Greatest Hits+ Officially Announced Today!

Simple Minds will release  ‘CELEBRATE – THE GREATEST HITS+’ on 25th March 2013 in 2 and 3 CD Collections including 2 brand new tracks! Full track listings and tour dates are below. [Released in USA and Canada in May]

 

 

Jim Kerr.

Following the success and acclaim of last year’s X5 boxset and the 5 X 5 tour, Virgin Records will release Celebrate – The Greatest Hits + collection, a comprehensive overview of 35 years of one of Britain’s most successful bands, taking in the innovative sheen of Promised You A Miracle and Glittering Prize, the anthemic sweep of Waterfront and Sanctify Yourself, the firebrand strand of Belfast Child and Mandela Day and the singalong wonder of Don’t You (Forget About Me) and Alive & Kicking, and bringing things right up to date with the inclusion of two new tracks: Broken Glass Park and Blood Diamonds.

Simple Minds have been many things to many people: sound scapers, sound-shapers, soundtrack makers, serial chart-toppers. They have influenced acts as diverse as the Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Moby and The Horrors. They have been sampled by Nicky Minaj, David Guetta, Joey Negro and Freddy Bastone. They have provided memorable movie moments for directors Christian Carion (L’Affaire Farewell), Gregor Jordan (The Informers), Cameron Crowe (Elizabethtown) and, of course, John Hughes (The Breakfast Club). They have topped the British charts half a dozen times, with the studio albums Sparkle In The Rain (1984), Once Upon A Time (1985) and Street Fighting Years as well as the Ballad Of The Streets EP (both 1989), the concert recording Live In The City Of Light (1987), and the compilation Glittering Prize 81/92, and returned to the UK Top Ten with Graffiti Soul, their most recent studio album, in 2009.

Named after a lyric – ‘So simple minded’ to be exact – from David Bowie‘s seminal 1972 single The Jean Genie, Simple Minds evolved out of Johnny & the Self Abusers, the ‘rank and file’ punk group Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill had formed in April 1977. By the time Saints And Sinners, the sole Abusers single, was issued on Chiswick six months later, Simple Minds, featuring bassist Derek Forbes, drummer Brian McGee and keyboard-player Mick MacNeil, were already moving towards a darker, broodier sound that owed a debt to the Velvet Underground but also the Krautrock of Can, Kraftwerk and Neu!

Following their chart debut with the Life In A Day album in April 1979, Simple Minds recorded some of the most beguiling, inventive, adventurous music of the post-punk period and set the standard for the British alternative scene with the albums Real To Real Cacophony (also 1979), Empires And Dance (1980) and the pioneering ‘twin’ releases Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call (1981). The most prolific and fast-evolving band of a generation that also included The Cure, the Psychedelic Furs and Joy Division/New Order, in 1982 they went on to make the landmark New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84), which marked the debut of drummer Mel Gaynor and served as the template for U2‘s The Unforgettable Fire two years later.

Simple Minds went stratospheric with Once Upon A Time and became a band with a mission, the first to commit to the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert held at Wembley Stadium in July 1988, an event for which they wrote Mandela Day, included on Street Fighting Years the following year. Following Mandela’s release, Simple Minds also played the Freedom Concert, again at Wembley Stadium, in April 1990, and the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute in Hyde Park in 2008. In the intervening years, they have graced the Top 20 with the shimmering singles Let There Be Love, See The Lights, Stand By Love, She’s A River, Hypnotised and Glitterball, and the album charts with Real Life (1991), Good News From The Next World (1995), Neapolis (1998), Black & White 050505 (2005) and Graffiti Soul (2009) and covered material by many of the artists who have influenced them on Neon Lights (2001).

Celebrate – Greatest Hits + will be available in two formats: a 2CD version which features 36 songs, spanning 12 albums over 34 years, and a 3CD version which features 50 songs, spanning 13 albums over 36 years, including the band’s interpretation of Patti Smith’s ‘Dancing Barefoot’ from their 2001 covers album, Neon Lights. Both collections include two new songs: Broken Glass Park and Blood Diamonds.

Time to celebrate the majesty of Simple Minds…

Simple Minds are one of the UK’s most successful bands, having achieved six No.1 albums in the UK as well hitting the top spot in countless other territories including Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

Simple Minds are also arguably one of the best live bands in the world. On their extensive 28-date March and April tour – taking place in just 33 days – expect to hear songs from Celebrate… and the band’s extensive back catalogue. The show will be in two halves with an interval and no support – a whole evening of Simple Minds.

SIMPLE MINDS GREATEST HITS+ TOUR DATES:

• Mon 01—-ABERDEEN MUSIC HALL—-0844 499 9990
• Tue 02—-DUNDEE CAIRD HALL—-0844 499 9990
• Thu 04—-LLANDUDNO VENUE CYMRU ARENA—-01492 872 000
• Fri 05—-LEICESTER DE MONTFORT HALL—-SOLD OUT
• Sat 06—-WOLVERHAMPTON CIVIC HALL—-0870 320 7000
• Mon 08—-BRIGHTON DOME—-SOLD OUT
• Tue 09—-PLYMOUTH PAVILIONS—-0845 146 1460
• Thu 11—-LINCOLN ENGINE SHED—-0844 888 8766
• Fri 12—-NOTTINGHAM ROYAL CONCERT HALL—-0115 989 5555
• Sat 13—-LEEDS O2 ACADEMY—-0844 477 2000
• Mon 15—-BOURNEMOUTH O2 ACADEMY—-0844 477 2000
• Tue 16—-MARGATE WINTER GARDENS—-01843 292 795
• Wed 17—-SOUTHEND CLIFFS PAVILION—-01702 351 135
• Fri 19—-BLACKPOOL OPERA HOUSE—-0844 856 1111
• Sat 20—-LIVERPOOL EMPIRE—-SOLD OUT
• Mon 22—-CAMBRIDGE CORN EXCHANGE—-SOLD OUT
• Tue 23—-GUILDFORD G LIVE—-SOLD OUT
• Thu 25—-READING HEXAGON—-SOLD OUT
• Fri 26—-SHEFFIELD CITY HALL—-0114 278 9789
• Sat 27—-HULL CITY HALL—-01482 226 655
• Mon 29—-BRISTOL COLSTON HALL—-0117 922 3686
• Tue 30—-PORTSMOUTH GUILDHALL—-023 92824 355

• Thu 02—-OXFORD NEW THEATRE—-0844 871 3020
• Fri 03—-NORWICH UEA—-SOLD OUT
• Sat 04—-IPSWICH REGENT—-SOLD OUT

GIGSANDTOURS.COM | TICKETMASTER.CO.UK | 0844 811 0051 | 0844 826 2826

01. Life In A Day

02. Chelsea Girl

03. Changeling

04. I Travel

05. Celebrate

06. The American

07. Love Song

08. Promised You A Miracle

09. Glittering Prize

10. Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

11. Waterfront

12. Speed Your Love To Me

13. Up On The Catwalk

14. Don’t You (Forget About Me)

15. Alive And Kicking

16. Sanctify Yourself

17. All The Things She Said

18. Ghost Dancing

01. Belfast Child

02. This Is Your Land

03. Kick It In

04. Let There Be Love

05. See The Lights

06. Stand By Love

07. She’s A River

08. Hypnotised

09. Glitterball

10. War Babies

11. Space

12. Cry

13. Spaceface

14. Home

15. Rockets

16. Stars Will Lead The Way

17. Blood Diamonds *

18. Broken Glass Park *

01. Life In A Day

02. Chelsea Girl

03. Changeling

04. I Travel

05. Celebrate

06. The American

07. Love Song

08. Sweat In Bullet

09. Theme From Great Cities

10. Promised You A Miracle

11. Glittering Prize

12. Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

13. New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84)

14. Waterfront

15. Speed Your Love To Me

16. Up On The Catwalk

01. Don’t You Forget About Me

02. Alive And Kicking

03. Sanctify Yourself

04. All The Things She Said

05. Ghost Dancing

06. Promised You A Miracle (Live)

07. Belfast Child

08. Mandela Day

09. Biko

10. This Is Your Land

11. Kick It In

12. Let It All Come Down

13. Let There Be Love

14. See The Lights

15. Stand By Love

16. Real Life

01. She’s A River

02. Hypnotised

03. Glitterball

04. War Babies

05. Space

06. Jeweller To The Stars

07. Dancing Barefoot

08. Cry

09. Spaceface

10. One Step Closer

11. Home

12. Stranger

13. Stay Visible

14. Rockets

15. Stars Will Lead The Way

16. Stagefright

17. Blood Diamonds *

18. Broken Glass Park *