1983 Singles - # 41 Simple Minds

 

New Gold Dream had  been a major feature of my 1982 musically. I'd spent much of my Autumn lying on the living room floor, the Fidelity speakers held to my ears listening to it. Lost in it. It was an enchanting and exhilarating record. Still is.

I'd just started college but I was still unformed and geeky really. My college days would be the making of me. I'd start to fill in my personality around my taste, of music and books mostly but also around politics and ideas.

Somewhere along that journey I left Simple Minds behind. Or more accurately, they left me. They returned in November '83 with  Waterfront, the first single from  their forthcoming album Sparkle in the Rain. 

The video was shown on Top of the Pops an indication that they were big and important now. Had other things to do and were too busy to appear on the show. They would have dropped everything to be on in person just a year before. The promo, imaginatively filmed on a waterfront was further evidence that the band were moving into a new phase. It was pretty crap really.

Jim Kerr still did his slinky moves and held his microphone in that specific way. But he was wearing a suit now. It looked suspiciously like a Burton's suit and he'd had a slick new haircut. Dyed the black roots out and it didn't look like he'd applied his own pancake make up mix anymore. The kohl was gone. He looked normal. Not like a New Wave elf anymore. If I wasn't still partially enamored and hoping I'd love Waterfront and Sparkle as much as I had New Gold Dream I'd have said that they'd sold out. Decided to abandon their own magical path and become the Scottish U2.

With time I realised they'd made a shift and we'd parted ways and gone our separate ways. Sparkle in the Rain wasn't a bad album exactly. It was just an empty one. Full of the bombast and broad gestures that only really only made sense from the back of a large arenas and stadiums. The kind of thing that Bono specialised in.

Some say that Simple Minds lost it when bassist Derek Forbes left after New Gold Dream. He certainly took something with him. Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill's judgement perhaps. Don't You Forget About Me and wandering around in daft videos with a bird of prey on your arm and embarrassing ham-fisted political comment was just around the corner. Still, I'll always have the first five albums. They're more than enough in themselves. But you didn't have to do it Jim.