The journey of Simple Minds started in the gritty punk clubs of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1977, continuing to small theaters and halls and then on to massive stadium-rock celebrations.
Along the way, it became one of the most commercially successful Scottish bands of the 1980s.
Forty-eight years on, the group headed back to Atlanta on its Alive & Kicking tour for an `80s-centric show — with able support from Soft Cell and Modern English — at Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park on June 7.
Light-years away from their debut as part of a cheeky punk outfit called Johnny and the Self-Abusers, Simple Minds founders Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill continue to create challenging yet accessible music together. After 19 studio albums and two prior live recordings, the release of the double-length album “Live in the City of Diamonds” extends its legacy.
Another milestone on the Simple Minds calendar is the 40th anniversary of its biggest commercial radio and video hit, the internationally known “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from the popular “Breakfast Club” soundtrack. The fan favorite is also featured on the band’s live album, recorded in April 2024 in Amsterdam.
“We felt we sort of had to include it on the ‘City of Diamonds’ album,” Kerr explained by phone from Los Angeles. “To me, as a music fan myself, a live recording is a bit of a snapshot of time, and we certainly wanted to capture the entire experience of the current Simple Minds performance. That song, of course, remains a big part of our presence. To revisit it four decades later is an honor that we certainly don’t take lightly.”
The 24-track collection revisits many other key moments from the band’s self-described “art rock” origins, while featuring the modern approach of the current lineup. The album melds the best of the band’s MTV-friendly hits with a comprehensive selection of its lesser-known progressive sounds from the 1990s.
The deluxe double-album package features the current version of the ever-evolving band, fronted by Kerr on vocals and co-founder Burchill on guitar, joined by Gordy Goudie (rhythm guitar), Ged Grimes (bass), Cherisse Osei (drums), Erik Ljunggren (keyboards) and Sarah Brown (backing vocals).
The result is an immensely entertaining set of progressive pop music, presented with the immediacy of the band’s energetic live set. Early compositions such as “Love Song,” “Sons and Fascination” and “Sweat in Bullet,” from the band’s 1982 international crossover “New Gold Dream,” are conveniently bookended by staples such as the U.K. Top 20 single “Promised You a Miracle.”
“Hand to heart, this is what we’ve always wanted to do — to have a great live band and take it all around the world,” Kerr said. “Unfortunately, it’s been a while since we’ve been able to do the work in North America that we really wanted to do. But now it’s time for us to prove our worth again.
“Throughout the evening, we hope to give a real sense of our journey, because I know there are several different levels of Simple Minds fans: the ones that go way, way back; then the MTV kids; and the people who like what’s going on at the moment. We like to throw in a few surprises along the way, too — so if we can do all of that in the course of an evening, it ticks a lot of boxes.”
The key to the identifiable Simple Minds sound is the intrinsic kinetic energy of the live show. “We have to bring it, every time. It has to be vital, to show that we’re really committed and that this is not just another album and tour. Before we ever had a reputation, you had to just turn up and impress people with the live show. So we never rest on the past; we have to bring everything up to date, while staying true to our original vision.”
The Simple Minds sound is easily recognized but hard to categorize, Kerr said. He calls it a hodgepodge but added that he “still thinks of us as an art-rock band. We can find the mainstream, but when I look at the lyrics and I hear what we’re doing, it’s progressive. In the way that (David) Bowie was art rock or Talking Heads were art rock, I think that probably applies to us as well.”
Despite changing tastes in musical culture and the new directions Kerr has steered over the years, he quickly pointed out one ingredient has remained constant over the years. His enduring friendship with Burchill, his “lifelong friend and bandmate,” is the core of the Simple Minds ethos.
“I remember crystal-clear being 8 years old when my family moved (to a new neighborhood),” Kerr said. “My parents were unloading bits of furniture from the truck. My dad said, ‘Get out th’ way and go play.’ I went out in the street and there were a group of boys. One of them was Charlie. That moment has been the main bond of our lives ever since.”
Since that fortuitous meeting, the two musicians have remained creative partners. “You don’t often work or create with family, so in a sense Charlie has been more than a brother to me. We’ve been through it all, and we invented this thing,” Kerr said.
“Often when we work apart, we’ll both have the same sort of ideas. He’ll want to go a bit left or off on a random idea — and it’ll be funny because I’d been thinking the same thing! It’s quite remarkable and telepathic. Now here we are, all these years later, still traveling the world.”
Concert Preview
Simple Minds
7 p.m. June 7 at Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park. With Soft Cell and Modern English. $60-$280. 4469 Stella Drive, Atlanta. 800-653-8000, ticketmaster.com.
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