I’ve been listening to Scottish stadium giants Simple Minds since the late 80s – admittedly only because my older sister played their songs on repeat – along with the likes of stablemates Texas and The Proclaimers.
Fast forward 35 years and Simple Minds are still packing out arenas as they blaze a trail across the UK. They appear to be on a mission to visit every mobile phone or energy supplier sponsored stadium that they can find – 3Arena Dublin, SEE Arena Belfast, The Ovo Hydro Glasgow, 02 Arena London and Utilita Arena Birmingham to name a few. They break that streak tonight as they visit the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. It’s a big tour and it’s almost completely sold out.
Jim Kerr and his band are joined by another fantastic Scottish outfit in the form of del Amitri who could easily be headlining their own UK and Global tour with a setlist full of likeable sing-along hits. Sadly, multi-talented lead singer, bassist and occasional guitarist, Justin Currie has recently revealed that has Parkinson’s disease. Thankfully he’s currently still able to play and tour, and del Amitri put on a great show!
Hits including Always the Last to Know, Not Where It’s At, Kiss This Thing Goodbye, Driving with the Brakes On and Stone Cold Sober are all well received by the audience who are clearly fans of both bands tonight. It’s the perfect warm up.
Simple Minds began back in 1977 as a four-piece (or was it a five-piece?) no matter because the lineup has changed dramatically over the years with over 25 musicians at some point able to make the claim that they were part of the band. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill have always been the mainstay of the band.
Currently performing as a seven-piece band including recent additions Sarah Brown, who shares lead vocals on selected songs with Kerr, and Cherisse Osei being latest musician to take the seat behind the drums – she plays a thunderous drum solo mid set – never an easy thing to pull off, but she does so with style and power. Both somewhat younger than Kerr and Burchill they inject some extra energy to Simple Minds. But that’s not to say the others are old! Kerr is clearly still very flexible in his dancing moves, and Burchill still looks much younger than he actually is.
They open the show with a brilliant performance of Waterfront before moving onto several songs that Kerr says are “for the hardcore fans” which includes Love Song, Sweat in Bullet, Big Sleep and This Fear of Gods. He promises to play “the big songs later” and of course they do with hits like Glittering Prize, Promised You a Miracle, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) and Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) filling out the middle of the show. There’s also a heartfelt and moving performance of Belfast Child – a song which Kerr says is his tribute to the people of Northern Ireland who lost loved ones in the Enniskillen bombing that occurred at a Remembrance Day service in County Fermanagh in November 1987.
Don’t You (Forget About Me) a song made famous by its inclusion on the soundtrack to 80s movie The Breakfast Club is extended as the crowd sing along to the seemingly endless chorus of “la la la la la” and this brings the main set to a close.
The encore is made up of Book of Brilliant Things and See the Lights before they end with Alive and Kicking. But wait, Kerr wants to play one more and Simple Minds power through a blistering performance of Sanctify Yourself to bring the evening to a close.
Simple Minds have always been stadium giants. And tonight they live up to that billing. I’ve never seen them live before and now I think I should have seen them sooner. Something that I didn’t know, but a memory that I will take from this show is that Charlie Burchill is a fantastic guitarist (well of course he is – but now I’ve seen it with my own eyes) and he has a great collection of amazing Gretsch guitars too.
Kerr and Burchill are clearly still loving performing and life on the road with their bandmates. They’ve lost none of their energy, in fact in Osei they’ve gained some! Simple Minds continue to shine on like a glittering prize and they’re showing no signs of slowing down or stopping anytime soon.
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