The Tourist, you really haven't a clue have you.....
Over the years Simple Minds have notched up twenty Top 20 hits in a career spanning nearly three decades. The band have sold over 35 million records, had five number one albums, a No. 1 single in America - plus three American top ten singles and were voted Q magazine's World's Best Live Act.
singles."
Live Photos - © 2008 Sven Hoogerhuis
Throughout their illustrious 31-year career in music, Simple Minds have embarked on countless sold out stadium tours including headlining three times at Wembley stadium. Their music has influenced a new generation of bands including The Killers, Kings of Leon, Muse, Bloc Party, Keane, Moby, and the Manic Street Preachers.
"We are very excited to announce the UK leg of the Graffiti Soul tour," says lead singer and founding member, Jim Kerr. "Graffiti Soul is one of our most powerful albums to date. The new songs have an undeniable rock and roll edge and immediacy to them and we can't wait to perform them live!"
"Last year we were blown away by the reaction from last year's 30th Anniversary concerts," reflects Kerr. "Simple Minds continues to embody an uplifting musical spirit and enthusiasm that was evident in our early work. We haven't lost our edge. If anything, we've refined it! We can't wait to perform the songs from Graffiti Soul as well as songs from our previous albums."
Plus Very Special Guest
OMD
Simple Minds - Biography
"Sometimes things come together exactly as you want them to.
New Gold Dream and Once Upon A Time were like that, and it
was the same with Graffiti Soul. I can't say making it was
effortless, exactly - that would take away from all the hard work that Charlie, in particular, put in It did just roll though; it felt right."
- Jim Kerr, February 2009
"Ultimately, you have to drag the songs away from Charlie.
Bono used to say he was like a wee Irish fiddler, always fiddling away with something. Even in the early days when he only had one guitar and two effects pedals, Charlie would bring jigsaws to sound checks - The Sistine Chapel or whatever - so that he could amuse his self while engineers were trying to get the right snare sound. Nowadays, studio gear has replaced the jigsaws, and we reap the benefit of that."
Graffiti Soul and Simple Minds' ongoing success as a live act serve to underline that the group is anything but a spent force. More than that, the band that broke America with their 1985 chart-topper "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and the attendant
Once Upon A Time album is as hungry and committed as ever.
'If you really love music, you'll come back to it with a passion irrespective of life's twists and turns", says Kerr. "That's why I hope people get to hear
Graffiti Soul - I think it's got legs. If we can celebrate our 30th Anniversary and still get people excited about the new stuff - that would be wonderful."
