08 Sep, 2015 Announcing two new SIMPLE MINDS releases!
We are proud to announce two very special limited edition Simple Minds box sets available for pre-order now:
‘THE VINYL COLLECTION 79-84’
Simple Minds’ first seven, hugely influential albums compiled in one limited edition box
RELEASE DATE: 30th OCTOBER
Details & pre-order here
‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ DELUXE BOX
5CD & DVD remastered box, previously unreleased material, B-sides, 5.1 mix and new interviews with Jim Kerr & Charlie Burchill.
(ALSO AVAILABLE ON STANDARD CD, 2CD DELUXE, BLU-RAY & LP)
RELEASE DATE: 4TH DECEMBER
Details & pre-order here
Following the release earlier this year of the acclaimed SPARKLE IN THE RAIN deluxe box (“[an] impressive box set.” **** Q Magazine), in November and December, Universal Catalogue will continue their restoration of SIMPLE MINDS’ eclectic and pioneering catalogue, with the releases of THE VINYL COLLECTION 79-84 and the ONCE UPON A TIME deluxe box.
‘THE VINYL COLLECTION 79-84’
THE VINYL COLLECTION brings together the band’s first seven albums – Life In A Day, Real To Real Cacophony, Empires and Dance, Sons and Fascination, Sister Feelings Call, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) and Sparkle In The Rain – in one deluxe box. All of these albums have been remastered at Abbey Road and will be available on heavyweight 180gm vinyl.
This incredibly prolific and pioneering period is seen as one of the greatest in rock music history, as SIMPLE MINDS went from predominately post-punk, glam roots (LIFE IN A DAY) through innovative Krautrock and dub-inspired studio experimentation (REAL TO REAL CACOPHONY)– described by Bobby Gillespie as “really hard European disco”), into a fascination with European culture, with the influence of the likes of Neu! And Kraftwerk feeding into their third album, EMPIRES AND DANCE, in just a mere two years. Exploring the use of sequencing, more progressive, textured soundscapes, soundtracking a lyrical journey through European culture and politics, EMPIRES AND DANCE’s industrial sound was to prove ahead of its time, pre-empting later works by the likes of Cabaret Voltaire.
1981’s SONS AND FASCINATION and SISTER FEELINGS CALL was the band’s first release on Virgin Records. The release was, in fact, two albums, with the latter initially included as a limited bonus disc and later released as an album in its own right. Working with producer Steve Hillage the band created the perfect symmetry between their previous album and elements of prog rock, which, bar fellow imaginative artists such as Magazine and PiL, many of their contemporaries were still wilfully dismissive of. Following exposure to a much wider audience, thanks to a Peter Gabriel tour support, the single ‘Love Song’ was an international hit. Both albums were to prove a massive influence on the dance revolution of the ’80s and ’90s, particularly SISTER FEELINGS CALL’s ‘Theme For Great Cities’, which proved so enduring, the band re-recorded it as a b-side 10 years later.
1982s NEW GOLD DREAM 81-82-83-84 was the album which began the band’s crossover as a major force in the pop music of the decade, reaching no.3 on the UK album chart. Working with producer Peter Walsh, the band was able to realise the sophisticated, accessible pop sound – whilst continuing their quest for experimentation – they were striving for. This achievement was reflected in three incredible and successful singles: ‘Promised You A Miracle’, ‘Glittering Prize’ and ‘Someone, Somewhere (In Summertime)’. The album even included a guest appearance from the legendary jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock (‘Hunter and The Hunted’).
Originally released in February 1984, SPARKLE IN THE RAIN was Simple Minds’ sixth studio album and, following 1982’s crossover album NEW GOLD DREAM, the one to cement their commercial success, giving them their first UK number 1 (as well as a Top 20 album in Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland). The album went on to be certified double platinum in the UK. The illustrious lyrics and the political and personal love songs were matched by throbbing synth-beats and piano flourishes, dominating new wave guitar chimes and swooning bass lines. Kerr’s song writing thrived on the band’s striving amidst a new emerging sound and direction. The album cemented Simple Minds’ reputation as one of the major bands of the 1980s and prepared the groundwork for the worldwide hit album ONCE UPON A TIME.
There’s no doubting the lasting, cultural impact of these albums, from the time of their release during the birth of the new wave electro scene in the late 1970s, through the dance scene of the ’80s and ’90s, to the music of the Manic Street Preachers and the recent sound of The Horrors’ Skying album, making them five of the most vital albums of the post-punk period and the last 35 years.
‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ DELUXE BOX
The ONCE UPON A TIME deluxe box features 6 discs of newly remastered material; the album, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASEDsingle mixes, B-sides and alternate versions, extended mixes and 2CD ‘Live In The City Of Light‘ concert from 1987, a DVD audio version of the album with high resolution 96/24, 5.1 mix and the promo videos, as well as a 36-page booklet with rare photos, new interviews with Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill and a track-by-track guide.
Originally released in October 1985, ONCE UPON A TIME became Simple Minds’ most successful album to date, shifting two million copies in two months, hitting the top spot in the UK and making the top ten in America. It spawned four top-twenty singles and launched a fifteen month long world tour that kept Simple Minds’ name in the music weeklies for most of 1986. And with Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain providing a production dream team, and Anton Corbijn contributing to its instantly recognisable artwork, then ONCE UPON A TIME had all the attributes of a classic 1980s album.
Following the release of SPARKLE IN THE RAIN, Simple Minds undertook a 30-date US tour supporting The Pretenders. The barely populated halls and disinterested audiences they played to, meant the album campaign ended on a flat note. Undeterred, the band regrouped at the newly opened Barwell Court in Esher, Surrey to rediscover their strengths, start writing new material and prepare for a serious of New Year Barrowland gigs for which they were assured a heroes welcome. They dug up old demos, took existing songs and played with their tempos, arrangements and melodies and tried almost everything to find those elusive ideas which would lead to new songs. As the November nights grew longer, the elegant Tudor buildings of Barwell Court started to echo to the beginnings of ONCE UPON A TIME, as recognisable instrumental versions of Ghost Dancing, I Wish You Were Here and Come A Long Way started to take shape.
The unexpected arrival of Keith Forsey forced a break in this routine. A&M, their shared American record company, asked the producer to try to coax the recalcitrant Scots into recording his Don’t You (Forget About Me). When originally approached about the song, the band had knocked it back, due to being busy and having reasonable success with their own material. But the band’s love of soundtracks meant they’d always had an eye on film scores and the offer of a film soundtrack was their Achilles Heel.
Forsey worked his magic on the band. They still weren’t impressed by his demo, but they liked his determination and felt the song could be moulded a little into their own style. They reluctantly agreed on the condition that Kerr could write some words of his own.
Don’t You (Forget About Me) was soon forgotten as Simple Minds started rehearsing for their Barrowland gigs. As far as the group were concerned, Don’t You (Forget About Me) was just another track on another soundtrack album: there was no talk of it being a single, there was no talk of it being the title track, and it was going to buried on a LP featuring several other big names. Yet the song started to take on a life of its own; the record company loved it, American radio loved it and so a single became an urgent necessity. Simple Minds were initially nonplussed by this attention, shrugging it off as it didn’t really matter in America, as no-one knew them or their music. But the situation in Europe was different and they quickly put a block on a European single release.
Following the huge success of their Barrowland gigs and the great reception their new material received – Ghost Dancing was played live for the first time – the group set their sights on the almost unobtainable Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain as producers for their new album. The success of Don’t You (Forget About Me) helped their cause, giving the band a welcome boost and extra publicity in the US.
Once they’d secured this dream pairing, the planning of the recordings finally fell into place. Final rough arrangements continued at Barwell Court until May 1985, when both Iovine and Clearmountain visited briefly to tie-up loose ends, listen to the rough demos, and in Iovine’s case, suggest and mentor the final compositional twists of Alive And Kicking. The material was sounding good and the band had the basis of songs like Alive And Kicking and All The Things She Said and various others.
Simple Minds started work at The Townhouse in June, initiating the formal recordings of the album with Once Upon A Time, Ghost Dancing, Alive And Kicking, Oh Jungleland, I Wish You Were Here and Come A Long Way. Further recording and mixing was planned for later that month in the rural confines of Bearsville Studios in New York State where Clearmountain was based; and final mixing was planned for Iovine’s New York City base at Right Track Studios.
The move to America and Bearsville nicely coincided with Live Aid. Simple Minds were never invited to participate in Band Aid’s Do They Think It’s Christmas? but were invited to perform at the live concert; and with Don’t You (Forget About Me) having just started its slow descent from the US charts, and the band booked into Bearsville Studios the next day to continue recording and mixing, then it made sense for them to appear on the Philadelphia stage. The day after Live Aid, the band drove to Bearsville Studios, to finalize the recordings and start mixing, now under the full-time guidance of Iovine and Clearmountain. Iovine’s experience of the American music business and his ear for a Stateside hit also shaped the sound of the album, which the band were fully open to.
Working with Iovine and his New York connections brought in many other advantages. The sound of Bowie’s Young Americans was still a major influence and Iovine suggested getting the same performers to guest on ONCE UPON A TIME. A phone call was made and in no time at all Robin Clark, one of the backing singers on Young Americans, was in the studio adding her distinctive backing vocals to Alive And Kicking, All The Things She Said and Once Upon A Time. The other backing vocalists brought in during the sessions included The Simms Brothers and Michael Been of The Call, who became a very close friend (the band would later cover The Call’s Let The Day Begin on their 2014 album, BIG MUSIC).
Alive And Kicking was the obvious first choice of single and its release preceded ONCE UPON A TIME by a month. The new sound, artwork and video indicated what was to come and whilst the single reached the same chart position as its predecessor in the UK, it just slipped short of the top spot in America, stalling at number three. But ONCE UPON A TIME easily eclipsed SPARKLE IN THE RAIN when released in October 1985, shifting two million copies in two months, hitting the top spot in the UK, and making the top ten in America.
In support of the album, Simple Minds undertook their longest and biggest tour yet, beginning in the USA in October 1985 (kicking off at Pughkeepsie on the 31st) and visiting mainland Europe, the UK, the USA again (now with The Call as support), Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. This included a series of massive outdoor summer concerts at Ibrox, Milton Keynes Bowl and Torhout-Werchter. Their first three top-10 singles from the album were signposts detailing the progression of the tour, and the fourth, Ghost Dancing, was released as the tour wound up, all profits being donated to Amnesty International. As Simple Minds took a well earned rest, after years of relentless writing, recording and touring, Virgin released the lavishly packaged LIVE IN THE CITY OF LIGHT, a massive live souvenir of ONCE UPON A TIME recorded over several nights at Le Zenith in Paris, which earned them their third successive UK number one.
The story of ONCE UPON A TIME was also intimately tied up with Don’t You (Forget About Me). If it hadn’t been for that song, the song which finally brought them their well deserved recognition in America, then it’s doubtful whether Jimmy Iovine or Bob Clearmountain would’ve ever come on board. And yet, Don’t You (Forget About Me) had that slight stigma of being the outsider, the song penned by another team, a cover version which they’d made their own. When they tried to equal or outdo it with Alive And Kicking, then they almost made it, but Alive And Kicking stalled at number three, just coming up short. Yet despite the debt owed to the movie soundtrack, Don’t You (Forget About Me) was left off the album, a move that is still contentious today, thirty years later.
“When I think of our most complete albums,” said Kerr. “I would say NEW GOLD DREAM (81,82,83,84) is definitely a complete album – it just feels very complete to me from start to finish; and I don’t think I’d change anything on ONCE UPON A TIME and I wouldn’t change anything on BIG MUSIC. They, for me, are the most complete albums. Someone might say Don’t You (Forget About Me) should’ve been included; and when you think about it, leaving it off is rather eccentric thing to do – you wouldn’t get away with that now. It would’ve sold double the amount of copies though! But it’s very complete: the artwork, everything about it, it is bang on.”
The ONCE UPON A TIME deluxe box features 6 discs of newly remastered material; the album, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED single mixes, B-sides and alternate versions, extended mixes and 2CD ‘Live In The City Of Light‘ concert from 1987, a DVD audio version of the album with high resolution 96/24, 5.1 mix and the promo videos, as well as a 36-page booklet with rare photos, new interviews with Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill and a track-by-track guide.
Details of both box sets:
‘THE VINYL COLLECTION 79-84’
LP ONE – Life In A Day
SIDE ONE
Someone
Life In A Day
Sad Affair
All For You
Pleasantly Disturbed
SIDE TWO
No Cure
Chelsea Girl
Wasteland
Destiny
Murder Story
LP TWO – Real To Real Cacophony
SIDE ONE
Real To Real
Naked Eye
Citizen (Dance Of Youth)
Carnival (Shelter In A Suitcase)
Factory
Cacophony
Veldt
SIDE TWO
Premonition
Changeling
Film Theme
Calling Your Name
Scar
LP THREE – Empires And Dance
SIDE ONE
I Travel
Today I Died Again
Celebrate
This Fear Of Gods
SIDE TWO
Capital City
Constantinople Line
Twist / Run / Repulsion
Thirty Frames A Second
Kant-Kino
Room
LP FOUR – Sons And Fascination
SIDE ONE
In Trance As Mission
Sweat In Bullet
70 Cities As Love Brings The Fall
Boys From Brazil
SIDE TWO
Love Song
This Earth That You Walk Upon
Sons And Fascination
Seeing Out The Angel
LP FIVE – Sister Feelings Call
SIDE ONE
Theme For Great Cities
The American
20th Century Promised Land
SIDE TWO
Wonderful In Young Life
League Of Nations
Careful In Career
Sound In 70 Cities
LP SIX – New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
SIDE ONE
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Colours Fly And Catherine Wheel
Promised You A Miracle
Big Sleep
Somebody Up There Likes You
SIDE TWO
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
Glittering Prize
Hunter And The Hunted
King Is White And In The Crowd
LP SEVEN – Sparkle In The Rain
SIDE ONE
Up On The Catwalk
Book Of Brilliant Things
Speed Your Love To Me
Waterfront
East At Easter
SIDE TWO
Street Hassle
White Hot Day
“C” Moon Cry Like A Baby
The Kick Inside Of Me
Shake Off The Ghosts
‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ DELUXE BOX
Super Deluxe Tracklisting
DISC ONE
1. Once Upon A Time
2. All The Things She Said
3. Ghost Dancing
4. Alive And Kicking
5. Oh Jungleland
6. I Wish You Were Here
7. Sanctify Yourself
8. Come A Long Way
DISC TWO – Single mixes, B-sides and alternates
1. Don’t You (Forget About Me)
2. A Brass Band In Africa
3. Don’t You (Forget About Me) [Extended Version]
4. A Brass Band In African Chimes
5. Alive And Kicking [Edit]
6. Alive And Kicking [Instrumental]
7. Up On The Catwalk [Live] (Barrowland, Glasgow: 5th January 1985)
8. Alive And Kicking [7″ Remix Edit] PREVIOUSLY UNRELASED
9. Alive And Kicking [12″ Remix] PREVIOUSLY UNRELASED
10. Alive And Kicking [Kervorkian 12″ Remix] PREVIOUSLY UNRELASED
11. Sanctify Yourself [Edit]
12. Sanctify Yourself [Instrumental]
13. Sanctify Yourself [Alternative Edit] PREVIOUSLY UNRELASED
DISC THREE – Single mixes, B-sides and alternates
1. Street Hassle [Live] (Ahoy, Rotterdam: 3rd December 1985)
2. Love Song [Live] (Ahoy, Rotterdam: 3rd December 1985)
3. Sanctify Yourself [Extended Mix]
4. Sanctify Yourself [Dub]
5. All The Things She Said [Edit]
6. Promised You A Miracle [US Remix]
7. All The Things She Said [Extended Version]
8. Don’t You (Forget About Me) [Live] (Ahoy, Rotterdam: 3rd December 1985)
9. Ghost Dancing [Special Extended 12″ Remix]
10. Ghost Dancing [Instrumental]
11. Oh Jungleland [Special Extended 12″ Remix]
12. Oh Jungleland [Instrumental]
DISC FOUR – Live In The City Of Light
1. Ghost Dancing
2. Big Sleep
3. Waterfront
4. Promised You A Miracle
5. Someone Somewhere In Summertime
6. Oh Jungleland
7. Alive And Kicking
DISC FIVE – Live In The City Of Light
1. Don’t You Forget About Me
2. Once Upon A Time
3. Book Of Brilliant Things
4. East At Easter
5. Sanctify Yourself
6. Love Song – Sun City – Dance To The Music
7. New Gold Dream
DISC SIX – DVD
Once Upon A Time – 5.1 Mix
1. Once Upon A Time
2. All The Things She Said
3. Ghost Dancing
4. Alive And Kicking
5. Oh Jungleland
6. I Wish You Were Here
7. Sanctify Yourself
8. Come A Long Way
Once Upon A Time – Stereo
9. Once Upon A Time
10. All The Things She Said
11. Ghost Dancing
12. Alive And Kicking
13. Oh Jungleland
14. I Wish You Were Here
15. Sanctify Yourself
16. Come A Long Way
Promo Videos
17. Don’t You (Forget About Me)
18. Alive And Kicking
19. Sanctify Yourself
20. All The Things She Said
21. Ghost Dancing