Simple Minds hope fans don’t forget about them
The Scottish band Simple Minds has never broken up, but U.S. fans can be forgiven for thinking they had. After all, it’s been more than two decades since they last toured America.
“I’m embarrassed to say how long it’s been, and I feel like we should apologize,” frontman Jim Kerr said last week. “But you know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder, and hopefully that’s going to kick in. To be honest, there’s a few reasons. By 1992 or so, the wheels were coming off for us — a new generation comes along, with grunge and all that, and you feel like yesterday’s news. The last thing we wanted to do was to come back as part of some ’80s package tour.
“I tell people straight that you find out a lot about yourself when you drive past an arena that you once sold out en route to a club where there are still tickets available,” Kerr said. “It makes you realize that you’re a lifer, that you’re doing this because that’s who you are. So this is who we are, and this tour is for the people who have hung in there with us.”
Initially Simple Minds was one of the quirkier bands of their era, with a European orchestral sound that went against the stripped-down norms of punk.
“We loved the whole ethic of punk, the idea that anybody could give it a go and that bands could start labels and do their own publishing. But we weren’t going to deny that we were also fans of Pink Floyd and King Crimson.”
They were already established as an art-pop band when they recorded the “Breakfast Club” theme “Don’t You Forget About Me,” which became their signature song even though they didn’t write it and it’s more sentimental than their norm.
“That was the unlikeliest thing, and you have to take the combustion between the song and the movie. Then MTV got all over it, which attached a few more steroids to it. But you can’t be picky, we’re just glad to be known at all. That song has a real joy to it. It really announces itself whenever it comes on the radio. And I still think those la-la-las at the end are brilliant,” Kerr said.
Not quite ready for the small clubs yet, Simple Minds headline the Orpheum on Wednesday, with Kerr and founding guitarist Charlie Burchill fronting a mostly new lineup. Fans shouldn’t worry, however, as the latest album, “Walk Between Worlds,” has all the usual trademarks: grand orchestral sound, Kerr’s soaring vocals and an overall optimistic mood.
“How can I not be optimistic given the life and the opportunities I’ve had? True, when you get to a certain age, some stuff no longer makes sense to you. You get less patient with things, some of your idealism gets chipped away. But we are all born a certain type and I’m still an optimist. That’s why I love music so much.
“I tell the people that the band’s like a family. And they ask me, ‘What kind of family, the Sopranos?’ And I say that no, we’re more like the Addams Family. And I’m Uncle Fester.”