simple minds sessions and radio-only live performances
I had problems compiling the definitive list of Simple Minds sessions. Not because the
historical record is lacking, but because it’s difficult to know where to draw the line.
For example, firstly I decided to list only those recordings where the band recorded live tracks
in the radio station’s studio. Whilst this formed a complete list, I was worried that other unique
and interesting performances would fall by the wayside e.g. the Burbank recordings.
Therefore, I split this list into two parts. The first part comprises the definitive sessions, recorded and
broadcast as such; the second list being live, exclusive performances broadcast on radio shows that would
otherwise fall between the gaps unless included here.
- bbc radio one: kid jensen
- Recorded: 2th April 1979
- Broadcast: 10th April 1979
- Producer and Engineer: Mike Engles
- Life In A Day
- Cheslea Girl
- No Cure
- The band's first album was still hot on the vinyl presses, when Simple Minds
were ushered into BBC Radio One to record their first session. Recorded for David "Kid" Jensen (who focussed
on new and breaking acts along with John Peel), the session was a showcase for the album, with the band performing current single
Life In A Day, potential new single Chelsea Girl
and album stalwart No Cure.
- Some mystery surrounds this session as it's never been officially released or bootlegged. When asked about an early
Simple Minds track called Hell,
Mick MacNeil said it had been written specifically for these recordings. It remains
to be confirmed whether Hell was actually performed and/or broadcast; or if the
written record of the archive is incorrect.
- The evidence for this recording came from a book of published Peel and Jensen sessions. However,
the BBC do not have it in their archives, the band don't have it in their archive, and no-one seems to have
recorded a copy from the broadcast. It would appear that the session is now lost.
- piccadilly radio 261
- Recorded: 7th June 1979
- Producer and Engineer: Simple Minds and Stuart James
- Here Comes The Fool
- Chelsea Girl
- Garden Of Hate
- The Naked Eye
- By June, the band were gearing up for
their own UK tour and the release of
Chelsea Girl. Given their penchant for writing new material for sessions, it's possible that either
Here Comes The Fool or Naked Eye were written for this
occasion.
- It opened with the only known session of live favourite Here Comes The Fool.
The session featured a more measured performance of the track with a unique guitar introduction. Here Comes The Fool
was formally recorded during the Real To Real Cacophony sessions but remains unreleased.
A live version was the first to be officially released on rarity-compilation Silver Box.
- Chelsea Girl and Garden Of Hate were thrown into the
mix to promote their current single. And The Naked Eye appeared as
a glimpse of what was to come; although the lyrics in this version were far stronger than the version which eventually appeared on
Real To Real Cacophony.
- At this time, sessions by the band were considered as free studio time, and they'd record extra material to
take advantage of the facilities and prepare demos. In that respect, this session was part of the demo recordings
for the forthcoming Real To Real Cacophony.
- bbc radio one: john peel
- Recorded: 19th December 1979
- Broadcast: 7th January 1980
- Producer: Trevor Dan
- Engineer: Nick Gomm
- Changeling
- Room
- Premonition
- Citizen (Dance Of Youth)
- The band's first John Peel session showcased key songs from the newly released Real To Real Cacophony. As a surprise, they also
chose to record Room, a song which had appeared in their
live set a few weeks previously.
Peel was impressed by Real To Real Cacophony and played the whole album
over several shows fearing that it would get little airplay otherwise.
The entire session was released on Silver Box in 2004.
- unknown station: unknown dj
- Recorded: 1980
- Broadcast: 1980
- Producer: ???
- Engineer: ???
- I Travel
- Celebrate
- Thirty Frames A Second
- Twist/Run/Repulsion
- Captial City
- New Warm Skin
- Again, the band used a radio session as free studio time to prepare recordings for their forthcoming
Empires And Dance album. Very little is known about these
recordings nor how many of the songs were actually broadcast.
- These recordings were also listed in Mick MacNeil's archive where
they were simply described as "radio sessions."
- The entire session was eventually released on Silver Box in 2004 with the
songs described as demos.
Eddie Cairns remembers driving the band to Maida Vale Studios between 7th and
17th October 1980. This could be the source of these recordings which would make them post-album sessions and not demos. Also this
would've been a perfect opportunity to promote the
forthcoming Empires And Dance UK Tour. Whilst this all neatly fits in, it does
raise other questions: why did this Peel or 'Kid' Jensen session remain undocumented; and why did they record
six tracks instead of the more usual three or four?
- bbc radio one: kid jensen
- Recorded: 11th February 1982
- Broadcast: 23rd February 1982
- Producer: John Owen Williams
- Engineer: Mike Robinson
- Promised You A Miracle
- In Trance As Mission
- King Is White And In The Crowd
This session must've been booked at the last minute. They had little to promote in the UK as the
Sons And Fascination had already completed its UK leg.
But, it was booked so the band could demo two new ideas which emerged during the Rockfield rehearsal sessions in
January, and to start promoting one of those ideas as a new single.
This version of Promised You A Miracle was recorded as the
demo. The band were booked into The Townhouse the next day to start work on the formal recording.
Already the song was starting to take on the lush sound
which would be the signature of New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84).
Producer Pete Walsh only needed to tighten up the arrangement and remove
some spurious lyrics.
- Live favourite In Trance As Mission was an
obvious choice.
- And the band remained true to their session-inspired roots and brought in another new song to demo.
Unlike Promised You A Miracle,
King Is White And In The Crowd was still in a very basic form,
sounding very sparse. Yet this spacious outing of the song was
liked as it was eventually released as a B-side on Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)
and for many years remained the only session officially released by the band.
- The other two songs were eventually released on Silver Box in 2004.
- Their only session recorded with Kenny Hyslop.
- studio davout
- Recorded: February 1982
- Broadcast: -
- Producer: -
- Engineer: -
- The American
- Celebrate
- Premonition
- Promised You A Miracle
- Simple Minds were a month into the second leg of the Sons And Fascination tour
when these four tracks were recorded in France. Having already visited The Netherlands,
Sweden and Germany, the band were now comfortable with the songs.
- Recorded as a promo TV appearance for the forthcoming French leg of the tour,
the band picked choice tracks to represent their back catalogue. A rousing version
The American opened the set which was presented in its extended version.
Celebrate and
Premonition confirmed the strong propulsive, almost mechanistic, characteristics
of their earlier albums whilst Promised You A Miracle (which had still to be
released) suggested the warm textures and complexity which would underline New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84).
- This "session" again calls into question the concept of the session. Is it a session or rather
a recording of Simple Minds live? Either way, it remains unreleased.
- The date of the session is also unknown. But it's more likely to be February 1982
as Kenny Hyslop is still drumming.
- (The performance was also filmed and various bad multi-generation VHS clones
have made their way onto the Internet. Most haven't been converted properly from the native SECAM into
PAL, which has resulted in the colour being lost.)
- bbc radio one: john peel
- Recorded: May 1982
- Broadcast: May 1982
- Producer: ???
- Engineer: ???
- Promised You A Miracle
- Love Song
- Sons And Fascination
- King Is White And In The Crowd
- This session should be known as the "lost session" as recording dates, master tapes and other details were subsequently
lost in time. Despite being a high-profile Peel session (and their last for the legendary DJ), the
recording slipped through the gaps and it escaped being documented by various lists and chronologies.
- The recording dates eventually attributed to this session were also incorrect, being given as the 15th February. This
was clearly incorrect as days after Jensen session, the band were supposed to have recorded a second
session, swapped drummers, recorded Promised You A Miracle, and disappeared
to Europe on tour.
- The BBC have lost the master tape. A copy in the band's archive is dated May 1982, which suggests
it was promoted by the success of the single.
- Their second and final John Peel session was a mixture of old and new.
- Promised You A Miracle had now been formally
recorded at The Townhouse, the lyrics had reached their final form, and the performance was similar to
the album version. (Note that many bootlegs, all from the same source, were badly recorded and the tempo is incorrect.)
- Love Song was slower and now included an extended
percussive introduction, but the energy increased with Sons And Fascination
which was much the same as the album cut.
- The session ended with warmer version of King Is White And In The Crowd which
was much less frosty than the version recorded for Kid Jensen.
- Recorded with new drummer Mike Ogletree.
- bbc radio one: kid jensen
- Recorded: 13th August 1982
- Broadcast: 26th September 1982
- Producer: John Sparrow
- Engineer: Mike Robinson
- Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)
- Glittering Prize
- Hunter And The Hunted
- This session was recorded as promotion for the forthcoming
New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) album which was
to be released a month later.
- Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) got its radio debut after being
played several times during the summer. The future single didn't
depart much from the album version - with the exception of Charlie's solo introduction -
despite being logged by BBC engineers as Summer Song which was its demo title.
- As Glittering Prize had been recorded and released as the current single
then this session version didn't depart much. Likewise Hunter And The Hunted
had also been finished in the studio and the arrangement was fresh in their minds.
The entire session was finally released on Silver Box.
- bbc radio one: kid jensen
- Recorded: 11th September 1983
- Broadcast: 3rd October 1983
- Producer: Dale Griffin
- Engineer: Mike Engels
- Waterfront
- The Kick Inside Of Me
- New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84)
- With the new single, Waterfront, about to be released,
Simple Minds made a timely return to BBC Radio One to record a new session. After the single's title track, the band then tackled a brand new song, which
they'd only written the day before The Kick Inside Of Me. And the session was completed with a rough-and-ready tumbling through New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84).
- Jim was in the studio along with Mel and chatted to David Kid Jensen about the sessions. The interview was concluded with the first radio play
of the studio version of Waterfront which had just been mixed by Steve Lillywhite. John Peel was in the other studio preparing his show but couldn't
resist poking his head around the studio door and quipping that "prog rock was making a comeback." Cue groans from
Jim.
Like many of the band's sessions, it remained unreleased, even escaping the BBC's own compilation albums released in the 1980s. For this reason,
New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) was eventually released on the BBC's One And Only collection from 1992,
which celebrated 25 years of sessions, and brought together a number of rare recordings by various artists. The band's own 25th anniversary prompted the release of another
track, The Kick Inside Of Me, which turned up on Silver Box.
The entire session was finally released in the Sparkle In The Rain Super Deluxe box-set, which brought together all the
recordings from the period.
- bbc radio one: nicky campbell
- Recorded: ???
- Broadcast: 20th February 1995 - 23rd February 1995
- Producer: ???
- Engineer: ???
- And The Band Played On - Real Life
- Great Leap Forward
- See The Lights
- White Light/White Heat
As promotion for Good News For The Next World, BBC Radio One
was allowed into Simple Minds' rehearsal rooms where the band were preparing for the intital
US leg of the tour at Burbank Studios in California.
Oddly the band chose not to focus on their current single nor promote
the upcoming Hypnotised release. Instead, they concentrated on some lesser
known songs which would feature on the forthcoming tour, some of which would be completely rearranged.
Presenter Nicky Campbell then broadcast a single song, one each day, during his lunchtime radio show.
Jim recorded a introduction for each song.
"Hi, this is Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, coming to you from a rehearsal room
in Burbank, California where it's our pleasure
to be able to preview four songs from
the up-and-coming live set. First up is a new song, from the album
Good News From The Next World, and it is called
And The Band Played On."
And The Band Played On started off as the familar album take but rapidly and
dramatically segued into Real Life, an arrangement which they repeated during the
tour.
"Hi, you're listening to Nicky Campbell on BBC Radio One FM. We're Simple Minds, coming to you from
a rehearsal room on the
eve of our American tour - our first tour, that is, for four years, and a
tour we're very much
looking forward to. Anyway, this is another new song. Hope you enjoy it. It's called the
Great Leap Forward." Only
Great Leap Forward escaped any radical restructuring, most closely resembling
its album counterpart.
"Hi Nicky. Hi everyone listening to Radio One FM. This is Jim Kerr of
Simple Minds talking to you from Burbank, California from a rehearsal room, on the
eve of a new tour. And the line-up
for the band on this tour is: on drums
Mark Schulman; on keyboards
Mark Taylor;
on bass guitar Malcolm Foster; with
Charlie Burchill on guitar; and myself,
Jim Kerr, on vocals. We're going to go back a bit to the album
Real Life - this is
one of the songs from that set called See The Lights. It's a new version and we hope you enjoy it."
See The Lights appeared
in a new, powerful stripped down arrangement underpinned by a lone cycling synth loop.
"Hi, this is Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, talking to you once again from
Burbank, California with the last song of our four song session. This song was written by someone who's been a huge
influence on our band over the years. His name is Lou Reed. And this is a song
that we loved to play when we were first starting out
back in Glasgow in 1977. The song is called
White Light/White Heat.
Once again, it's been our pleasure. Look forward
to seeing you on tour in March. Until then, see you later."
White Light/White Heat was presented in a slowed acoustic form.
Promo CDs and cassettes of the performance circulated around Virgin and a tiny number escaped into
collectors' circles. It is possible that the tracks were being considered for future B-sides. But, despite this,
none of the tracks have been officially released.
- radio clyde: billy sloan
- Broadcast: 14th April 2002
- Producer: Gordon Goudie
- Engineer: Kevin Burleigh
- New Sunrise
- She Moved Through The Fair
- Freedom Angel
- On the eve of their Floating World Tour, the band recorded a session for
Billy Sloan. They opted for a stripped down acoustic set, unveiling a new arrangement of
New Sunshine Morning (which was eventually released on the
Spaceface,
New Sunshine Morning and
One Step Closer singles), a second recording of
She Moved Through The Fair and the brand new song
Freedom Angel.
A different take of New Sunrise with more instruments eventually turned up on
the Live And Rare album.
- bbc radio two: chris evans
- Broadcast: 26th September 2014
- Producer: -
- Engineer: -
- Don't You (Forget About Me) [Acoustic]
- Alive And Kicking [Acoustic]
- Honest Town [Acoustic]
- Riders On The Storm [Acoustic]
- As promotion for the forthcoming Big Music, Simple Minds
were invited to perform on the Chris Evans' Radio Two Breakfast Show. However rather than
plump for the whole band (impractical) or the more streamlined
Electroset versions of the band, they elected for the
even more slimline Acoustic version. The brief: two classics, one new one and
a cover; Simple Minds covered that in style. Boy, was it good.
"Thanks to Chrissie Hynde for helping with yesterday's set - performed on
Chris Evan's BBC Radio show: Having done the acoustic format throughout her career,
her advice was of much value. Thanks to all for listening and posting such positive comments." - Jim, 27th September 2014
- radio clyde: billy sloan
- Broadcast: 2nd November 2014
- Producer: -
- Engineer: -
- The American [Acoustic]
- Honest Town [Acoustic]
- The Man Who Sold The World [Acoustic]
- Let The Day Begin [Acoustic]
- The acoustic stripped-down version of Simple Minds returned
to Billy Sloan's Sunday night radio show and took over the entire show.
Jim and Charlie selected their
favourite tracks, talked about the new album Big Music and played
several exclusive acoustic tracks in session.
- bbc radio two: chris evans
- Broadcast: 1st February 2018
- Producer: -
- Engineer: -
- Don't You (Forget About Me) [Acoustic]
- Promised You A Miracle [Acoustic]
- Magic [Acoustic]
- White Wedding [Acoustic]
- Simple Minds returned to The Chris Evans Breakfast show four years
later as promotion for Walk Between Worlds. They stayed for most of the show,
being interviewed and then playing four acoustic numbers during the last half hour.
- The session was acoustic with Jim, Charlie,
Gordie and Cherisse. The first two tracks appeared
in their acoustic arrangements, Magic was suitably stripped down for the occasion, and keeping
true to their covers rule, the session finished with Billy Idol's White Wedding.
- bbc radio four: front row
- Broadcast: 1st February 2018
- Producer: -
- Engineer: -
- Don't You (Forget About Me) [Acoustic]
- Magic [Acoustic]
- As part of the promotion for Walk Between Worlds, the stripped-down line-up of
Simple Minds (Jim, Charlie,
Gordie and Cherisse) also appeared on Radio Four's
flagship arts programme Front Row.
- Acoustic versions of Don't You (Forget About Me) and
Magic were playing during an interview with Jim
and Charlie.
- bbc radio two: the piano room
- Broadcast: 22nd February 2022
- Producer: -
- Engineer: -
- Arranger: Sam Sparrow
- Alive And Kicking (5:50) [Orchestral]
- Someone Somewhere In Summertime (4:36) [Orchestral]
- The Walls Came Down (3:55) [Orchestral]
- BBC Radio Two's Piano Room Month provided Simple Minds with the opportunity of picking up
the pieces of the stalled 40 Years Of Hits Tour, and reboot
the whole process with a performance of three songs with the backing of the BBC Concert Orchestra.
- With the guidance of orchestral arranger Sam Sparrow (who'd worked with the band on
Walk Between Worlds and Alive And Kicking for
80's Symphonic), a stripped down version of Simple Minds
(Jim, Charlie,
Berenice,
Cherisse and
Sarah) performed three songs with classical backing.
- The format requested a classic, something new and a cover. Simple Minds bent the rules slightly by
performing two classics (Alive And Kicking,
Someone Somewhere In Summertime) and a 'new' cover; a version
of The Call's The Walls Came Down.
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