Simple Minds formed in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1977 around frontman Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill.
Their early, atmospheric post-punk albums peaked with 1982's New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), home to their first hit single, Promised You a Miracle.
However it was the stand-alone single Don't You (Forget About Me), which featured in the cult teen movie The Breakfast Club, and their 1985 album Once Upon a Time, with its hit single Alive and Kicking, that cemented the band's global success as a stadium act adored by MTV.
We caught up with Kerr ahead of the band’s show at the Tennis Stadium in Dubai on Thursday.
What can fans expect from your show in the UAE?
A band that’s on form. We’ll put together a set that has something for the people who want to hear the big hits from the peak MTV years, but also for the Simple Minds fans who know everything from our very first album onwards. We’ll probably do a David Bowie cover, too …
Of course. Bowie, who died this month, was a huge influence on Simple Minds. How would you sum up his importance?
The way his career unfolded and everything that went with it – the look, the fashion, the video experiments, the acting ... he did 14 albums in 14 years, and not one of them was remotely the same. When you look at it like that you could argue he gave The Beatles a run for their money.
But what made us love him was that he was completely fringe, mad as a hatter. Charlie Burchill called me on the day Bowie died and he was very emotional. I said to him: ‘Bowie’s only gone about eight hours, but I already feel more inspired by him.’ He was an artist right to the end.
2014's Big Music was widely seen as a return to form. How did you get the band firing on all cylinders again?
It's been a gradual process, which began with Black & White in 2005, then Graffiti Soul in 2009.
Black & White was pivotal, because it was the album where we said: 'OK, if we're going to do this we have to commit like we did when we were young.' And when you're older, and you have responsibilities and children, that's a tough call. Plus, who has the same hunger in their bellies when they've been rewarded as we have? But we kept writing songs through the good, the bad and the indifferent – and we got strong and confident again.
With Big Music, meeting [record producer] Andy Wright at the right time was a big thing, and our manager Ian Grenfell is a bright guy, too. We strapped a lot of brains on to us.
You live in Taormina, a hilltop town on the east coast of Sicily. Why does the lifestyle there appeal to you?
The first time I ever went abroad was on a school trip to Rimini on the Adriatic Coast. I’d grown up in a high-rise flat in Glasgow but when I went to Italy, I discovered that the world was in colour – and I’ve been drawn to the place ever since. I recently discovered that when my grandfather was in Italy during the war, he was stationed here, in Taormina. Without even knowing that, I was drawn here somehow. How about that?
Are you working on a new album?
We're writing it and recording it, yes. Before we'd even finished Big Music, I was adamant that it wasn't going to be a flash in the pan, some little purple patch. I think that to get 15 really good songs, you've got to be messing with about 30 to 40 pieces of music. We're motoring again.
Some people feel that, deliberately or not, you never capitalised on the stadium years in the way that, say, U2 did.
Well, it’s the truth. But I think what people don’t understand is that every band is a different organism. Unfortunately for us, in the 1990s – which was when we needed to prove ourselves to the next generation – the wheels were coming off. The irony, though, is that those years in the wilderness were probably what refreshed Simple Minds in the long run.
And a lot of those bands who never went away – I won’t name names – are just treading water now.
What’s left to achieve?
We’re only just starting out! (laughs). As we’ve seen, even David Bowie doesn’t defy gravity but, hopefully, there’s plenty more to come from us.
A lot of people in the music business today say: ‘Oh, you can’t sell records any more, what’s the point?’ But this is who we are – this is what Charlie Burchill and myself have been doing since we were 14. You can’t switch that off.
Simple Minds will perform at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium at 9pm on Thursday, January 28. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are Dh225 from www.virginmegastore.me and www.platinumlist.net
artslife@thenational.ae
