- After the success of Sons And Fascination
Arista (who still controlled the band's back catalogue) decided to issue a compilation album featuring a selection of tracks from the first three albums.
- Either in late 1981, or very early 1982, trade advertisements appeared for an album titled Trace Elements.
- Trace Elements was described as a Best Of including
Chelsea Girl,
Changeling
I Travel and one unreleased track.
- A colour proof of the front of the sleeve is owned by a collector (who obtained it from someone who once worked at the
record company).
- Eventually the title and most of the artwork was scrapped and the album appeared as Celebration. Only the catalogue
number was retained.
- Celebration included tracks from Life In A Day,
Real To Real Cacophony,
Empires And Dance and the rather illusive B-side
Kaleidoscope.
- (Whether Kaleidoscope was the one unreleased track eluded to by the
Trace Elements advertisement is unknown. Kaleidoscope had been issued as part of the first
I Travel release so it was hardly unreleased.)
- Some copies of Celebration had stickers cheekily proclaiming The Very Best Of Simple Minds.
- I Travel was reissued to promote the album, and became highly collectible, as the B-side featured exclusive
live material.
- When Virgin acquired the back catalogue later that year, they quietly reissued the album themselves. The
Arista pressings remain rarer.
- The CD issue mistakenly featured Kant-Kino.
- Despite its genesis, Celebration served as a very handy introduction to the early years of
Simple Minds. It was not included as part of Virgin's reissue series, and it now looks like the
album's been deleted for good, being replaced by Virgin's early year compilation
Early Gold.
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