Simple Minds - Alive and Kicking after 30 years
Simple Minds - Alive and Kicking after 30 years
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Monday, 18, May 2009 09:17
Don't you forget about Simple Minds, the world was reminded after Jim Kerr and co's storming set at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in London's Hyde Park last June. Despite the collapse of Sanctuary Records hampering their last effort Black and White, the Belfast Child stars are back with a new label, and storming new single Rockets.
Having thrilled crowds across the UK and Europe on their 30th anniversary tour, Simple Minds returned to the studio to record Graffiti Soul, their 15th studio album, with sessions in Rome, Sicily, Antwerp and Glasgow.
Ahead of the album's May 25th release, Lewis Bazley talks to founder member Charlie Burchill about 30 years in the business, covering Neil Young and surviving in a changing music industry.
Had you always planned to do a new record after the anniversary tour?
Some of the tracks were ideas that were a couple of years old, but we wrote the album mainly in the summer last year in Glasgow. And the 30 years thing was something that Jim and I were oblivious to! But our agents said 'It's 30 years, you should have a bit of a party!' The fans were very happy too. But it's all well and good shouting about 30 years and everything; we thought we should make the album sound good as well!
Check out the video for brand new single Rockets
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You mentioned Graffiti Soul being written and recorded in Glasgow - you and Jim both live in Italy, so why did you choose to return home to make the new album?
A couple of reasons really. One of the things was that Jim's mum had a health issue, so we thought we'll put it on the backburner. She's fine now, she's doing really well but she kept on at us to finish the record. So, we said 'ok, we'll go to Glasgow and write it there'.
Was it strange for Jim being back at home?
I think so, he was sitting again at the same kitchen table where he wrote the lyrics for our second album! But we had a fantastic period in Glasgow, working in this rehearsal space with all these other bands around.
Am I right in thinking that when you started work on Graffiti Soul, there were some tentative sessions with the original lineup?
Well, there's a bit of confusion about that. EMI, who have our catalogue, were going to release a greatest hits album which we weren't part of, but we said 'if you're going to do this, you should have something novel in there, something new'. So we thought we should do something with the guys, they're part of it, and we're friends anyway. So we had a get-together as a group and then we went into to try and work on a couple of cover versions and we thought we could maybe work on something new. But it soon became evident that we were trying to do it in two days and we needed a lot more time than that. So we put it on the backburner.
Coming back to the covers - you've also got the covers CD In Search of the Lost Boys, featuring songs by Magazine, Neil Young, Massive Attack and others coming out with the album - how did you pick those songs?
Obviously they're tracks that we love and that mean something to us but, at the same time, part of it was picking songs we thought we could play! (laughs) We didn't want to sit their and craft these things like you would with a studio album, we just wanted to play them!
Do you think you might play any of them on your upcoming tour?
Yeah, I do. Not consistently but we might bring out Rockin' in the Free World or something. Though we're playing the Isle of Wight festival, with Neil Young, so we're definitely not going to play it there! (laughs) We'll leave it to the master.
In the late 80s you were notably political in songs like Mandela Day - how do you feel about what's going on today?
I'm disappointed with the so-called leadership that's happened in a lot of countries and I can understand people being p****d off.
You guys have been around for 30 years, it's your 15th album and you've been through a changing industry - where do you stand on the likes of Spotify and illegal downloads?
I do feel for younger bands. What if it gets to the point where new artists can't survive? That could be a reality. We were lucky, we came up in a period that allowed us to do this group, but it's more difficult now. I think there's hope though. I think people will keep buying because they want to support the bands.
You mentioned playing the Isle of Wight festival - what other plans do you have for touring the album?
We're doing festivals, we're playing a couple of nights at Edinburgh Castle, we're off to the States in September and we'll maybe come back through Australia, go through Europe and we'll probably finish up next year in the UK.
Finally, Don't You Forget About Me is obviously your signature song - have you ever got sick of it?
Yeah. (laughs) It's a love/hate thing! To be honest, I like it much better now. You can't escape it and we didn't write it, but it's a great track. I enjoy playing it live and people love to have a dance to it.
Lewis Bazley
Rockets is released on May 18th, with the album Graffiti Soul out on May 25th.