Our Secrets Are The Same
Out Now, the long-awaited memoir from Simple Minds’ lifelong collaborators, Jim Kerr & Charlie Burchill
A candid, moving and kinetic story of self-realisation through the power of music, Our Secrets Are The Same is the remarkable joint memoir by Simple Minds’ founder members, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill. Released on October 2nd, 2025, it not only reveals the inner workings of one of the most innovative and successful British bands of the past half-century, but the deeply personal tale of an extraordinary friendship which powered teenage dreams into visionary action.
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“Easter 1977. Southside Glasgow.
Eleven o’clock on a Sunday morning. Charlie and I have found our John the Baptist in a converted bungalow across the road from our alma mater, Holyrood Secondary School.
Outside, old grannies and kids are coming back from Mass. Inside, the windows are shaking. I am witnessing one of the greatest, bravest performances I will ever witness.
Destiny is calling. We are seventeen and ready for something. Anything.”
Jim Kerr
Jim and Charlie first met at the age of eight, when their families moved to the same housing estate in Toryglen, on Glasgow’s southside. More than fifty years later, they live on the same street in Taormina, Sicily. In the decades between, their lives have been uniquely and intimately entwined.
Together they embarked upon the ultimate adventure: forming a rock band from ground zero and ascending to the most elevated heights, while at times negotiating the inevitable falls from grace a prolonged career in music entails.
What did they discover?
That life is not so much about finding yourself as creating yourself. That you can indeed transcend whatever circumstances in which you were born. That dreaming is necessary but not enough; at some point you have to rise up and forcefully bend fantasy into reality. And in doing so, it helps immeasurably to find a soulmate who believes in the cause as fervently as you.
For both Jim and Charlie, the group they formed in 1977 became a personal crusade; a means of making something from nothing. Simple Minds are renowned worldwide for their string of hits and powerhouse live shows. For its two principals, however, the band became a way of being. Making music offered a passport to numerous experiences once unimaginable to two kids from Toryglen.
Their remarkable story traces the arc of working-class aspiration, social change, chemical awakenings, cultural infiltration, unwavering drive and thrilling creative fusion. Along the way, there are brushes with David Bowie, Bob Dylan, U2 and Nelson Mandela. Breakfast with Alice Cooper. Dinner with Lou Reed. And a few scrapes with the boys in blue:
“The police approached me and Jim. They said they’d had a report that two people had broken into the record store and taken some albums. That was merely a pretext. The truth was they just didn’t like the look of us.
The policeman said: ‘Right, what do you two do?’
‘We’re rock stars,’ says Jim.
‘What band are you in?’
‘Simple Minds.’
‘Never heard of you.’
‘That’s cos we don’t make music for cops . . .’
It was worth a night in the cells, that line.”
Charlie Burchill
Exploring key songs, places, years and events in the Simple Minds story, and told in the distinct voices of both men, Our Secrets Are The Same explores a bond which has encompassed stratospheric highs and humbling lows, marriages and divorces, fatherhood, fickle fame, tricky inter-band dynamics, and the occasional explosive bust up.
Through the numerous occasions when their private and professional lives have been thrown into flux, Jim and Charlie have always known they have one thing they could rely on unconditionally: each other.
Their connection is grounded in shared experiences and a set of values and codes so deeply ingrained they don’t need to be spoken. For Our Secrets Are The Same is not just the story of two rock stars, but of two sons, brothers, partners and parents who have never forgotten where they come from. Two men who have remained deeply bonded to their roots and each other, while fulfilling a teenage dream to form a world-class live band and take their music around the globe.
Fascinating and funny, evocative and inspiring, this unforgettable memoir captures a unique journey through life and music, and a friendship like no other.
‘We came from a place where you had to fight for your dreams; a tough existence instilled a certain grittiness. Barely eighteen years old, we were already recognising that the band was by now the most precious thing in our lives, and that the risk of appearing to be tough-minded bastards from time to time was already an unspoken necessity. It was just part and parcel of what we were convinced was required in order to do what was right for Simple Minds.’
Original members and core songwriters, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill formed Simple Minds in 1977 and went on to turn it into one of the biggest, most influential, eclectic and pioneering groups of the past half century. Simple Minds emerged from Glasgow’s post-punk scene, transitioning from restless art-rockers to electro futurists and passionate pop contenders before becoming, finally, a global rock institution. Their critically acclaimed run of records between 1979 and 1985 are cited as a key influence by artists as diverse as Primal Scream, Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers, Moby, Peter Gabriel, Horrors and Chvrches. Their numerous global hits include ‘Alive and Kicking’, ‘Promised You A Miracle’, ‘Waterfront’, ‘(Don’t You) Forget About Me’, ‘Belfast Child’, ‘Sanctify Yourself’, ‘She’s a River’ and ‘Let There Be Love’. Simple Minds were recently the subject of critically acclaimed documentary, Everything is Possible, and continue to perform to huge crowds all over the world.
“For almost half a century, with Simple Minds we have navigated the sudden pressure drops, the changing currents and headwinds of fortune, good and bad. What did we discover? We concluded that life is not so much about finding yourself as creating yourself along the way.”
Jim Kerr
Graeme Thomson is the author of several acclaimed music books, including Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush; Small Hours: The Long Night of John Martyn; and Themes for Great Cities: A New History of Simple Minds. Graeme is pop columnist for the Spectator and writes on music, literature and popular culture for a number of publications, including the Guardian, Radio Times and Uncut.