- The whole Once Upon A Time tour was dedicated to Amnesty International. So
when the organization compiled a charity album, Simple Minds didn’t hesitate to
offer Ghostdancing as one of the tracks. As extra promotion, the band issued the
track as a single themselves, with all profits going to Amnesty.
- Amnesty’s profile on the sleeve was raised by information about the organization,
a plug for Amnesty’s album, and “the mandate” where Simple Minds reiterated their
strong views on the organization. (This was repeated from the flyers at gigs?) The sleeve
graphics were different from the previous Once Upon A Time singles and not artist
wasn’t credited. “Once upon a time in the norm….”
- As the Once Upon A Time tour was just finishing in Australia, and thoughts were
turning to a live album early next year, the inclusion of further live tracks as
B-sides was ruled out. Instead the unused Oh Jungleland tracks were dug out alongside
some newly commissioned remixing work by Zeus B Held. Therefore the end of the Once Upon A Time
was effectively marked by a weighty remix single.
- For the first time, a CD single joined the 7” and 12”. Offered as a special limited edition,
the MIKE range was a tentative testing of CD single sales across Virgin’s various signed artists.
The results were probably not good, as CDs weren’t offered as a single format for a few years to come.
Packaged in its smart gatefold sleeve, the first Simple Minds CD single quickly became a hot collectable.
- As had become the norm by now, a 12” promo appeared before the single.
- The band declined to shoot a video, so performance footage from Paris was used instead. Interestingly
the audio was also the live version, and it wasn’t dubbed with the studio version. This allowed Virgin
to start promoting the live album on the sly, which was expected in early 1986.
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