Simple Minds 'Belfast Child'

Chart Peak: 1
YouTube

The first Scottish group to top the UK singles chart since Wet Wet Wet way back in May 1988!... Stormed in at No. 2 on February 1989, [sic] progressed to No.1 the following week.

Presumably the reference to Wet Wet Wet is intended to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, since May to February is a gap of less than nine months and I doubt that's anything like the longest gap between Scottish acts at the top of the chart. Still, though 'Belfast Child' isn't the best-known or biggest-selling Simple Minds single, it is their only Number One over here (sometimes listed as a double A-side with 'Mandela Day' or as Ballad Of The Streets EP'). It's also the second track on this side based on a traditional tune, after Status Quo, though the source here is the relatively well-known 'She Moved Through The Fair'. The reasons for using an Irish tune in the context of a song about the Troubles in Northern Ireland are obvious, and Jim Kerr says he was inspired to do so after the atrocity of the Enniskillen bombing on Remembrance Day 1987. I've no doubt he was well-intentioned in doing so and I can imagine how a more subtle take on this idea may have worked, maybe as a brief acoustic track at the end of an album. Unfortunately, Simple Minds never really seem to have understood simplicity, and the finished article, even at the five-minute duration of the radio edit, seems to drag as it strains to carry the weight of its own pomposity; not helped at all by the super-slick production which ramps up the sentimentality at the expense of any genuine feeling, nor the airbrushed-looking video. My copy of Now 14 is scratched during this track so I've never been able to confirm exactly which edit is on there.

I will be fair and say that this might actually have sounded better at the time than it does now, and at least its heart is in the right place. What the band themselves might think of it at this point I don't know, but I suspect they might be prouder of this than 'Don't You Forget About Me'.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 5, 6, 7, 15, 23, 30
Available on: Celebrate: The Collection

Simple Minds 'She's A River'

Chart Peak: 9
YouTube

The nucleus of Simple Minds is now singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill. The "sensual and dangerous" 'She's A River' returned them to the Top 10 in January '95.

A hit that is perhaps no less forgotten than 'Independent Love Song', though in this case because it was the last Top 10 hit (and last Now appearance) for an act remembered for other songs. Whilst it's hard to agree entirely with the YouTube commenter who suggested that this was ripped off from 'The Fly' by U2, what it does have in common is that they both seem to have arrived at a juncture in an act's career where they felt they'd need to rethink their approach - U2 at the end of the 80s seemed to realise they were being overwhelmed by their own earnestness, hence the ironic attitude of the Achtung Baby album. Simple Minds, by contrast, seemed to feel they weren't being earnest enough, perhaps still trying to shrug off the reputation they'd got from 'Don't You Forget About Me' and 'Alive And Kicking'. Thus 'She's A River' - first single from their album Good News From The Next World, a title that was just asking for trouble  - feels like the start of their attempt to return to their art-rock roots, whilst still retaining the big stadium rock bombast that made them rich.

Unfortunately for them, even as they plunged deeper into electronics on subsequent recordings they've found it very hard to get that genie back into the bottle. Unfortunately for us, this song doesn't really work on any level - there's certainly nothing dangerous about it, other than the danger of falling asleep through boredom. It just feels like especially pompous AOR with nothing to back it up: cod-Wagnerian, one reviewer called it.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 23
Available on: Celebrate Greatest Hits

Simple Minds 'Alive And Kicking'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

Their second Top 10 single of the year, 'Alive And Kicking' had reached Number 7 by 22nd October. It is their 6th British Top 20 single.

Way back in the earlier days of this blog, this track got a mention
when it appeared on Now 23. I didn't have much to say about it then and I've even less to add now. They succeeded in what they were trying to do, I just wish they hadn't.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 5, 7, 14, 15, 23 [this track], 30
Available on: Massive Hits!: Driving Rock

Simple Minds 'All The Things She Said'

Chart Peak:

YouTube

When 'All The Things She Said' reached No. 9 in April 1986, it became Simple Minds's 4th consecutive UK Top 10 single following 'Don't You' [sic] 'Alive And Kicking' and 'Sanctify Yourself'.

Another act noted for making a similar drive towards the mainstream, Simple Minds hadn't been around as long as Genesis but had made up for lost time and by 1986 their singles were largely indistingushable from other soft-rock acts. We catch them here at their absolute commercial peak, in both senses of the word, pulling this and two of those other Top Tens from their biggest-selling studio album.

As a pop song, though, I don't think this is any better than 'Invisible Touch', its greatest strength being that it's marginally less pompous than some of their worst stuff around this time. It's catchy but no more than that. And I can't really tell whether Jim Kerr is doing an impression of Bono in the video on purpose or not. Either way it's nice of Father Dougal to help out on guitar though. Can we have somebody working to the best of their ability next please?

Also appearing on: Now 1, 5, 6, 14, 15, 23, 30
Available on: Once Upon A Time

Simple Minds 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

Another film I've never seen, and if you feel like making connections even further back, a song that Bryan Ferry apparently refused to record. In fact, even Simple Minds themselves reportedly turned it down at first, but were ultimately persuaded by their record company. And it seems to have been something of a decisive moment too: it gave them a US Number One single (and a long-running UK hit, despite its surprisingly low peak here) but at the expense of a certain amount of their reputation. To be sure, they'd already set off on the path of stadium rock, as can be heard on the very first Now! album with 'Waterfront', but recording an off-the-peg song for a film soundtrack seemed like the point of no return down that road. Of course, they made a fortune in the ensuing years, but when in later decades they tried to return to their art-rock origins, the genie wasn't going back into the bottle.

As for the record itself, I find again that listened to with a critical ear, it's not quite as bad as I thought, but I still wouldn't say it was actually good. The bombast that comes as standard with Jim Kerr seems particularly out of place with such light material, and he sounds utterly punchable by the closing la-la-la-la's. There are some mildly interesting bass parts, but all the rest sounds exactly what it is: part of the dressing for a mid-80s teen movie, and not really comprehensible without that context, or at least the memory of it.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 6, 7, 14, 15, 23, 30
Available on: EMI Presents 'The Great Big Scottish Songbook'

Simple Minds 'Alive And Kicking'

Chart Peak: 6 (7 in 1985)

YouTube

I suppose it's kind of a neat coincidence that a song later to reapper in the Now series is followed by a track that had already shown up once. 'Alive And Kicking' was of course a Top 10 hit in 1985 but re-emerged as part of a double A-sided reissue with the somewhat darker 'Love Song' in order to promote a compilation album. In theory, using the other side might have reduced the duplication, but this unlikely to have been a significant consideration - whilst I've discovered over the years that there are such people as loyal Now collectors, the albums don't show much sign of being assembled with them in mind; and that's probably no bad thing.

But am I rambling about this digression just to avoid saying something about this record? Apparently so. 'Alive And Kicking' pushes the right buttons and as stadium rock anthems go, is one of their better attempts, with a chorus that rises in the expected places. Unfortunately stadium rock anthems are one of my least favourite musical forms so I still don't get a lot out of this.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 5, 6 [this track], 7, 14, 15, 30
Available on: Glittering Prize 81/92

Simple Minds 'Waterfront'

Chart Peak: 13

YouTube

I almost forgot to do this one. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking, Simple Minds being one of the bands who rank lowest on my likeability scale. I was briefly hopeful, because I thought I hadn't heard this song before, and I knew that they were one of those acts who (like UB40) had had a more interesting pre-history before their biggest success. However, once I'd found the track it didn't take long to realise that I had heard it before, that it hadn't made much of an impression on me and that it wasn't part of their experimental period.
Even if you ignore the video, 'Waterfront' is very clearly the birth of Simple Minds as a stadium rock act, the proverbial loud-sounding nothing. Big booming drums, that relentless one-note bassline, clanging guitars and all manner of huffing and puffing from Jim Kerr all of which tells us that, er, they're going to stand on a waterfront in a million years' time. Why wait Jim? It's possible that this is intended as some sort of metaphor for something else (Scotland?) but the whole thing rings so hollow it's difficult to care one way or the other. It's not even as catchy as, say, 'Alive And Kicking'

Also appearing on: Now 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 23, 30
Available on: The Best of Simple Minds