12 Mar, 2006 Made In Belgrade
It is difficult not to feel exhilarated as I write this and not even a two and a half hour wait in a dismal airport can take away the unique high from last nights concert.
Frankly, we feel that we hit a performance peak here in Belgrade last night that I am sure will go down as possibly our best ever to date. Of course I realize that is quite a claim considering the thousands of concerts that we have performed over the years. But seriously it was that good. And no freak either it has to be said, especially as during the previous two concerts in both Munich and Vienna we had displayed a force that in our opinion was seemingly leading up to the kind of phenomenal night that we pulled out from deep within ourselves.
Happily, if there were places above all in this tour that I would have liked us to find “something extra” – another dimension to our capabilities, say – then Belgrade would probably have been one of those at the top of the list. As fortune would have it yesterday – the planets collided maybe, or some other cosmic force conspired in our favour – call it what you like! But something extra really did occur causing us to go off like a rocket!
Historically, Simple Minds have had a strong following in this part of the world for decades. But unfortunately due to the war years in this country, it meant that at least on three previous occasions we have had the frustrating experience of seeing concerts already booked get cancelled in advance. As expected then, last night finally being our long awaited debut we so much wanted more than anything to not only live up to the expectations of the sold out crowd, but rise above those expectations.
This we did, soaring high in fact as we finally got to play our music in a city that has appreciated our work throughout our long career!
Jim Kerr