amongst it. I find this stuff ssooo exciting and wonderful.

Thank you for last night, Mick (hmmm…that’s not sounding quite right…you know what I mean! Lol). I know you may not be able to continue doing the show EVERY week, but I hope we will still continue to present some kind of thing. Perhaps a monthly podcast would work? You definitely already have one subscriber right here! And I am sure you will have many others besides. Please consider continuing a show in some capacity or other.

I have truncated last night’s show for you guys here on the blog. Just concentrating on Mick’s chat, because that is, for me, the most interesting part of the show. Mick feels he waffles on and bores the listeners. He definitely doesn’t with me! The anecdotes. The technical talk. I find all of it fascinating.

UPDATE: All three of Mick’s shows can be heard in their entirity HERE – the audio below is an edited edition of last night’s show.

“I Rehearse Going For The Bus” – Mick’s Hurrah’s Memories

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Listening in to Mick MacNeil’s show on Thursday night on Indy Live, I loved hearing him talk about SM’s gig in New York at Hurrah’s – so much so that I took this audio snippet out of it to share here.

 

Of course, you can listen in to Mick’s show on Thursday evenings at 9pm GMT on Indy Live. Just click the link HERE to go the website.

Touring Round (With) The Horn?

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Trevor Horn has announced a tour in the summer. A short run. Matt Cardle is already confirmed on the tour with OTHER SPECIAL GUESTS to be announced…

Jim, Charlie and MAYBE even Mick MacNeil joining in? It’s a short tour. I could see it happening! Only time will tell! Let’s see…

Stay tuned, folks!

And….just as I am compiling this post, we had a little likey likey!

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Mick MacNeil’s A Superstar DJ

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I didn’t get to listen in when the show debuted on Thursday night but he repeated the show this evening at 9pm. I have just finished listening to it and I really enjoyed it.

Don’t know what I’m on about? Well, Mick MacNeil has himself a show called Mix Records on an Internet radio station feed called Indy Live. He plans it to be a regular weekly slot on each Thursday evening from 9pm GMT.

This first week had a good, eclectic mix to it with tracks from The Human League, David Bowie, Icehouse, OMD, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Kraftwerk, The Cars, Supertramp, Tangerine Dream, China Crisis, Fleetwood Mac, Clannad, Chris Isaac, Michael Jackson, and others in between – all blended with a surprising bit of banter from Mick himself. I thought he’d be quite reserved and not talk much, but he was quite chatty which was great to hear – especially his talk about being a self-confessed “synth slut”. Lol

The web address will work for desktop PC/laptop listening – but if you are on a mobile device, you’ll need to download the app for Apple iOS or Android (click the relevant device for app link).

To listen in next Thursday, just click on the image below to be taken to the Indy Live web page.