The 40th Anniversary Editions of Simple Minds’ landmark 1985 album ‘Once Upon A Time’ are available now at the link in bio.
• 5CD Box Set – includes the original album, B-sides, rarities, extended mixes, and the full Live In The City Of Light concert over two discs. This box set also contains a 36-page booklet with rare photos, interviews and a track-by-track guide from Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill.
• Limited Edition Vinyl – pressed on ruby red vinyl and housed in a gatefold sleeve featuring Anton Corbijn’s iconic photo of the band at Live Aid. This version also includes ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ on the album for the first time.
#OnceUponATime40
‘Our Secrets Are The Same’, by Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill with @graemethomsonwriter , is published today. Thanks to everyone who has already picked up a copy!
Available now in hardback and e-book at the link in bio.
#OurSecretsAreTheSame
CHEERS TO ALL THAT!
All have good and bad days. Isn’t that a fact?
Yesterday though was a pretty fine one for various reasons, and much too difficult to resist raising a glass of Sicilian spumante.
What else to do on the day we finished recording Simple Minds’ 20th album?
Cheers… Keep the faith!
Jim Kerr: Villa Angela: Taormina: Sicily.
NORTH AMERICA - ONE YEAR ON.
Exactly one year ago this week when Simple Minds began the North American phase of their Global Tour. As for the next time? It cannot come soon enough!
‘See the Lights’ was released on this day in 1991.
“In some ways I feel that this is one of our best ever songs. It has a great mixture of deep darkness yet ultimately compelling light within its words and melody” - Jim
A standout from Sparkle in the Rain, ‘Book of Brilliant Things’ remains a live favourite that captures the power of knowledge and self-discovery.
What books have had the biggest impact on you?
SALT
Back in February, we told everyone that we aimed to work quickly and have our next Simple Minds album fully recorded and ready for delivery by mid-year.
Inevitably, some took that news with "a pinch of salt."
Who could blame them for having doubts when it’s common for work projects of all kinds to miss completion date?
Nevertheless. Far from merely writing and recording a bunch of songs, we're aiming to create something that is better described as “lightning in a bottle”.
And that “bottle” element is important, suggesting that we are also trying to present it to the world in the best way imaginable - that's what making a record is all about
Still, we said we would have the record finished by the middle of this year, and I'm sure that we will meet that moment.
Keep the faith!
Jim Kerr: Hotel Villa Angela. Taormina. Sicily.
“They say this is the time and place, they call street fighting years.”
Simple Minds released their eighth studio album Street Fighting Years on this day in 1989.
WILDFLOWERS
Laughing at things that might otherwise bring tears gradually became my default position in life. It’s a trait I may well have inherited.
My father certainly knew how to laugh at - and with - everyone. Jesus, he even had his oncology specialist chuckling minutes after telling him he might not live to see the end of the summer.
“Ah well,” he said, teasing the doctor, with whom he’d struck up a friendship. “I might still see Celtic win the league. Due any day now." He then glanced at me. "So when are Simple Minds playing again?"
On that drive home years ago, I waited for something more. A glimpse of what he really felt behind the humour. But he said nothing about the diagnosis.
Instead, he was intent on us first getting to Pollok Park in time for his favourite tearoom, worried more than anything they might run out of the scones he liked. But it wasn’t until later that evening that he finally acknowledged it. Looking up from his book, he paused, and sighed.
“Any chance we could fly to Sicily in the next few days? Spring is my favourite time. The hills above Taormina will be covered in wildflowers. I’d like to see that again. And I’d like to say goodbye to my friends.”
Just last night, I walked those same hills, surrounded by wildflowers. It's still the place I go when I need to step away from the noise of the world. I of course thought about how much Sicily meant to him. And to my grandfather before him.
And how, in the end, the love of the Sicilian landscape came to mean the same to me.
Jim Kerr. Hotel Villa Angela. Taormina. Sicily.
