Saturday Live

The third of my holiday reads, started by the pool and finished on the flight home, was Greame Thomson's Themes For Great Cities: A New History of Simple Minds. Thomson's book covers the early years of the band, their formation in late 70s Glasgow and the development into the classic five piece group- Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Brian McGee, Derek Forbes and Mick MacNiel- and then the records they make up to the moment where they walk through the door into arenas and stadiums post 1984. The albums they made between 1981 and 1984, after getting their debut Life In A Day out of the way are an astonishing run of records- Real To Real Cacophony, Empires And Dance, Sons And Fascination/ Sister Feelings Call and New Gold Dream (81- 82- 83- 84). Their influences hover over those earlier albums- Bowie, Iggy, the West German bands, Eno, The Velvet Underground- and the keyboards equally part of the sound with the guitars, driven by Derek Forbes' incredible basslines. Instrumentals, dub space, washes of ambient sound, tape loops, sax, FX pedals and Kerr's lyrics, semi- stream of consciousness transmissions. Funk and disco are in there too, Grace Jones, Chic, underground New York dance records, early hip hop, and by 1984 a new kind of European pop sensibility is driving them. Thomson's dissection of the songs and the albums, their recording, the process and influences is excellent, a vividly drawn portrait of the group and these years. 

I've never seen Simple Minds live, the anthemic, post- McGee and Forbes version of the band never appealing to me. I'm not that fond of seeing bands in football stadia either. Recently they have dug back into their earlier albums and played those songs again and I'd be tempted to go if they played near here again. This twenty minute appearance on The Tube in 1982 shows what a good band they were in the early 80s, four songs played by a band who know how good they are and how vibrant they sound. The Hunter And The Hunted, the brilliant, ascendant, optimism of Someone Somewhere (In Summertime), New Gold Dream (81- 82- 83- 84) and the spangled and magnificent The American. By this point McGee had already left the drum stool, replaced by Mike Ogletree and then later by Mel Gaynor (whose drumming is part of what propels them to a much bigger and more anthemic sound, destined for bigger stages and spaces).

Also in 1982 they played at Rockpalast in Cologne, West Germany. The gig is ninety minutes of sensational music, from the slow building, minimalist intro and then they play Love Song, starting slowly with Burchill's FXed guitar and the thumping, prowling rhythm section, the tension building for several minutes before Kerr even steps to the spotlight in the centre. After that there is an almost perfect Simple Minds gig including Changeling, Thirty Frames A Second, Sweat In Bullet, King Is White And In The Crowd, Promised You A Miracle, I Travel, Celebrate, The American, Sons And Fascination and Room.  

Love Song

Today is Valentine's Day, a day for lovers, so I thought I'd post a love song called Love Song. This photo of a wall at Liverpool Tate from a year ago popped up too, Peter Bake's pop art covering a wall of the cafe and it seemed apt. 

In 1981 Simple Minds released two albums together as a pair (and not as a double album, just to make that distinction clear), Sons And Fascination and Sister Feelings Call. Between them they contain some of the best songs of the group's back catalogue and of 1981. Both were produced by Steve Hillage, which is often a mark of quality. Not that I realised this until about ten years ago when I finally saw the light about early Simple Minds and bought this pair of records at a second hand shop. Side Two of Sons And Fascination kicks off with Love Song, a song that rides in on a squiggly, urgent synth riff and then driving, pulsing drums and bass. A writhing topline, distorted guitar I think, slides all over the song and then Jim Kerr starts singing about coats of many colours, reptile men, painted faces and broken fingers, how America is a boyfriend and later on, of 'glory days that come and go'. The chorus is simply, 'Love song/ love song/ love song/ love song'. 

Love Song

Someone Somewhere

Two songs linked by similar titles and a home town for Tuesday. In 1982 Simple Minds released New Gold Dream (81- 82- 83- 84), an album where they stepped into the big time, their Mittel Europa and Bowie influences becoming something bigger and bolder. Jim Kerr has said that the album was where they discovered a maturity and a depth. It was where they connected with a bigger audience. I've written before about how getting into early 80s Simple Minds has been one of the biggest musical turnarounds and over the last couple of years they've become one of my favourite bands, certainly all the albums and singles up to and including New Gold Dream. They managed too find a balance and interplay between keyboards and guitars, neither being the lead instrument and which gives them a distinct sound. The third single from New Gold Dream was Someone Somewhere In Summertime, a dreamy slow burning, yearning song.

Someone Somewhere In Summertime (Extended)

Also from Glasgow The Poems released an album called Young America in 2008 which has recently been re- issued on vinyl. The Poems are straight out of the classic Scottish indie tradition, breezy, low key songs played on guitar and drums, female singer, tons of hooks, a bit of Country and Western in there, some 60s soul too (The Bluebells Robert Hodgens is a key member of The Poems so none of that should be a surprise). This song- with a title not a million miles from the one above- opens the album, piano and shakers to the fore and some guest start harmonies from Glaswegian indie royalty (Norman Blake and Justin Currie).

Sometime Somewhere Someone Should Say Something

Saturday Theme Four

The Saturday Theme theme continues with a return for recent postees Simple Minds, the early 80s, Mitteleuropa version of the band, the original line up all fired up by punk, Bowie and synthesisers. In 1979 the group released Real To Real Cacophony, a twelve song long, tight and trebly album (produced by John Leckie) Film Theme is an instrumental, inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and Ennio Morricone. The drum machine intro is a joy in itself. The descending guitar and bass riffs too. The synths come in filling the sound. 

Film Theme

Film Theme Dub is an oddity, a  radically remixed version of the former and released in 1980, a four track flexidisc to promote I Travel. Stripped down, rhythmic with reverb heavy, distorted synth stabs, only a minute and a half long. Being an oddity doesn't make it in any way uninteresting though. 

Film Theme Dub

Saturday Theme

Theme For Great Cities kicks off side one of the album Sister Feelings Call the record that accompanied Simple Minds' 1981 album Sons And Fascination (not a double album, two albums released together). It's a massive sounding, gloriously pulsing instrumental, all the Mittel Europa ghosts of West Berlin, Bowie and Eno Kraftwerk and Neu! reimagined by a post- punk group from Glasgow. When Jim Kerr heard it for the first time on a cassette given to him by Mick MacNeil, played on his Walkman while walking round the streets of Glasgow, he knew it was 'fucking perfect', it didn't need vocals at all. It's a futuristic piece of music, synths and keyboards giving the melodies and sounds, driving drums and a typically superb bassline from Derek Forbes. By the time they came to record it fully, Steve Hillage was in the producer's chair. When the topline comes in at one minute forty we're off, dancing in a club in one of the great cities suggested by the title. 

Theme For Great Cities

The song developed a long life, re- emerging well after 1981 and becoming a mainstay of DJ sets in Ibiza and beyond, a Balearic classic. Weatherall played it in the early days of his DJing career (and the later days too). It's been remixed and re- edited by Fila Brazillia, Fluke, Moby. It being an instrumental leant itself to DJs, pitching it up or down according to the rest of their set. Many people danced the night away to Simple Minds unaware they were doing so- Simple Minds by the time of the Theme For Great Cities were all billowing shirts and anthemic choruses, the group that recorded the song long since turned into something else. 

The photo is what remained of the Ramada Hotel, a huge 1960s concrete hotel and shopping complex by the Irwell and the cathedral in Manchester. Urban renewal deemed it no longer fit for purpose. The Ramada had itself replaced a huge Victorian building. Cities always change and grow, new replacing old, societies building on top of what was there before. I do wonder how long we can go on constructing enormous buildings and then tearing them down every 50- 60 years though. Build, demolish, build, demolish. It doesn't seem like a sustainable way to build great cities. 

Isolation Mix Seven

An hour and a minute of stitched together songs for Saturday. This one caused me a bit of a headache at times. It was an attempt I think at first to try to join some dots together in terms of feel or sounds, with a nod to Kraftwerk following Florian Schneider's death last week. There was an earlier version that went quite techno/dance for the last twenty minutes but I then went back and did the end section again. I'm still not sure I got it quite right, and think I may have tried to cover too many bases stylistically, but my self imposed deadline was approaching so 'publish and be damned', as the Duke of Wellington said. Although he wasn't dealing with the business of trying to get spaghetti westerns, indie dance, shoegaze and leftfield electronic music to sit together in one mix was he?

Ennio Morricone: Watch Chimes (From ‘For A Few Dollars More’)

David Sylvian and Robert Fripp: Endgame

Talk Talk: Life’s What You Make It

Saint Etienne: Kiss And Make Up (Midsummer Madness Mix)

Spacemen 3: Big City (Everyone I Know Can Be Found Here)

Beyond The Wizards Sleeve: Diagram Girl (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re- Animation)

My Bloody Valentine: Don’t Ask Why

Jon Hopkins and Kelly Lee Owens: Luminous Spaces

Kraftwerk: Numbers

Death In Vegas: Consequences Of Love (Chris and Cosey Remix)

Chris Carter: Moonlight

Simple Minds: Theme For Great Cities

Durutti Column: It’s Wonderful

I have a significant birthday fast approaching. A few months ago we had planned that today would be a day of celebrating with anyone who wanted to join us, starting with lunch and few beers in town and then a tram pub crawl southbound out of the city centre towards Sale, stopping off in Old Trafford (maybe) and Stretford (definitely) before some drinks locally in the evening. That obviously isn't happening. I'll have to re-schedule for my 51st. 

New Warm Skin

The early 80s back catalogue of Simple Minds continues to reveal new wonders to me. I've said before that my prejudices about Jim Kerr's band were formed in the mid to late 80s when their wind swept stadium rock did nothing for me. But in recent years I've had my head turned, first by Theme For Great Cities and then its parent albums Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call. Over the last eighteen months I've picked up various Simple Minds records second hand, albums and singles. Then JC at the Vinyl Villain undertook a weekly trawl through the singles and B-sides of the group released between 1980 and 1984, a series of blogposts and comments that educated and entertained me while filling in umpteen gaps. This one has really struck a chord with me in recent days...

New Warm Skin

Riding in a fantastic backbeat and then covered in New Wave synths, the playing on this, the synth lines and jagged guitar fills, all sound weirdly contemporary to me. Jim Kerr's vocal stylings date it a little and it does sound in debt to 1977- not the '77 of the Sex Pistols but the '77 of Kraftwerk, Berlin, Iggy, Bowie, The Idiot and Low, Mittel Europa- but John Leckie's production keeps it really fresh, remarkably so for a record made in 1980. New Warm Skin was a B-side, the flip to single I, Travel. There was no room for it on the album Empires And Dance, a record I found in a stack in a second hand shop last week.

For Just One Moment In Time

This is a song I keep going back to at the moment, listening and then skipping back to the start, the opener to Simple Minds' 1981 album Sons And Fascination. Never was there I band for whom the phrase 'I prefer their early stuff' is so appropriate. Their early stuff is among the best music of the era (and their later stuff really isn't). Empires And Dance and New Gold Dream are both superb too but this one is the one for me.

In Trance As Mission starts with a Derek Forbes bassline, one of many on the album that personify post-punk bass playing, along with a rigid drumbeat. The synths are central not merely providing colour or filling the sound out. Guitarist Charlie Burchill plays one note throughout, ringing with feedback. A long way to start an album, nearly seven minutes, Jim Kerr singing about moments, the holy back beat, trance as mission, trans American, white rocks, dreams, a new type of light, all the post-punk poetics. Religion maybe. The combined effect is thrilling, dramatic, forward thinking. Top stuff from a band who later on went for the money over the art but certainly paid their dues as far as art is concerned

In Trance As Mission

Sons And Fascination is a great album and a curious one too, packaged with a second disc of songs called Sister Feelings Call (which includes Theme For Great Cities, a song which most bands would kill to have written and which Kerr showed admirable restraint in deciding it didn't need vocals). Not a traditional double album, an album with an extra disc of songs. Ideas galore, loads of ambition and songs to spare.

Theme For Great Cities

I have long held a dislike of Simple Minds, since the 1980s now I come to think of it. I think this is based on the bombastic, U2-lite material they released, the wind in the hair videos and the awful baggy grey suits they all seemed to wear.  I still think these are good reasons to dislike Simple  Minds by the way, I'm not going completely soft in middle age.

People have often, especially in recent years, tried to convince me that there is merit in their works and I can see that there is a charm to some of their mid-80s pop material. Don't You Forget About Me is one of the components that makes The Breakfast Club an enjoyable film. However it would be stupid of me, really stupid and churlish, to deny that this song from 1980 is a bold and innovative piece of electronic pop music.

Theme For Great Cities