The name of the band ultimately came from a line in David Bowie’s The Jean Genie:
"He's so simple minded he can't drive his module."

Charlie mentioned at the time that they didn't want a name starting with "The".

To Irish fans, the design was instantly recognisable, as the famous characteristic ring from the small fishing village of Claddagh near Galway, Ireland. Its creator, goldsmith Richard Joyce, named the ring after the village he settled in (after an adventurous and hair raising life being kidnapped by pirates, sold as a slave, trained as a metalworker by a Moorish goldsmith, and eventually released by a Kings’ mandate).

In addition to its powerful iconography (the hands are friendship, the crown loyalty and the heart is love), the ring symbolised the wearers’ status:

• Those who are unattached and free should wear the ring on their right hand with the heart pointing out.
• If spoken for, wear the ring on the right hand with the heart pointing in.
• Moreover, if married (so your heart is taken), then wear the ring on the left hand with the heart pointing in.

Did Jim knew the history or the meaning of the ring before deciding that it would be the crux of Live in the City of Light’s artwork? Malcolm Garrett confirmed that Jim suggested the design, and the artist offered an alternative view, suggesting the fingers formed a heart. However the version that graced the sleeve was definitely a stylised representation of Joyce’s design, so an original Claddagh ring was ultimately the basis.

A sketch of the Claddagh by Malcolm Garrett

That was the last I heard of the idea, but I felt it was worth compiling a list anyway. And I was surprised at some of the entries.

1. Real To Real Cacophony UK cassette Arista TCART 1109
   After many years of searching, I have never seen a copy, therefore making this grubby cassette from 1979 the ultimate retail rarity. Added to the fact that no-one else has a copy, it could be concluded that it probably doesn’t exist.

   But considering the de-facto standard of the cassette at the time, its non-appearance is rather puzzling. Did it have a textured sleeve like its grown-up LP big brother? Perhaps we’ll never know.

   To add to the mystery, it was released in Spain (Ariola-Eurodisc Arista D 401150), but the inlay was normal, and not textured. So where are the UK copies?

   
   
   

2. Don’t You (Forget About Me) German CD promo Virgin 665 640
   Virgin Germany was eager to follow 1992’s Love Song/Alive And Kicking single with the extremely obvious Don’t You (Forget About Me). Perhaps it was so obvious, it simply wasn’t worth doing, and the entire project fell on its face after the promos were issued. But it’s not the contents that make this CD different, rather its exclusive artwork, and rather elusive nature (two copies have surfaced so far).
   
3. Don’t You (Forget About Me) UK limited edition uncut disc. Virgin VSS 749
   I once asked a record dealer at a record fair (who claimed was a major Simple Minds fan) if he’d ever come across the uncut version of the limited, and slightly uncommon, Don’t You (Forget About Me) picture disc. Whilst he waxed lyrical about other bands and labels, he concluded with absolute certainty that no unaltered versions ever escaped from the pressing plant. Virgin never issued any and that was the last said on the subject.

   A year later, at the same record fair, I picked one up. At that point, I decided to forget everything he told me (including some silliness about a promotional Cheslea Girl mug of which he had the handle). Uncut versions do exist, with two appearing in the last ten years or so.

   (Note: the disc is transparent like the cut versions. It appears white in this shot).
   

4. Good News From The Next World German promotional cassette.
   I’d known about the existence of an odd German box set for the cassette of Good News From The Next World for some time, but it took several years for a copy to turn up. It’s a celebration of corrugated cardboard: a cassette in a corrugated box, wrapped in a promotional postcard, issued with some German press releases and samplers, all neatly packaged up in a cardboard corrugated sleeve.

   Several copies were floating around at the time of the release, but the vast majority are probably now languishing in German collections.
   

5. Glitterball 12” single. Dance Factory 8852686
   During the release of Glitterball, there was the repeated rumour of a 12” found in a sleazy DJ outlet in the backstreets of Naples. It turned out to be true, with little known Italian label Dance Factory pressing up a miniscule number, featuring edits of all the mixes of the original release. Oddly, for such a limited release, it also featured a full glossy sleeve, which added to its desirability. Even after I managed to track a copy down, fans would still ask if it really was a 12” of Glitterball.
   
6. Live In The City Of Light promotional box set.
   Many people would’ve placed this at number one, but copies do turn up from time to time, and so Holy Grail of Simple Minds collecting has been pushed down to number six in my list.

   This heavyweight box contained all formats of the album. It reached ridiculous sums even back in 1987, when everyone knew instinctively it was a rare beast. Despite 400 being made and dispatched around the world, the fragile boxes were too unwieldy to keep, too large to store, and too flimsy not to be crushed. I’d expect only a fraction of the hundreds to remain, and most are in the possession of the hardcore collectors.
   

7. Neapolis UK promotional box set.
   Whilst Chrysalis came in with some criticism over the handling of Neapolis, it can’t be denied that they produced the last of the great promotional giveaways, spawning buckets of records, CDs, posters, T-shirts and fleeces. The biggest and best, which had seasoned fans talking in tongues, were the ‘film case’ tins of the album, which featured the promo album, interview CD, press releases and pictures.

   This was definitely the last of the great collectables before record companies discovered CDRs and started getting boring.
   

8. Glittering Prize 81/92 UK album. Virgin SMTV 1
   The penultimate Simple Minds vinyl LP wasn’t rare at all, appearing in large quantities in sales racks up and down the country. Except some were bodged, and the covers weren’t overlaid in gold, leaving the crossed heart logo, spine and othe miscellaneous parts of the artwork a rather pale white instead. I found one at a record fair in London at the time of release, and discovered that the entire batch for sale at the London Virgin Megastore were similarly lacking in precious metal.

   I’ve not seen a misprinted sleeve since.
   

9. Sweat In Bullet UK 7” single. Virgin VS 451
   Whilst the 12” was common, collectors usually warmly patted themselves on the back after picking up the ‘limited’ and rather ‘hard-to-get’ 7” double-pack. With that, the story was felt to be complete, and everyone got down to the tricky business of trying to find Live In The City Of Light box sets.

   This was the first case of the power of the Internet. After developing the first discography in 1994, I received my first mail about Sweat In Bullet a couple of years later. A plain 7” did exist. Then another mail arrived complete with a scan. Followed by another. Followed by a copy of the extremely rare 7” itself.

   So, the discography was rewritten, and collectors started to scour the 7” racks again. To this date, the plain 7” copy of Sweat In Bullet remains the rarest commercially released Simple Minds single.
   

10. 81-95 DJ Copy Japanese promotional album. EMI PCD 0557
    Appearing after the release of Good News From The Next World, the Japanese record company updated the previous Glittering Prize 81/92 compilation with a couple of new songs, designed a new cover and pressed up a few hundred promotional copies. (These were sold at great expense to collectors who shrugged their shoulders at the price and wondered what all the fuss was about.)
    
11. Bubbling Under
    1. Don't You (Forget About Me) by White Spaces featuring Jim Kerr (CD BMG 82876552722)
       Demonstrating that new releases are just as elusive as items from 20 years ago, only one CD of these Don't You (Forget About Me) remixes has ever surfaced, along with the news that the rest were withdrawn. The accompanying 12" is quite difficult to find as well.

    2. She's A River (12" Virgin SA 8078)
       Bucking the trend of ignoring the 12" format in 1995, Virgin France gathered all the mixes of the title track, and pressed them on vinyl, all packaged in a smart picture sleeve. Copies turn up from time to time, but they fetch high prices.

    3. Simplemente (LP Virgin 02.44.720197)
       Just like the Australian Alive And Kicking (84,85,86), this Peruvian release gathered up several remixes of key Simple Minds songs and released them in a unique picture sleeve. Unlike Alive And Kicking (84,85,86), Simplemente is as rare as hens' teeth.

    4. Glitterball (CD Chrysalis CDCHSDJ 5078)
       Whilst the bog-standard red-sleeved one-track Glitterball is common, the French took the disc, threw away the packaging, and pressed it into the back of a large, round, thick, picture sleeve. Being glossy, attractive, interesting and unique, this promo has been a prized collectable amongst fans. It also disappeared from the market very quickly, suggesting a run of 100 copies or less.

Test pressings are often sent to the band's management for checking and approval.

Some test pressings feature different tracks or ordering than the final release.

And some releases only reach test pressings before being abandoned. The third issue of I Travel by Virgin reached test pressing stage as a 7" - but was never released in that format.

1. A test-pressing. The label is white as the artwork hasn't been prepared, or as it's a test-pressing, no label is going to be added.
2. A promo. No artwork has been prepared, nor will be, so several hundred promo copies are pressed up with white labels. Some of the 12" releases from Street Fighting Years were pressed up as white-labels. With the advent of dance, white-labels are becoming very common and Absolutely have issued several of their promo Simple Minds releases as white-labels.