In the summer of 1977, John Milary thought up an imaginary band called Johnnie And The Self Abusers. Then he got them a gig at the Doune Castle Pub in Glasgow. And so the recruiting had to begin! Most of this unwielding group were formed from his own circle of friends whilst the other members, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill, known to be a lyricist and guitar player, were persuaded to join. Kerr also brought in a drummer he knew from school, Brian McGee.
And so they played their first gig at the Doune Castle. A violent set of punk anthems with Doctor's Of Madness and Lou Reed covers sent the audience wild that night, and for many other nights during that summertime in Glasgow.
The band even cut some demo tapes; a couple of tracks from one can be heard on the now legendary Saints And Sinners single, released by Chiswick in November 1977. The NME called it "rank and vile". But at that point, the summer of madness was over, tensions were evident between the two circles of friends, and the band split on the same day the single was released.
Some would call that pure punk spirit.
Word quickly spread on the streets of Glasgow that Simple Minds were a band to see. Even though playing pub gigs, the band would put on full makeup and even had a lighting show (which really consisted of only three bulbs), but it was sufficient to ignite the imaginations of the audience. Still playing fractions of the old Abuser's set, the band quickly started adding their own songs to their repertoire, enough to cut their first demo tape. Sent out to the music press and record companies, it was described by the NME as the best demo tape they'd ever heard.
Bruce Findlay, the manager of a chain of Scotish record shops called Bruce's Records and, more importantly, the manager of an independent record company called Zoom also heard the tape. Although liking it, he couldn't take on Simple Minds as he already had enough acts on his books. But his interest in the band remained and after seeing them at their residency, The Mars Bar, he made up his mind. Not only did he become the band's manager, he also signed them with a special deal to Zoom which involved a direct signing to the parent company, Arista Records.
The band's structure was still not finalised; Tony Donald had left before cutting the first demo tape, and was replaced by Derek Forbes from another Glasgow punk band, The Subs. Duncan Barnwell left after it became apparent that two lead guitars were not required thus leaving the band as a quintet; which it remind as until the late 80's. A second demo tape was cut, and all agreed that enough ideas were collected for a debut album.
The band also started to criticize Life In A Day itself. They felt it was too drowned in influences, and the Bowie, Gensis and Roxy Music parallels were too easily drawn. But, the band took Life In A Day on tour supporting Magazine and easily out-performed and out-played them every night.
During this time, Arista Records pulled the plug on Zoom Records by refusing to distribute any more of Findlay's records. He tried to negotiate a new deal with other record companies but with his only saleable asset, Simple Minds, signed directly to Arista then there was little he could do. Zoom Records collapsed in early 1980.
So Findaly formed Schoolhouse Management and concentrated on being Simple Minds' management.
The approach to Real To Real Cacophony was radically different to it's predecessor. Questions were asked about what made up a song; was it a melody, the lyrics, the percussion or the vibe? The band experimented and some of these ended up on the eventual album in the guises of the bizarre instrumental Veldt, the incomprehensible lyrics of Naked Eye and the film soundtrack music called Film Theme.
No demos or prerecordings of the album were presented to the management or to Arista Records because the band had suffered with comparisions between the Life In A Day demos and the eventual album. When the completed album was presented to Arista they were horrified - in their opinion the album was totally uncommercial, with none of the pop sounds which they'd liked so much about Life In A Day. Findlay also questioned the band about the album, aware that it was committing commercial suicide, but soon rallied to the band's defense.
In the end, Real To Real Cacophony was quietly released by Arista during the Christmas rush of 1979 where it was swamped by other releases and forgotten. However, it was highly critically acclaimed, with Paul Morley of the NME putting it in his top 10 albums of the year. It's only single, Changeling, would today become a dance classic, whilst the album itself could be pigeonholed as industrial. To some, it was Simple Minds' finest hour.
Not surprisingly when they returned to the studio to record their third album, again with Leckie in tow, these influences modified the bands sound, based on the styles they'd developed for Real To Real Cacophony. The lyrics of Empires And Dance reflected Europe in crisis against the backdrop of the mutant disco that would soon describe the albums' sound.
With the tracks I Travel and Celebrate as sure dance floor classics, Arista Records and Simple Minds would have scored a notable success. However, the band and their record company were hardly talking anymore, and Simple Minds had to literally force Arista to press up some copies of the album. This Arista begrudgingly did, but only in small quanities. The album was highly critically acclaimed, but no fans could buy it in the shops. This intolerable state of affairs led to Bruce Findlay writing letters to the NME and apologising to fans and laying the blame squarely on Arista.
The album crawled into the Top 40 of the UK album chart and then started to desend again. The band were at a low ebb, with Kerr threatening to break the group up if they couldn't get out of the Arista contract. Eventually Arista let them go, but the band had to surrender their first three albums to the record company to offset the debts they'd accumulated. But for once, luck was with Simple Minds.
A big fan of Real To Real Cacophony and Empires And Dance turned out to be Peter Gabriel. He asked the band to support him on his European Tour which they eagerly accepted. So for the rest of 1980, they took their music to Europe and continued to build on their live successes.
The new record company quickly wanted results. After a short tour including Canada and the USA, Simple Minds found themselves in the recording studio with a new producer, Steve Hillage, and started to produce their first Virgin album. Hillage, who had been picked by Virgin, was seen as an odd choice, considering his 'hippy' past with Gong , but the group and Hillage soon found a common interest with their like of obscure German synth bands such as Neu and Can.
With the spell of creativity continuing unbounded, and with Hillage's reluctance to curb this energy and concentrate on a core of tracks, the band ended up both running out of studio time and creating too many ideas and demos to discard. No-one wanted a double album, no-one could agree on which tracks to drop and so the band continued, putting in all their time to try and finish everything.
Hillage collapsed under the strain, and on one occasion rushed himself to hospital with 'heart palpitations'. Another casualty was drummer Brian McGee. He'd suffered a near breakdown with the bands relentless touring previously and was getting tired of the strain. Now with the additional recording pressures, he left the band after the Sons And Fascination/ Sister Feelings Call set was finished.
The bulk of the material recorded was pressed on two albums, both originally sold as one as a limited edition 'thank-you' to fans in September 1981. After a month, Sons And Fascination and Sister Feelings Call were sold separately. The band then embarked on a tour with new drummer, Kenny Hislop, a friend of Findlays from the Zoom days.
The new tour included new countries and places such as Canada and Australia who took Simple Minds to their hearts. With the singles The American and Love Song reaching the top 10 in both countries, and the albums selling enough to earn the band their first gold disks, Simple Minds had finally arrived.
The group didn't expect it to do much, but it rose to Number 13 in the UK singles chart - they'd finally broken the UK. The song also did well in Europe, Canada and Australia. With acceptance and final recognition of their music, Simple Minds entered the recording studios in the summer of 1982 to record New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84.
Paul Morey of the NME called it triumphant and magical. Critics and public alike loved it and the album reached number 3 in the UK album chart. Glittering Prize, the second single, also reached the UK Top 20, and the album has become cited as one of the New-Wave masterpieces.
The album was completed using three drummers. Kenny Hyslop had left the group after the recording of Promised You A Miracle after some personality clashes. His replacement was Mike Ogletree, another drummer from Bruce Findlay's past. But Ogletree didn't have the power the band required although his technique was fine. Producer Pete Walsh knew of a session player with the right credentials and called in Mel Gaynor. Gaynor was brought in for the additional drumming on New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84 and eventually was recruited as their permanent drummer after Ogletree's departure.
The band embarked on their largest tour yet taking in Europe and the USA. Whilst one of the support bands for U2's triumphant return to Dublin's Pheonix Park on August 24, the band unveiled their new single, and new sound, the unforgetable Waterfront. 1983 was truely a year when anything was possible.
Critics and fans alike were surprised by the band's new sound and style. All the subtleties of New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84 were smashed to pieces by the furious new sound. One critic refered to them as U3, which upset the group.
With both Waterfront and Speed Your Love To Me hitting the UK's Top 20, the success of Sparkle In The Rain seemed certain, and it went straight into the UK album chart at Number One in February 1984.
A breakneck world tour, The Tour De Monde was started on the back of Sparkle In The Rain, travelling to Australia, UK (with a record breaking eight nights at the Hammersmith Odeon), Europe, Canada and the USA. The group even managed their first visit to Japan.
For the US leg of the tour, Simple Minds supported The Pretenders. Then a surprise announcement was made that Kerr and Chrisie Hynde had been married in New York City - the only other member of the group who knew of the plans was Burchill. Kerr and Hynde had meet each other previously, but with the two groups playing the same venues every night, this had cemented the relationship.
Exhausted the group took a break after Sparkle In The Rain, with Kerr and Burchill travelling to India for rest and relaxation. After the break, recording started in earnest on their next album.
So had Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry but Forsey persevered. A&M, their American record company, persevered. So Simple Minds rearranged and recorded Don't You (Forget About Me) in three hours in a north London studio and promptly forgot about it.
It was just another song on another film soundtrack album.
They didn't realise that they'd recorded the title song. And the title song of The Breakfast Club reached Number One in the US charts. After trying for years, they'd finally broken the American market with a song that the band didn't care for much.
Simple Minds fans got their first look at the new bass player when the band played on Live Aid. Not only did they play their relatively new Don't You (Forget About Me) live for the first time, they also debuted a new song called Ghostdancing.
With American producers, Bob Clearmountain and Jimmy Iovine, the new album, Once Upon A Time took shape. More refined than its predecessor, many accused Simple Minds of selling out to the big American sound, but the album became their biggest selling, going in straight to number one in the UK charts in October 1985. It was aided by the new single Alive And Kicking, which almost repeated the success of Don't You (Forget About Me).
A world wide tour would take over a year to complete. It was also dedicated to Amnesty International a cause that Kerr had supported for many years. The tour took them to the USA and Canada, all over Europe, back to the USA and Canada, and finished up in Japan, New Zealand and Australia. Companion singles such as Sanctify Yourself and All The Thing She Said charted highly in the many countries they visited. The last single to be released from the set was Ghostdancing, all the proceeds of which were donated to Amnesty International.
It was time for a break.
Unhappy with one track, Someone Somewhere In Summertime, Kerr remembered a violinist he'd seen on late night US television. Lisa Germano then overdubbed a violin piece over a recording of the track from Syndey, and the album Live In The City Of Light was finished.
Like its predecessors, it entered the charts at Number one in the UK. It was (at that point) the fastest selling double live album of all time. The accompanying single selected was Promised You A Miracle, the track that first gave them top 20 exposure in the UK.
At the end of 1987, the band played three Glasgow gigs for the Cash For Kids charity. Noteable special guests included Kerr's wife, Chrissie Hynde, ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and ex- Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes. Forbes had also worked on the Live In The City Of Light album but received no credit.
With the completion of their Scotish recording studio, the band started work on their next project. MacNeil and Burchill started to write the long awaited instrumental album, a project called Aurora Borealis as no other direction was forthcoming.
This was cut short by the band's involvement in Mandela Day, a concert held at Wembley to remember the man held in captivity for so long in South Africa. Simple Minds were the first international act to agree to play, and set about to record a song especially for the event. (Each band was asked to produce a song but only Simple Minds complied).
Mandela Day became the anthem of the event, having received airplay from Radio One in the weeks before. Guests of the band on the day included Johnny Marr for a cover version of Summertime Blues, Peter Gabriel for a cover of Sun City, a track the group had used in their Once Upon A Time tour.
Now a direction for the forthcoming album became clear. The instrumental project was swallowed up by Street Fighting Years which became Simple Minds' political mandate.
The Steve Lipson and Trevor Horn produced Street Fighting Years again raced to number one in the UK. It's acceptance in other countries, such as the USA, was very poor probabaly due to the new musical style being substantially different to the US friendly Once Upon A Time and with lyrical themes and references outside the spheres of their interest.
The Minds took their new sounds on the road without the bassist John Giblin - his replacement was Malcolm Foster, the bassist with The Pretenders. Mel Gaynor also had to be coaxed back; he'd been minimally involved in the Street Fighting Years project, which had been completed with Stewart Copeland and Manu Katche. It was also revealed in 1989 that Kerr's marriage with Hynde was all but finished.
The Street Fighting Years tour started in Europe in May 1989 and visited Europe, Japan and Austrialia. The first Simple Minds video was also released in May 1990 of the concert at Verona.
More changes in Simple Minds occured during this turbulent period. Manager and friend, Bruce Findlay, was dropped as the band's manager. The group were unhappy with the financing of the tour and made Findlay an offer that he "had to turn down".
Even more dramatically, fellow founder, composer and core member, Michael MacNeil, announced that he was leaving. His reason was that he wanted to do more with his life than just Simple Minds. At the end of the decade, Simple Minds were facing an increasing difficult future.
Kerr then played demos of the new songs to friends and fans - the response was that they still had the vibe which made Simple Minds. Kerr's mentioned that if the songs were dramatically different, then they would have had to have stopped using the Simple Mind's name.
With Steve Lispon producing solo this time, Real Life started to take shape. A more personal, reflective album than its predecessor, it still retained some of the celtic muse that Street Fighting Years displayed. The void of loosing MacNeil was swallowed up by Burchill, who also took on the keyboards. A session player, Pete Vitesse was also bought in to help with the keyboards. (Whilst playing a handful of German Gigs, Vitesse also played live with the band).
Let There Be Love was released in March 1991, and quickly jumped into the UK's Top 10. The album, Real Life stalled at Number 2, held off by the Greatest Hits compilation of the recently split Eurythmics. Some saw it as the start of the decline of Simple Minds. However, furthur singles from the set gave the band extra Top 20 success including the gospel insipred Stand By Love.
The tour took in stadiums in Europe and the UK and smaller venues in the USA who had now deserted the band. Strangely, they didn't tour the Far East or Australia where they would have done well. The line up included Malcolm Foster who had now become their 'live' bassist and Mark Taylor on keyboards as the semi-permanent replacement for Mick MacNeil.
The album became a collection of the band's Virgin singles. It surprised everyone when it shot to Number One in the UK charts and firmly prevented Madonna's Erotica album to claim the top spot. Real Life era.
Forsey was more pragmatic than Kerr and Burchill realised. He pointed out that they were now a duo, and that they were a voice and guitar and that was all. The keyboards, still haunted by MacNeil, were driven into the background. The new album became increasingly guitar based, which was a new departure for Simple Minds.
Kerr stated that he gradually started findings words for the songs easier - he'd suffered another writer's block with his depression. He called the place where inspiration was drawn as the "next world". So when a good phrase or lyric came to him, he'd tell Burchill that there was "good news from the next world. This phrase became the album's title.
The album was finished late 1994 with a host a session players. After a short Christmas tour of the USA with diverse acts such as They Might Be Giants and the recently reformed Go Gos, a new track She's A River was unveiled. And after three years since their last studio album, Simple Minds released Good News From The Next World in January 1995. It reached Number Two in the UK, but peaked in several other countries. Although a decline was evident, the decline itself seems to have stopped.
The band took their new sound on the road. Mark Schulman replaced Mel Gaynor on the drums, a session drummer recommended by Keith Forsey and played on the album. Malcolm Foster, the band's third longest surviving member, also accompanied them with Mark Taylor repeating his keyboards role. The tour started in the USA, travelled all over Europe, visited South America, visited South Africa for the first time and (currently!) ended in Europe.