Before Lostboy! There Was “Special School” Boy! Lol (Pro Synth Network with Mick MacNeil)

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I need to explain this post header. Lol

“The Man in the Sky”, Mick MacNeil, was being interviewed….well, more joined in in a live stream chat (with a loose interview in there) for this YouTube channel called the Pro Synth Network. Basically a weekly synth geek’s get together to discuss all things Synth and keyboard based. New bits of kit out on the market, etc, etc.

Once we get the technicals and geek talk out the way, about 45 minutes in, then there is talk with Mick about his time with Simple Minds and just…his background of being a synth player and how it all came to be. It’s a great thing and Mick shares great anecdotes and is a lot of fun. He always gives great banter.

I am going to drop in on the interview right at the point where Mick says he went to see the band before he joined. What he says about Jim absolutely cracked me up and had me in stitches! Which then meant I missed the next minute or so of the conversation. The very interesting point Mick made about Jim and his stutter (or on anyone with a stutter – in the broader sense).

Anyway, let’s cut to it. But I recommended you maybe go back a few minutes on the clip and listen to Mick talk about taking up (or having it thrust upon him, more accurately!) the accordion and sticking with the rest of the video.

 

Simple Minds Top Five

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A surprising Simple Minds Top 5, I’d say but probably not from an American fan stand point. And nothing really discussed post 1986 which, well…given the broader subject of this YouTuber’s channel is 1980s music, it makes sense. But…SM did have the high selling Live In The City Of Lights and Street Fighting Years released before the decade was done.

I guess for me, sadly, most songs from Once Upon A Time feel overplayed now. So I do try and limit my exposure to them. I loooooved Sanctify Yourself at the time but I feel overexposed to it now. Which makes me sad that I don’t enjoy listening to it as much as I once would have. The same goes with Alive And Kicking. I need to be reminded of the greatness of some of these songs as the overexposure leaves me jaded. And the less we talk about Copenhagen and “ba-na-na-na”, the better! Lol. I’m sure Jim would LOVE that Otis Reading comparison!

But then there are other songs that I never, ever tire of. And two of the others in his Top 5 fall into that category – namely: Waterfront and Promised You A Miracle.

And there are tracks on Once Upon A Time I still love hearing: Ghostdancing, Oh Jungleland, I Wish You Were Here are the ones I still love to hear.

The thing I will say about Don’t You and all the crap urban myths that abound with this is – some time back (4-5 years ago) I saw Billy Idol tweet Keith Forsey with a question that read “did you offer me Don’t You (Forget About Me) to record?” Keith Forsey replied “No.” And then Billy Idol tweeted – “I REST MY CASE!” Lol

Anyway, see what you think. Do you agree with the Professor of Pop’s choices? Let me know what you think. What would be YOUR Top 5 Simple Minds tracks?

Simple Minds Magazine Article – Mojo Magazine Early 2012

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It’s a clipping I only recently came into possession of and I had never (for obvious reasons) read the article before.

Some interesting things said. Interesting to read Mick saying that he thought they’d have all stayed together…maybe might had still been together (as of then) if Brian hadn’t have left when he did.

Also interesting them bringing up the cover of Record Mirror mag with Brian on it. I was only very recently chatting to Ronnie about that cover. He said to me it wasn’t the photo he wanted on the cover and shared with me a photo of Jim he had submitted for use (which I won’t be sharing here unless I get photographer’s permission first – I haven’t asked him).

Good bit of talk about Rockfield and Iggy and Bowie in the lead up to Saturday’s airing of the documentary on the BBC.

Jim seems rather more philosophical in this than he has done at other times.

A couple more clippings to come….including another Sheila Rock gem (hence the reason I ended up with the clipping – prior to the “naked titties” one surfacing).

“RockField – The Studio On The Farm” Documentary To Air On BBC Channels!

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The documentary on the famous Monmouthshire recording studio is set to air simultaneously on BBC Two Wales and BBC Four on Saturday, July 18th at 9pm BST.

Below is a trailer on the documentary – with a tiny snippet of Jim discussing Simple Minds’ meeting with David Bowie and Iggy Pop while the band were there recording second album Real To Real Cacophony in 1979.

I have been hoping this would be getting a UK airing at some point. Really looking forward to this one.

Visual Treats

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Well, for me anyways. Quite a number of photos I hadn’t seen before in the pages of this little booklet.

I’m sharing most of the previously unseen (by me) photos within. A few of them have been around before but I just liked scanning them and having a perhaps better copy than I previously did.

I’ve tried to clean some of them up. The print quality of the booklet wasn’t the best so I’ll try to share good, clean scans of the photos.

For now though…