background
- It was a great idea to capture us at Verona; the majesty of the music - it was such an honour to be in
that building. We knew what we were doing by that time." - Jim - Street Fighting Years Super Deluxe
- A live video by Simple Minds was long overdue. A video was planned to accompany
Live In The City Of Light, and the
Paris gigs were filmed,
but this plan was abandoned in the end.
- Therefore Verona was conceived as this "missing" video.
- It was shot on the 15th September 1989 at the L'Arena, Verona, Italy during the
Street Fighting Years tour. With the first unit
concentrating on the gig itself, a second unit filmed scenes around the streets, the
railway station and in the countryside.
- Therefore the final edit featured the concert footage intersperced with scenes shot around the
city. Some soundbites from interview footage with Jim,
Charlie,
Mick,
Mel and
Bruce Findlay were also mixed in to the longer tracks.
- Charlie,
Mick and
Lisa Germano were also filmed busking outside the venue. This
segment formed part of the Gaelic Melody instrumental which
formed an interlude between the two halves of the concert.
- "We tried to do a few things in the street on that tour. We never got as much busking done as we'd have liked
to on that tour, we only did a couple. We wanted to go in, fiddle, accordion and acoustic, and see how much money
we could make. We then had to have security. So if there's a big guy standing there, it becomes impossible to
do. We did it three times and filmed the Verona one." - Mick - Street Fighting Years Super Deluxe
- The title of the video wasn't confirmed until the last minute. Most promo adverts don't mention Verona, instead
titling the video Live And On The Streets.
- Whilst the majority of the songs appear live, most were edited whilst others had interview dialogue
added. In other cases studio instrumentals were used.
- The footage
was also mixed with some images from the band's previous promo videos (most noticably during
This Is Your Land,
Soul Crying Out and
Belfast Child).
- The promo video for Let It All Come Down
was simply an edit from this video.
- As Verona was seen as plugging a
gap in the discography, no accompanying soundtrack album was released. Three unedited tracks appeared
on the limited edition Verona EP, and several other unedited versions appeared as Real Life B-sides. However,
the bulk of the material remains unissued.
- In 2003, it was remixed in 5:1 surround sound and released as part of the
Seen The Lights - A Visual History double DVD set. It was subsequently reissued as
Seen The Lights - Live In Verona the following year. No extra footage was released.
tracks
credits
Virgin Vision presents a Vivid Production
Jim Kerr,
Charlie Burchill,
Mick MacNeil,
Mel Gaynor with
Malcolm Foster (bass),
Lisa Germano (violin),
Andy Duncan (percussion) and
Anne McCaig (backing vocals).
Director: Andy Morahan
Producer: Luc Roeg
Associate Producer: Warren Hewlett
Executive Producer: Angus Margerison
Editor: Mark Alchin
Director Of Photography: Adrian Wild
Sound Production: Steve Lipson
Band Management: Schoolhouse
Tour Management: Paul Kerr
Design: Assorted Images
Photography: Andy Earl and Guido Harai
catalogue
Virgin VVD 610
format
VHS video in clear plastic case with double-sided colour sleeve.
release date
May 1990
further information
Copies are still plentiful and turn up regularly.
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