243-735: Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977, becoming best known internationally for their song " Don't You (Forget About Me) " (1985), which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Other commercially successful singles include " Promised You a Miracle " (1982), " Glittering Prize " (1982), " Someone Somewhere in Summertime " (1982), " Waterfront " (1983), " Alive and Kicking " (1985), " Sanctify Yourself " (1986), " Let There Be Love " (1991), " She's
486-656: A Beggars Banquet record shop in the Fulham Road . In mid-July Generation X signed a recording contract with Chrysalis Records , and went into Wessex Sound Studios in North London for the band's first formal recording session for commercial release. Under the supervision of the producer Bill Price the session proved to be abortive due to the band being unhappy with the results, and Chrysalis Records sought another producer, which it found in Phil Wainman . At
729-554: A 21-year-old guitar-playing university drop-out from Bromley and associate of the Bromley Contingent ; the drummer John Towe, a West End music shop assistant; and – at Broad's suggestion, having already met via an advertisement previously placed in the Melody Maker by Broad seeking other musicians – Tony James , a 23-year-old university graduate bass player from Twickenham and former member of
972-916: A Miracle " was released in April 1982 and became Simple Minds first Top 20 single in the UK, peaking at No. 13 and also reaching the Australian Top 10. The song earned the band performances on Top of the Pops and interviews in teen-orientated pop magazines. New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) was released in September 1982. The album was a commercial breakthrough, spending 53 weeks on the UK Albums Chart , peaking at No. 3 in October 1982. It generated charting singles including " Glittering Prize ", which also reached
1215-497: A North American leg of their Floating World tour (named after the instrumental track which closes Cry ), their first in seven years. With Goudie opting to remain studio bound (and Mark Kerr leaving the band again), Simple Minds once again recruited Mel Gaynor as tour drummer. The live band was completed by the returning Eddie Duffy on bass guitar and by new keyboard player/programmer Andy Gillespie (of SoundControl). On 28 October 2003, Capitol released Seen The Lights – A Visual History ,
1458-681: A River " (1995), and the UK number one single " Belfast Child " (1989). Simple Minds have achieved 24 top 40 singles on the UK Singles Chart , and 23 top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart , including five number one albums: Sparkle in the Rain (1984), Once Upon a Time (1985), Live in the City of Light (1987), Street Fighting Years (1989), and Glittering Prize 81/92 (1992). They have sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, and were
1701-588: A Time was released; former Chic singer Robin Clark , who performed call-and-response vocals with Kerr throughout the album (effectively becoming a second lead singer), and was heavily featured in Simple Minds music videos of the time. The record reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 10 in the US, despite the fact that their major-league breakthrough single "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was not included. Once Upon
1944-522: A Time days. With Gaynor now out of the picture, the remaining instrumentation was covered by session musicians (although Malcolm Foster was included among the bass players used for recording). Good News from the Next World was released in 1995. The album reached No. 2 in the UK and produced the Top 10 hit " She's a River " and the Top 20 single "Hypnotised". The band toured to promote Good News from
2187-472: A Time went on to generate four worldwide hit singles: "Alive and Kicking", "Sanctify Yourself", "Ghost Dancing" and "All the Things She Said", the last of which featured a music video directed by Zbigniew Rybczyński that used techniques developed in music videos for bands such as Pet Shop Boys and Art of Noise . The band also toured, with both Robin Clark and percussionist Sue Hadjopoulos added to
2430-460: A break. MacNeil played his last concert with Simple Minds in Brisbane a week later. At the time, MacNeil's departure was put down to health concerns, but he had been gradually suffering disillusionment with the band's lifestyle and touring schedule (as well as what Kerr has referred to as "a number of animated quarrels".) At around the same time, long-term manager Bruce Findlay was dismissed and over
2673-511: A brief low-key tour in November 1980 to January 1981 (with James Stevenson playing guitar) to promote it. A lacklustre pre-release in October 1980 of the song " Dancing with Myself ", backed by a B-side of a Rocksteadyesque dub song entitled "Ugly Rash", with a stark cover art portrait of Idol photographed by Iain McKell utilizing a child model in a disturbing way, had also failed to launch
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#17327875686792916-514: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
3159-470: A concert held at Wembley Stadium , London, as an expression of solidarity with the then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela . Bands involved were asked to produce a song especially for the event – Simple Minds were the only act which produced one. This was " Mandela Day ", which the band played live on the day (alongside cover versions of "Sun City" with Little Steven and a cover version of Peter Gabriel's "Biko" on which Gabriel himself took on lead vocals). "Mandela Day"
3402-615: A critique of The National Front , and The Troubles ) that the band would abandon after its early months. Later in the year, Generation X's first record was released by the band itself in the form of an unmarked white label for promotional purposes, with the song "Your Generation" as its A-side, and "Listen" as the B-side, taken from the De Lane Lea demo session. 250 copies were initially pressed, followed by another 500 copies, all in unmarked white paper sleeves. In mid-March 1977, amidst
3645-573: A few days later using Granada Television 's Manchester studio instruments for the performance, afterwards making off with the drum-kit and being banned by Granada for 10 years as a result. Along with writing and performing the band's musical output, James and Idol around this period sought to extend the band's brand identity beyond purely the musical sphere, by designing and manufacturing a series of op-art and pop-art T-shirts for use in Generation X's photo-shoots and live performances, and James
3888-578: A few gigs in support of Rock Against Racism , eschewed the societal commentary, cultural nihilism and radical politics of the punk movement, for which it drew some criticism from its peers, including John Lydon , the frontman-lyricist of the preeminent Sex Pistols . In late September/early October 1977, the band spent several days recording demo sessions, overseen by Phil Wainman , at Utopia Studios in Primrose Hill , North London, in preparation for its first album release. In mid-November 1977,
4131-519: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
4374-481: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
4617-628: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
4860-681: A gatefold sleeve as well as bonus material on each disc, including B-sides and remixes). After a gig on 30 March 2012 at the Døgnvill Festival in Tromsø , Norway, the band embarked on 23 June 2012 in Vienna , on a 25-date tour of European summer festivals which ended on 22 September 2012 in Germersheim , Germany. In July they played at the T in the Park festival. Rock music Rock
5103-617: A gig recorded live by BBC Radio at the Paris Theatre in London on 7 January 1981. Idol and James parted company in February 1981 (with some discord from James' corner, with an unnamed party briefing the music press that the premature end of Gen X had been brought about due to a "chemical imbalance"), after Gen X's ex-manager Bill Aucoin advised Idol to relocate from London to New York City . James went on to form and perform with
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#17327875686795346-414: A gig), and formed a new band called Generation X, named after the title of a book belonging to Broad's mother, that James found when visiting his family home. The new band was initially managed by Andrew Czezowski, Acme Attractions' accountant. With his photogenic looks and egotism, Broad – styling himself with a punk pseudonym of "Billy Idol" – abandoned the guitar to be the frontman and lead singer of
5589-509: A heavy performance schedule in London and increasingly beyond the confines of the capital city into England's provinces, a gig had to be abandoned at the University of Leicester mid-performance, due to Derwood Andrews requiring hospitalization from being struck on the head by a beer bottle thrown from the crowd. In mid-April 1977, having just played their first international date in Paris in
5832-513: A joint billing alongside the upcoming bands The Jam and The Police , and recorded their first live radio session at the British Broadcasting Corporation 's Maida Vale Studios , John Towe was asked to leave the band by James and Idol as they felt that his style of playing was too overt for what they wanted from a drummer, and James, the band's strategist, had come to the view that Towe's personality did not fit with
6075-630: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
6318-476: A lack of affinity with the new music).The live band was once again expanded by recruiting three additional touring members: Level 42 backing singer Annie McCaig, percussionist Andy Duncan and violinist Lisa Germano . Touring began in May 1989, and included the first and only time that the group headlined Wembley Stadium , where they were supported by fellow Scottish bands The Silencers , Texas and Gun . In September,
6561-544: A less positive review in Rolling Stone which criticised the band for what the reviewer considered to be political vacuity. "This Is Your Land" was chosen as the lead single for the U.S., and even with guest vocals from Lou Reed , the single failed to make a mark on the pop charts. Reunited with Mel Gaynor, Simple Minds hired Malcolm Foster (ex- Pretenders ) as the new bass player, following a failed attempt to re-recruit Derek Forbes (who declined due to family reasons and
6804-410: A line to the music press's questions as to why Generation X had split that he and Idol had fired them, because they "had a terrible tendency to sound like Deep Purple "), Idol and James recruited Terry Chimes as a replacement drummer. James also found a manager for the new formation in the form of Bill Aucoin , however after assessing the act's potential, Aucoin was surreptitiously more interested in
7047-464: A live version of "New Gold Dream". Bono also appeared on stage at Simple Minds Croke Park concert and sang "Sun City" during the "Love Song" medley. Derek Forbes also appeared on stage at the Croke Park concert and performed on several songs during the encore. To document their worldwide Once Upon a Time Tour , Simple Minds released the double-live set Live in the City of Light in May 1987, which
7290-573: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
7533-587: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
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7776-495: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
8019-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
8262-421: A major influence on them at the time. In June 1979 "Chelsea Girl" was released as the second single from the album, failing to reach the chart, while the band continued to tour the UK on their own. In September 1979 Simple Minds recorded their next album, Real to Real Cacophony at Rockfield Studios with producer John Leckie . The songs were mostly conceived in the studio and was a significant departure from
8505-576: A management deal with Bruce Findlay, owner of the Bruce's Records chain of record shops and the Zoom Records label. Championed by his journalist friend Brian Hogg, Findlay was persuaded to sign Simple Minds to his Zoom label which had a licensing deal with Arista Records . In November 1978, Barnwell was ousted from the band. From 1979 through until 1981, Simple Minds would continue as a quintet of Kerr, Burchill, MacNeil, Forbes and McGee, operating as
8748-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
8991-402: A more repetitive, dance-orientated sound inspired by disco music they had heard in nightclubs while touring Europe. Empires and Dance was released in September 1980. Many of the tracks were minimal and featured a significant use of sequencing . McNeil's keyboards and Forbes' bass became the main melodic elements in the band's sound, with Burchill's heavily processed guitar becoming more of
9234-486: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
9477-589: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
9720-580: A new West Sussex band named The Cure for several dates in November and December 1978. In October, Generation X went into Wessex Sound Studios in Islington , with Ian Hunter acting as record producer, to record their second album, entitled Valley of the Dolls , which saw the band moving to a style of mainstream rock music, with the incorporation of aspects of the early 1970s glam punk movement and progressive rock into its sound and look, along with
9963-470: A new long-player. Chrysalis Records, now subject to the influence of Aucoin, had shown reluctance to fund it after the commercial failure of Valley of the Dolls in the previous year, and the debacle at the Olympic Studios a few months before, and to secure the new financing, Idol had to recourse to entering into discussions with the label of the option of a potential solo career signed to it beyond
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10206-411: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
10449-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
10692-578: A pull-out from the Fleadh Festival to be replaced by British rock band James ). As Simple Minds' main writing team, Kerr and Burchill had continued to demo and originate material by themselves. For the latest sessions they had shared studio space with a band called Sly Silver Sly who featured Jim Kerr's brother Mark (previously the drummer with Gun ) and bass guitarist Eddie Duffy, and who were working with American songwriter Kevin Hunter. While in
10935-409: A reputation as an exciting live act (usually performing in full makeup). Tony Donald quit in April 1978 and was replaced by Duncan Barnwell's friend Derek Forbes (formerly the bass player with The Subs). In May 1978 Simple Minds recorded their first demo tape , including "Chelsea Girl" and some other tracks that would appear on their debut album. The group were turned down by record companies, but gained
11178-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
11421-625: A rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In
11664-721: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
11907-644: A second guitarist (allowing for an optional two-guitar line-up while also enabling Burchill to play violin). Meanwhile, Kerr had abandoned keyboards to concentrate entirely on vocals. In March 1978, Kerr, Burchill, Donald, Barnwell and McGee were joined by the Barra -born keyboard player Mick MacNeil . The band got a residency at the Mars Bar in Glasgow and played various other venues in Scotland and rapidly established
12150-482: A short tour of the UK to celebrate their 30th anniversary. During these concerts, the band performed the entire New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) album and songs from their other albums in a two-part concert performance. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill also played a number of concerts with Night of the Proms across Europe in spring, followed by further shows in late 2008. In June 2008, Kerr and Burchill briefly reunited with
12393-628: A single and the band embarked on their Sparkle in the Rain Tour. The opening show at Barrowlands Ballroom in Glasgow was filmed for the "Waterfront" video. "Waterfront" became their most successful single to date; hitting No. 1 in New Zealand, No. 5 in Ireland, the Top 20 in Australia and Sweden, and No. 13 on the UK chart. Sparkle in the Rain was released in February 1984. It entered
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#173278756867912636-481: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
12879-465: A soloist career intent within Idol (who was beginning to create a performance-persona based on elements from the solo acts of Gary Glitter , Elvis Presley and Billy Fury in their prime), which was in combination destabilizing the band's internal relationships. Rifts were also opening as to Generation X's future musical direction post Valley of the Dolls sales failure. Andrews, who had been impressed by
13122-667: A song written by Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff; which had previously been offered to Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry before Simple Minds agreed to record it. The song soon became a chart-topper in many other countries around the world. At around this point, the camaraderie that had fuelled Simple Minds began to unravel, and over the next ten years the band's line-up underwent frequent changes. Jim Kerr subsequently recalled "We were knackered. We were desensitized. The band started to fracture. We were lads who had grown up together, we were meant to grow together, politically, spiritually and artistically. But we were getting tired with each other. There
13365-536: A textural element. With this album, Kerr began to experiment with non-narrative lyrics based on observations he had made as the band travelled across Europe on tour. While a modest commercial success, Empires and Dance received enthusiastic response in the British music press Simple Minds had caught the attention of Peter Gabriel who selected them as the opening act on several dates of his European tour starting in August 1980. The tour as support act for Peter Gabriel gave
13608-412: A tight-knit collective. Subsequent line-up changes would shrink and diminish this core band, with only founder members being considered to be full members of the creative and compositional team. During late 1978 and early 1979, Simple Minds began rehearsing the set of Kerr/Burchill-written songs which appear on their debut album. On 27 March 1979 the band made their first television appearance, performing
13851-532: A two-page centre-spread interview with the band, to facilitate the first LP's retail sales, with a front-page full feature photo of Idol and James on the foreshore of the River Thames beneath the Embankment , taken by Pennie Smith . The article's illustration, atypically for band photography, displayed Idol with James separately from Andrews with Laff, and gave rise to talk within the punk scene that this
14094-417: A variety of differently coloured discs with distinctive band portrait cover art, which required multiple purchases of the single to acquire the complete set, designed by Barney Bubbles , who had worked on the band's graphic art previously in 1977. However, after a couple of propitious opening years, the band's third year saw a deterioration in its chart success from the high of the "King Rocker" single, with
14337-464: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
14580-529: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
14823-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
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#173278756867915066-612: Is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock
15309-423: Is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock
15552-540: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
15795-472: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
16038-555: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
16281-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
16524-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
16767-483: Is the Band." Generation X (band) Generation X (later known as Gen X ) were an English punk rock band, formed in London in 1976. They were the musical starting point of the career of their frontman Billy Idol , and issued six singles that made the UK Singles Chart and two albums that reached the UK Albums Chart . During the punk rock movement in London in late 1976, William Broad (aka Billy Idol),
17010-535: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
17253-428: The Sounds journalist Jonh Ingham , who professionalized the act's business aspect, and began approaching record companies to secure a recording deal. On 16 February 1977, the band went into a studio for the first time to record a demo session of five songs at De Lane Lea Studios in Wembley , North London, sponsored by Chiswick Records . The lyrics of some of the songs possessed a partially politicized tone (with
17496-968: The American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group in 1987. "Belfast Child" was nominated for the Song of the Year at the Brit Awards 1990 . Singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill are the two members who have been with the band throughout its whole history, and the only current permanent members and songwriters. As of 2023, the other current members of the live and studio band are bassist Ged Grimes , drummer Cherisse Osei , backing singer Sarah Brown, guitarist and keyboardist Gordy Goudie and keyboardist Erik Ljunggren. Notable former members include keyboardist Mick MacNeil , bassists Derek Forbes and John Giblin and drummers Brian McGee and Mel Gaynor . Simple Minds originated from
17739-524: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
17982-730: The London S.S. all replied to an advert placed in the Melody Maker by John Krivine, the owner of a fashion clothing shop called Acme Attractions on the King's Road in Chelsea, seeking musicians to form a new West London band around the vocalist/frontman John O'Hara aka Gene October . After a few weeks of rehearsals the band became known as Chelsea , and began by playing a few support gigs in West London and Manchester , primarily playing cover versions of rock and roll songs from
18225-940: The New Gold Dream sessions) and three new compositions: "Stagefright", "On The Rooftop" and "Broken Glass Park". From 10 June to 3 July 2011, Simple Minds embarked on the Greatest Hits Forest tour, playing a series of seven dates in woodland locations of England, as part of Forestry Commission Live Music. From 16 June to 28 August 2011, the Greatest Hits + tour visited European countries: the UK, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Gibraltar and Serbia mainly at summer festival venues. Simple Minds played several free concerts (on 4 July 2011 in Potsdam, Germany, on 4 July 2011 in Florence, Italy for
18468-674: The Poll Tax , the Soweto townships, the Berlin Wall and the stationing of nuclear submarines on the Scottish coast. The band underwent further line-up changes during the recording of Street Fighting Years . Mel Gaynor and John Giblin both contributed to the recording (and, in Giblin's case, to some of the writing) but both had left the band by the time of the album's release, by which time
18711-687: The Valley of the Dolls (1979) album, also released in January, performing disappointingly in the UK Albums Chart, reaching only No. 51. The new LP also received a critical mauling in the music press, with reviewers slating it as overblown and artistically hollow, which had the effect of undermining Idol's confidence in Tony James' judgement, given that the record had been personally dominated by James' ideas throughout its production. The situation
18954-531: The West Country , Andrews quit the band just before Christmas. At Idol's instigation, Mark Laff was also asked to leave the band a few weeks later after a disagreement with Idol and James about its song-writing credits, with Laff objecting to the drumming tracks that he was creating, not being recognized in its legal and financial arrangements regarding rights. Idol in return was of the view that Laff's playing style, heavily influenced by that of Keith Moon 's,
19197-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
19440-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
19683-553: The punk band Johnny & The Self-Abusers, formed in early 1977 on Glasgow's South Side , as the brainchild of Alan Cairnduff. Cairnduff left the organisation of the band to John Milarky, suggesting that he enlist two strangers, singer and lyricist Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill . Kerr and Burchill, who had been acquainted since age eight, roped in their school friends Brian McGee and Tony Donald to play drums and bass respectively. Milarky served as singer, guitarist and saxophonist, and recruited his friend Allan McNeill to be
19926-446: The rockabilly / cyberpunk act Sigue Sigue Sputnik , with which he returned to the British chart in the late 1980s, with a single and a long-player entering the Top 10. Idol left England with a solo artist contract from Chrysalis Records to start anew in the United States, taking Gen X's single " Dancing with Myself " as a calling card. During the 1980s he became one of the most commercially successful pop/rock stars that originated from
20169-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
20412-400: The 1960s. However, by November, Gene October felt that Broad and James were becoming too dominant creatively and were beginning to make music that he considered too lightweight, and that his personal chemistry with them was not good - a feeling which they reciprocated. Consequently, Broad and James along with Towe abandoned Chelsea (jettisoning October on stage from the line-up in the midst of
20655-662: The 1970s punk rock movement. On 20 September 1993, during the England leg of Idol's 'No Religion' tour, the late 1970s Generation X reformed for a one-off performance at the Astoria Theatre in London's West End . On 30 October 2018, Billy Idol and Tony James along with Steve Jones and Paul Cook , formerly of the Sex Pistols, performed a free entry gig at The Roxy in Hollywood, Los Angeles , California , under
20898-467: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
21141-493: The 21st Century. Bubbles was also commissioned by the band to design its newspaper adverts and posters. In September 1977, Generation X was one of the first punk units to appear on the BBC's mainstream pop music programme Top of the Pops , and began to acquire some mass media recognition as one of the punk-rock acts that had an accessibility of sound and image, with the potential to achieve commercial pop music success. Contrarily,
21384-477: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
21627-628: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
21870-617: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
22113-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
22356-549: The CD release, it was paired on a single disc with Sons and Fascination – at first with two tracks deleted, but in full on later issues). The album reached No. 11 on the UK albums chart, and was subsequently placed as No. 18 on Sounds "Album of the Year"-chart. The next single "Sweat in Bullet" was a remixed version by Peter Walsh and included two songs recorded live at Hammersmith Odeon in September. During this period,
22599-594: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
22842-835: The Festhalle in Bern . In early October 2010, a new line-up of Simple Minds - Burchill, Kerr, Gaynor, Gillespie with new bassist Ged Grimes (ex- Danny Wilson and Deacon Blue ) - completed four weeks at the Sphere Recording Studios in London during which four songs were recorded and mixed for a new compilation album to be called Greatest Hits + and for the new Simple Minds studio album. The sessions were produced by Andy Wright and engineered and mixed by Gavin Goldberg. The four songs recorded were an eight-minute-long version of "In Every Heaven" (originally recorded in 1982 during
23085-507: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
23328-471: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
23571-506: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
23814-503: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
24057-552: The Next World , with Malcolm Foster and Mark Taylor as touring bass and keyboard players and Mark Schulman (who had played on the album) on drums. This was Foster's last work with the band, and Schulman returned to session work at the end of the tour. After being released from their contract with Virgin Records , Simple Minds made use of the skills of their original rhythm section, Derek Forbes and Brian McGee (returning after respective eleven- and fourteen-year absences). Although McGee
24300-625: The November/December Graffiti Soul UK tour they were supported by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark as special guests. A new record label, W14/Universal label, had purchased the Sanctuary label in early 2009. Former Sanctuary Records A&R head John Williams (who had signed the band to Sanctuary) kept his position with the new label, and exercised the option to pick up the remaining Simple Minds albums owed as part of
24543-569: The Proms tour (a series of orchestral concerts featuring a mixture of light classical and pop music). The duo played versions of "Alive And Kicking", "Belfast Child" and "Don't You (Forget About Me)" backed by a full orchestra and were billed as Simple Minds. The new album, Néapolis featured Forbes playing bass guitar on all tracks, and Gaynor on one song, "War Babies". Other drum tracks were recorded by session players Michael Niggs and Jim McDermott, with additional percussion programming by Transglobal Underground / Furniture drummer Hamilton Lee. It
24786-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
25029-588: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
25272-672: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
25515-601: The UK Top 20 and Australian Top 10. While some tracks (" Promised You a Miracle ", "Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel") continued the formula perfected on Sons and Fascination , other tracks (" Someone Somewhere in Summertime ", " Glittering Prize ") were pure pop. Jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock , who recorded in the studio next door, performed a synth solo on the track "Hunter and the Hunted". The band embarked on their extensive New Gold tour in September 1982, which included dates in
25758-456: The UK albums chart at number one. It was preceded by the single " Speed Your Love to Me " which reached No.20 on the singles chart. A third single from the album, " Up on the Catwalk ", was subsequently released and also reached the Top 30 in the UK. Sparkle in the Rain hit the top 20 in several other countries (including Canada, where it reached No. 13). The band spent much of 1984 touring
26001-457: The UK albums chart. Following their change of record company, the band demoed new songs and embarked on a club tour in the US and Canada. In May 1981, Simple Minds' first release on Virgin, the single "The American" reached No. 59 on the UK singles chart. The band recorded their next album with producer Steve Hillage and an abundance of new material under much time pressure. At the end of the recording sessions drummer Brian McGee decided to leave
26244-502: The UK singles chart and an international hit, reaching the top 20 in Australia and Sweden, and no.38 in Canada. In September 1981, Virgin released the entirety of Simple Minds recent studio sessions on two albums: Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call . The latter album was initially included as a bonus disc with the first 10,000 vinyl copies of Sons and Fascination , but it was later re-issued as an album in its own right. (For
26487-415: The UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Mike Ogletree played on the first leg of the tour, but was asked to leave the band in November 1982, later joining Fiction Factory . Mel Gaynor was recruited for the remaining dates and retained afterwards, eventually becoming the band's longest-standing drummer (and longest-standing member other than mainstays Burchill and Kerr) despite thrice leaving and returning in
26730-421: The UK, Europe, Canada and Australia, Simple Minds remained essentially unknown in the US. The band's UK releases on Arista were not picked up by Arista USA who had 'right of first refusal' for their releases. The 1985 film The Breakfast Club broke Simple Minds into the US market, when the band achieved their only No. 1 U.S. pop hit in April 1985 with the film's opening track, " Don't You (Forget About Me) ",
26973-503: The UK, where it also spawned four Top 40 singles. In the US, " See the Lights " was the band's last Top 40 pop single. The band toured to support the release, playing as a basic five-piece (Kerr, Burchill, Gaynor, Foster and Taylor) and cutting down on the extended arrangements of the last few large tours. Mel Gaynor left the band in 1992 to pursue session work and other projects, and for the next two years Simple Minds were on hiatus, releasing
27216-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
27459-843: The US. It reached No. 37 in the UK and was not released in North America. The band spent 2006 touring throughout Europe, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand on the Black And White Tour (with Mark Taylor on keyboards). 2007 marked the band's 30th anniversary and saw the band embarked on a brief tour of Australia and New Zealand as guests of INXS . The band continued to release audio and video download "bundles" through their official website, featuring live music and several short documentary-style videos recorded during their 2006 tour in Edinburgh and Brussels (including
27702-619: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
27945-751: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
28188-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
28431-509: The album to represent their live sound, so Walsh decided to record it as a live studio album. Unsatisfied with Ogletree's drumming style, Walsh introduced them to a London -born drummer called Mel Gaynor , a 22-year-old session musician with plenty of experience from playing with funk-bands such as Beggar and Co and Light of the World , who then played drums on the majority of the record, while Ogletree played drums on three tracks. " Promised You
28674-766: The album. "I Travel" was not released as a single until October to promote the Empires and Dance tour. The single sold poorly and did not reach the UK chart, but the 12" version became popular in the US club scene and (based on import sales only) entered the Billboard Disco Chart at no.80 in early 1981. "I Travel" was subsequently reissued twice in the UK, but again failed to reach the singles chart. In early 1981, Simple Minds frustration with poor support and marketing by Arista made them threaten to split up rather than continue working with them. They were released from Arista and instead signed to Virgin Records . After
28917-437: The band had left the label, Arista decided to release "Celebrate" as the second single from Empires and Dance in February 1981 to promote the album, with the earlier single "Changeling" on the b-side to promote Real to Real Cacophony , but this single too sold poorly and failed to chart. The following year, Arista put out a compilation album, Celebration , featuring tracks from the three previous albums which reached No. 45 on
29160-521: The band released the single "Wild Youth", written on the spur of the moment during a publicity photo-shoot with the photographer Ray Stevenson, in the streets of London's West End a few weeks earlier, the song being inspired by street graffiti. The single's cover-art comprised individual colourized rotoscoped band portraits, taken by the photographer Peter "Kodick" Gravelle. It was produced by Phil Wainman at Utopia Studios, with an experimental b-side track entitled "Wild Dub" attempting an early fusion, before
29403-405: The band the opportunity to play at bigger venues. Empires and Dance peaked at no.41 on the UK Albums Chart and dropped out of the chart after three weeks. The band's manager Bruce Findlay later blamed Arista for poor handling of the album and it not being more commercially successful. Initially Arista only released 7500 copies of the album. Furthermore, Arista did not release a single to promote
29646-504: The band was not appearing at the festival, formed a new band of their own to play the same concert. Having delivered Our Secrets Are the Same to Chrysalis, Simple Minds then found themselves caught up in record company politics while Chrysalis, EMI and other companies attempted to merge with each other. Originally due for release in late 1999, the album remained unreleased after the band mired themselves in lawsuits with Chrysalis. In 2000,
29889-421: The band was officially listed as a trio of Kerr, Burchill and MacNeil. In a new development for the band, various bass guitar and drum tracks were performed by high-profile guesting session musicians. Gaynor's departure from the band was brief (he was rehired for the following tour). Released in 1989, the album rose to No. 1 in the UK charts and received a rare five-star review from Q magazine. It received
30132-427: The band's existence. Also involved in the recording sessions, along with Steve New, was a selection of some of the best lead guitarists in London's post-punk scene that were looking for new units to team up with, viz., John McGeoch , Steve Jones , and Danny Kustow , who acted as session musicians in what was essentially a tryout for the new band's guitar slot. In January 1981, a long-player produced by Keith Forsey
30375-600: The band's performance as if nothing had happened. In the same month, the band's first long-player was released, entitled Generation X (1978), produced by Martin Rushent and engineered by Alan Winstanley at T.W. Studios in Fulham, with a cover portrait shot photographed by Gered Mankowitz . The collection went to No. 29 in the UK Albums Chart . In April the New Musical Express featured Generation X in
30618-498: The band's rehearsal space and was a session musician who had worked with Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush . Giblin made his debut with Simple Minds at Live Aid in Philadelphia , where the band performed "Don't You (Forget About Me)", a new track called " Ghost Dancing " and "Promised You a Miracle". During 1985, Simple Minds were in the studio with former Tom Petty / Stevie Nicks producer Jimmy Iovine . In November, Once Upon
30861-489: The band's third guitarist. Kerr doubled on keyboards, and Burchill also played violin. On 11 April 1977, Johnny & The Self-Abusers held their first performance at the Doune Castle pub in Glasgow, following up two weeks later as the opening act for Generation X in Edinburgh. They performed concerts in Glasgow over the ensuing summer, but a split developed in the band, with Milarky and McNeill forming one faction and
31104-530: The band's visual aesthetic was established, masterminded by Malcolm Garrett 's graphic design company Assorted iMaGes. Characterised at first by hard, bold typography and photo-collage, Garrett's designs for the band later incorporated pop-religious iconography in clean, integrated package designs that befitted the band's idealised image as neo-romantic purveyors of European anthemic pop. To replace McGee as drummer (although not as full band member), Simple Minds hired Kenny Hyslop (ex- Skids , Slik , Zones) to play on
31347-401: The band, citing exhaustion at Simple Minds' constant touring schedule, and a desire for more time at home with family. In an interview shortly after, he also cited disappointment that he was not getting enough credit in the band. McGee joined Glasgow band Endgames , and later Propaganda . In August, " Love Song " was released and became their highest charting single to date, peaking at No. 47 on
31590-585: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
31833-572: The campaign for the release of Beirut -held hostage Brian Keenan , kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad . The next album Street Fighting Years (produced by Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson ) moved away from the American soul and gospel influences of Once Upon a Time in favour of soundtrack atmospherics and a new incorporation of acoustic and folk music-related ingredients. The lyrics were also more directly political, covering topics including
32076-506: The cause of the end of the band and his professional partnership with Idol to: "really, drugs destroyed us"). This distancing was exacerbated by Idol's increasing self-sufficiency in song-writing, a wearying of James's company due to what Idol perceived as an uptight and intense demeanor that had developed in James's personality, and an increasing allure to Idol of the prospects of a solo career for himself, which had been waxing in his mind since
32319-405: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
32562-544: The charts. In March they supported Gary Numan on a couple of gigs, and continued their Real to Real Cacophony Tour until June 1980 with dates mainly in Germany, France and the Netherlands. In June 1980 Simple Minds entered the studio to record their next album, again with producer John Leckie at Rockfield Studios. The band again had a new approach to their music that differed from the previous album, this time aiming for
32805-712: The commercial failure of the Valley of the Dolls , and a lessening impact on the UK Singles Chart of its releases, with the title song from the LP peaking at No. 23 in March 1979 and the song "Friday's Angels" dying at No. 62 in June, consequential differences began to surface within the band in terms of personality antagonisms, centered upon Andrews and Idol. Andrews was in antipathy with Idol's changing character caused by Idol's increasingly severe narcotic use, and his sensing of
33048-424: The commercial possibilities of Idol as a solo artist in the American marketplace than the band, and began moving behind the scenes to this end. This new line-up re-titled itself as Gen X, styling itself as a new romantic band with a Neo-Victorian / Victorian Gothic look, influenced by Idol's interest in the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge . In March 1980, Gen X went into Eel Pie Studios in Soho with
33291-421: The compilation album Glittering Prize 81/92 in 1992. Simple Minds returned to activity later in 1994. By now the band was officially a duo of Kerr and Burchill (with the latter taking on keyboards in the studio, as well as guitar). Hiring Keith Forsey (the writer of "Don't You (Forget About Me)") as producer, they began to put together an album which returned to the uplifting arena rock feel of their Once Upon
33534-406: The complete show on 16 February 2006 at the Ancienne Belgique , Brussels, Belgium as "Live Bundles" No. 1 to No. 5 and 6 tracks from the show on 28 August 2006 at the " T on the Fringe " music festival, Edinburgh, as "Live Bundles" No. 6 & No. 7). On 27 June 2008, Simple Minds played the 90th birthday tribute to Nelson Mandela in London's Hyde Park. The band then undertook
33777-441: The concert in the Roman amphitheatre Verona Arena in Italy was recorded for the live video Verona , released by Virgin in 1990, and later included on the Seen the Lights DVD in 2003. At the end of the Street Fighting Years tour, Simple Minds laid plans to go to Amsterdam to begin recording a new album. Just before the end of the tour, keyboardist Michael MacNeil announced to the band that he would not be joining them as he needed
34020-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
34263-403: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
34506-403: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
34749-407: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
34992-413: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
35235-431: The end of 1977, Jonh Ingham resigned from Generation X's management as a preliminary to his going to live in the United States, and after having come into conflict with Tony James, leaving Stewart Joseph in sole charge. In February 1978, the single "Ready Steady Go" (with a b-side track entitled "No No No") was released with cover art taken from the design of one of the band's self-produced T-shirts, but it failed to enter
35478-452: The end of July 1977, the band worked with Wainman at Morgan Studios in Willesden , recording its first single "Your Generation". Wainman was not impressed with the musical ability of the band, particularly with Laff's technical proficiency or with Idol's capacity as a singer, and in response to Idol asking for his opinion during production as to whether he thought Generation X were "going to make it", answered with some dubiety. On release at
35721-459: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
35964-462: The failure of the Valley of the Dolls in 1979. Also, during the recording of the Kiss Me Deadly , James had got on badly with its producer Keith Forsey, with whom Idol had established a professional rapport and was eager to work with again. The record itself, despite the innovation of its sound as a part of the new wave movement in pop music, and its display of Idol and James' maturing talent as songwriters, failed to chart on release, regardless of
36207-427: The first leg of the Sons and Fascination tour, which included Simple Minds first visit to Australia, touring with Icehouse . Hyslop also played on the studio recording of " Promised You a Miracle ", a song originating in a riff from a tape of funk music Hyslop played on the tour bus, that would become the band's next single. Despite this contribution, Hyslop ultimately "didn't fit in" with the band or their management and
36450-435: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
36693-407: The first-ever Simple Minds commercial (double) DVD, featuring over four hours and twenty minutes of archive footage. The first disc includes the majority of the band's promotional videos. The second disc is devoted to Verona , the band's first live home video release, which was originally released in VHS format in 1990. It was upmixed to 5.1 surround sound for the DVD, but otherwise remains the same as
36936-402: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
37179-461: The following decades. The band's late 1982 UK dates included a show at City Hall in Newcastle that was recorded by Virgin and later included on the 2003 Seen the Lights DVD. On these dates the band was supported by China Crisis . The second leg of the New Gold Dream tour started in March 1983 and included dates in Europe, USA and Canada. In July they performed at festivals such as Roskilde Festival in Denmark and Rock Werchter in Belgium. Prior to
37422-400: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
37665-426: The full original band lineup for the first time in twenty-seven years, when meetings with Derek Forbes, Mick MacNeil and Brian McGee led to a studio rehearsal date. However, the reunion rapidly foundered over disagreements regarding control of the band and equal status for all members. Reverting to the Kerr/Burchill/Duffy/Gaynor lineup, Simple Minds released a new studio album entitled Graffiti Soul on 25 May 2009. On
37908-460: The hedonism of the "Sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll" lifestyle. The interview had been conducted shortly after the band's formation, and James and Idol (particularly the latter) had since moved some way from this stance as they moved through the social circles of London's pop music scene, but the initial impression from it lingered in the British punk rock movement. Generation X stood out in the burgeoning milieu of punk-music bands for its combination of
38151-640: The idea of the band alive. In 2001, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill began working with multi-instrumentalist Gordon Goudie (ex- Primevals ) on a new Simple Minds album to be called Cry . Mark Kerr also contributed to the project (this time as an acoustic guitarist and Burchill's co-writer on several songs) while Kerr brought in various Italian musicians as collaborators, including Planet Funk and Punk Investigation. In parallel to Cry , Simple Minds also recorded an album of covers called Neon Lights , featuring Simple Minds versions of songs from artists including Patti Smith , Roxy Music and Kraftwerk . Neon Lights
38394-417: The image that he was formulating for the band. Towe moved on to join a new outfit called Alternative TV . He was replaced on drums by the 18 year old Mark Laff from North Finchley , recruited from Subway Sect after an extensive audition process for the vacancy organized by Idol and James in May 1977. From June to August 1977 in between gigs the band practiced in a rehearsal space in the basement beneath
38637-403: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
38880-402: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
39123-458: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
39366-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
39609-513: The late 1980s (Q Magazine) By 1988, Simple Minds had built their own recording premises — the Bonnie Wee Studio — in Scotland. Following the lengthy period of touring to support Once Upon a Time , the remaining core members (Kerr, Burchill and MacNeil) began new writing sessions in Scotland: Gaynor and Giblin pursued session work elsewhere while waiting to be called in. Initially the band began work on an instrumental project called Aurora Borealis (mostly written by Burchill and MacNeil). This project
39852-428: The lead guitarist Steve New to record a demo session. Idol and James wanted New to be Gen X's guitarist, but, after recording and rehearsing with him through the early months of 1980, they abandoned the idea over concerns about his professional reliability due to a narcotic habit. In mid-1980, Gen X went into AIR Studios in Oxford Street to re-record some of the Sweet Revenge material and several new songs for
40095-436: The live line-up. Because of Simple Minds' powerful stage presence and lyrics that were now beginning to adopt Christian symbolism , the band was criticised by some in the music press as a lesser version of U2 , despite the fact that both bands were now heading in different musical directions. The two groups were well-acquainted with one another, and Bono joined Simple Minds on-stage at the Barrowlands in Glasgow in 1985 for
40338-447: The loss - in legal acrimony - of the band's manager Stewart Joseph, came to a head towards the end of 1979, after the band had returned from its first international tour in Japan. During uncompleted production sessions at Olympic Studios in Barnes for what was to have been Generation X's third album (released retrospectively 20 years later under the title K.M.D. - Sweet Revenge ), and a fragmentary brief tour of small venues ending in
40581-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
40824-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
41067-399: The meeting, Joseph announced a cut in the band's members' weekly wages as an inducement to harder work. On release in the same month "King Rocker" (1979), with a b-side cover of John Lennon 's " Gimme Some Truth ", taken from a BBC live radio performance in 1977, became the band's commercial career high point, going to No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart, assisted by being issued in the format of
41310-617: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
41553-550: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
41796-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
42039-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
42282-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
42525-434: The mid-1970s song-writing techniques of Bruce Springsteen . In January 1979, the band with its manager Stewart Joseph was called into the offices of Chrysalis Records, where they were told that the label was unhappy that the money that it had invested into the act since mid-1977 was not being reflected in its chart success, and that if its next single, entitled "King Rocker", was not a hit its contract would be dropped. After
42768-418: The most commercially successful Scottish band of the 1980s. Simple Minds have had chart success in the United States, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy and New Zealand. Despite various personnel changes (and the reduction of the core band to founder members Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill ), they continue to record and tour. In 2014, Simple Minds were awarded the Q Inspiration Award for their contribution to
43011-424: The music industry and an Ivor Novello Award in 2016 for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors (BASCA). Other notable recognitions include nominations for both the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction and MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction for "Don't You (Forget About Me)" in 1985, nomination for the Brit Award for British Group in 1986 and for
43254-437: The name "Lostboy! AKA". Explaining the project name and ethos, he commented "I didn't want to start a new band. I like my band...and I didn't want a point blank Jim Kerr solo album either." A Lostboy! AKA 10-date European tour followed from 18 to 31 May 2010. The band played a mini-concert on 2 October 2010 at the Cash For Kids Ball organised by Radio Clyde at the Hilton in Glasgow, and a full-length concert on 10 December 2010 at
43497-406: The new act, reaching only No. 62 in the UK Singles Chart. A hotchpotch EP , entitled Gen X - 4 , containing Generation X and Gen X material was also released in January to little effect. Critical reviews of the new LP in the music press were also generally indifferent, or hostile, with Smash Hits magazine giving it 2 out of 10. In consequence, after receiving notification from Aucoin that Idol
43740-414: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
43983-433: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
44226-418: The new unit. When the 17 year old lead guitarist Bob "Derwood" Andrews was recruited from the Fulham rocker band Paradox, 'Generation X' took the stage for the first time in public at the Central School of Art and Design on 10 December 1976. The new band played its second gig four days later at the newly opened The Roxy , which Czezowski had also begun managing. Generation X was the first band to play at
44469-511: The next few years the band gradually altered to the point where it was a shifting set of musicians around the only remaining core members, Kerr and Burchill. In December 2009, Kerr retrospectively defended the changes in an online diary entry, although he said that MacNeil's departure had been a "colossal fracture". He also paid tribute to his former bandmate and said that MacNeil had been irreplaceable. Simple Minds continued to record, hiring keyboard players as and where required. The first of these
44712-537: The opening of Florence's Hard Rock Cafe, on 18 August in Belgrade, Serbia before 110,000 people and on 27 August in Bad Harzburg, Germany before 25,000 people). To coincide with the 2012 5X5 Live European tour, EMI Music released on 20 February 2012 the X5 box set featuring the first five albums over six discs: Life in a Day , Real to Real Cacophony , Empires and Dance , Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call and New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) (with Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call as separate discs in
44955-451: The original VHS copy. On 18 October 2004, Simple Minds released a five-CD compilation entitled Silver Box . This mostly comprised previously unreleased demos, radio and TV sessions and live recordings from 1979 to 1995, but also included the long-delayed Our Secrets Are the Same . In July 2005, the band embarked on the "Intimate Tour", a series of low-key European and UK gigs at smaller venues which ended in December 2005. Andy Gillespie
45198-404: The other consisting of Kerr, Donald, Burchill and McGee; at the same time, Milarky's compositions were being edged out in favour of those of Kerr and Burchill. In November 1977, Johnny & The Self-Abusers released their only single, "Saints and Sinners", on Chiswick Records (which was dismissed as being "rank and file" in a Melody Maker review). The band split on the same day that the single
45441-594: The politicized content of the songs of The Clash , Generation X also faced accusations of being middle-class interlopers upon what was increasingly espoused as a working-class sub-culture movement; evidence for this being a story in circulation within the scene originating from the music journalist Tony Parsons of the New Musical Express that when Idol and James had turned up in The Ship pub in Wardour Street for an interview with him, on being asked what they wanted to drink, had requested orange juices , and had openly criticized and rejected on an intellectual basis
45684-408: The pop tunes of Life in a Day . The album had a darker and more experimental atmosphere, announcing some of the new wave experimentation that became the band's trademark sound over the next two albums. The band began their "Real to Real Cacophony Tour" in Germany and also made a short visit to New York in October 1979. Their performance of the songs "Premonition", "Factory" and "Changeling" at Hurrah
45927-479: The previous deal. In May 2009, Graffiti Soul ' s first single, "Rockets", was released as a digital download single only. On 31 May 2009, the album entered the UK Album chart at No. 10, becoming Simple Minds' first album in 14 years to enter the UK Top 10. The album also entered European Top 100 Album chart at No. 9. Interspersed with Simple Minds activity, Jim Kerr recorded and released his first solo album Lostboy! AKA Jim Kerr on 17 May 2010 under
46170-412: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
46413-402: The raw raucous energy of punk-rock, with a more commercially melodic sound and visual image in the tradition of earlier British pop music styles of the 1960s, drawing influences from bands such as The Who , The Kinks , The Small Faces , and The Beatles . It also produced songs that lyrically focused on the concerns of being an adolescent in West London in the late 1970s and, apart from playing
46656-484: The recent work of the critically acclaimed Joy Division , favoured a move into the new indie rock sound, and wanted more of an involvement in the band's song composition, whilst Idol and James were drawn to a more mainstream and apparently commercial dance-punk one, were flirting with the idea of incorporating elements of shock rock into the band's act, and refused to admit his material into their song-writing partnership. These internal disagreements, complicated by
46899-413: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
47142-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
47385-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
47628-473: The same analysis led to recurring adverse criticism of the band in the media of the alternative music scene from which it had emerged, with a number of reviewers dismissing the act as artistically and intellectually vapid, and suggesting that it was using the guise of being a part of the punk movement cynically as a stepping-stone in pursuance of more prosaic pop music fame and fortune. Because punk-rock developed an increasingly radical overtone, driven partly by
47871-468: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
48114-555: The second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
48357-498: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
48600-495: The situation became even more complicated when Our Secrets Are the Same was leaked on the internet. Discouraged with their label's failure to resolve the problems, and with both momentum and potential album sales lost, the band once again went on hiatus. Eddie Duffy, Mark Taylor and Mark Kerr all moved on to other projects. Jim Kerr moved to Sicily and took up a part-time career as a hotelier, although both he and Burchill continued working together on various business interests and kept
48843-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
49086-494: The songs "Chelsea Girl" and "Life in a Day" on BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test . The first Simple Minds album, Life in a Day , was produced by John Leckie and released by Zoom Records in April 1979. The album's title track "Life in a Day" was released as Simple Minds' first single and reached No. 62 in the UK Singles Chart , with the album reaching No. 30 in the UK Albums Chart . In April/May 1979 they made their first UK tour as supporting act for Magazine , who were
49329-436: The start of September 1977, "Your Generation", with a b-side of the high-energy disaffected punk-rock song "Day by Day" (with a title taken by James from the recent publication of Robin Day 's autobiography), went to No. 36 in the UK Singles Chart , after being critiqued by Elton John in a review column in the Record Mirror as 'dreadful garbage'. The band played the song on Marc Bolan 's afternoon variety show, Marc ,
49572-539: The studio, the two writing and recording projects (including the Hunter co-writes) merged to become the sessions for the next Simple Minds album, Our Secrets Are the Same . Once again, Forbes and Gaynor found themselves out of the band: Mark Kerr became the new drummer and Eddie Duffy joined on bass guitar. The new-look Simple Minds made their début with a short set of greatest hits at the Scotland Rocks For Kosovo festival, with Mark Taylor returning on keyboards. The displaced Forbes and Gaynor, having apparently been told that
49815-425: The subsequent Two-tone movement , of the ska music of the West and South London Afro-Caribbean immigrant communities with Generation X's punk-pop sound, following on from The Clash 's foray into the same area a few months earlier, with their cover of the song " Police and Thieves ". On release, "Wild Youth" was the only commercial single issued by Generation X that failed to enter the UK Singles Chart. Towards
50058-558: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
50301-427: The top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. The band kept a hectic touring schedule throughout Great Britain through 1978, which included the event of a Hells Angel in the crowd at a gig in Derby in mid-March, climbing up on to the stage and punching Idol in the face hard enough to cause him to fly backwards "like a ping-pong ball", landing in the drum-kit - Idol getting back on to his feet, dusting himself down and resuming
50544-411: The tour the band had started working on their next album. In August the new song " Waterfront " was premiered in a live concert. In September the band recorded a BBC session for David Jensen, including "Waterfront" and the newly written "The Kick Inside of Me". In October their next album was recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite at Townhouse Studios in London. In November "Waterfront" was released as
50787-410: The tracks, achieving a distinctive double-drum sound. Laff departed to join Andrews in a new band entitled Empire, which found little commercial success; Andrews would return to the British chart in the late 1980s with the pop rock/rockabilly band Westworld . Generation X's last live performance was at Gloucester 's Jamaican Club on 30 November 1979. With Andrews and Laff gone (with James putting out
51030-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
51273-434: The venue. Soon after formation Generation X abandoned playing cover versions in its live performances around London, and began writing its own material, with Idol writing music around James' lyrical song constructions. In early 1977, the management for the band was passed from Czezowoski, who preferred club management to live acts, to a dual management of Stewart Joseph, a fanzine promoter from Rough Trade Records , with
51516-418: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
51759-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
52002-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
52245-425: The world, including Australia, Europe, North America and Japan. In 1984, Jim Kerr married Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders (who renamed herself Christine Kerr). Simple Minds headlined a North American tour supported by China Crisis during the Canadian leg and supported the Pretenders in the US while Hynde was pregnant with Kerr's daughter. The marriage lasted until 1990. Despite the band's new-found popularity in
52488-462: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
52731-460: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " and " Kon-Tiki ", while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
52974-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
53217-493: Was an element of the chore creeping in. We were coasting and this whole other thing was a challenge." The first casualty was bassist Derek Forbes, who was beginning to squabble with Kerr. Forbes began failing to turn up for rehearsals, and was dismissed. Forbes remained in touch with the band (and was soon reunited with another former Simple Minds bandmate, drummer Brian McGee, in Propaganda ). To replace Forbes, Simple Minds hired former Brand X bass player John Giblin , who owned
53460-463: Was attentive to its public image conveyed in the act's dress and styling. The band's co-manager Jonh Ingham introduced them to the graphic artist Barney Bubbles , who with them created the cover for the "Your Generation" single release, drawing inspiration from the 1920s abstract geometric work of Russian designer El Lissitzky , which introduced the Russian Constructivist school into English pop music design, which would be utilized by other bands into
53703-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
53946-468: Was filmed for The Old Grey Whistle Test . Real to Real Cacophony was released in November 1979. While the band got little marketing support from their record company Arista, who didn't like the album, it received critical acclaim. The release was followed by their third UK tour of the year and a BBC session for John Peel in December. In January 1980 "Changeling" was released as the only single from Real to Real Cacophony , failing to make an impression on
54189-449: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
54432-452: Was indicative of an inherent divide of some nature within the act, with it possessing an inner core which Andrews and Laff were not party to. The band maintained a high work rate of live performances as the year developed, with Idol also going on a first promotional visit for the band to the United States in May 1978, followed by another international gig for the band in Paris in June, several live BBC radio performances, and being supported by
54675-432: Was not improved by Generation X being driven off stage by an onslaught of missiles from a mob of U.K. Subs fans, during a triple-bill concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London in February 1979, as a part of an ongoing violent tendency from a proto- street punk element that dogged the band's live appearances. As the year progressed amidst a continuing heavy touring and increasing television performance schedule, induced by
54918-440: Was not involved beyond the rehearsal stage, Forbes formally rejoined Simple Minds in July 1996. The band then reunited with Mel Gaynor for a studio session in early 1997. Gaynor was reinstated as a full-time member for the European tour (which once again featured Mark Taylor on keyboards). After the tour, album recording sessions were interrupted by Kerr and Burchill's decision to play live (without Forbes, Taylor or Gaynor) as part of
55161-456: Was now willing to abandon the band, Chrysalis Records dropped the contract, writing off the quarter of a million pounds that it had invested into the act's development over four years, and Gen X broke up in February 1981. Its last public performances were an appearance on BBC Television's Oxford Road Show (with Idol wearing cross-dressing stage clothes of a male neo-Gothic high collared coat combined with female knickers and black-tights), and
55404-433: Was recorded primarily over two nights in Paris in August 1986. "When we first heard the live album I thought, What a great night! What dynamics! But is that it for us – rousing choruses and crashing drums? There didnae seem any room for subtlety, and we always seem at our best when we're not trying to be powerful, but there's an underlying power coming through." —Jim Kerr reflecting on Simple Minds' change of emphasis in
55647-414: Was released entitled Kiss Me Deadly (1981). However, the production of the new record had been problematic. Tony James later described narcotic use by other members of the line-up, including Idol, during the recording sessions as hampering it, and his personal working relationship with Idol was becoming distanced by James' unease at Idol's intensifying attraction to opiates (James would later ascribe
55890-432: Was released on the Ballad of the Streets EP, which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart (the only time the band did so). Another EP track, " Belfast Child ", was a rewrite of the Celtic folk song " She Moved Through the Fair " (which had been introduced to Kerr by John Giblin) with new lyrics written about the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland). The single was also an expression by Simple Minds of their support for
56133-401: Was released, with Milarky and McNeill going on to form The Cuban Heels. Ditching the stage names and the overt punkiness, the remaining members continued together as Simple Minds (naming themselves after a David Bowie lyric from his song " Jean Genie ", making their very first performance at Glasgow's Satellite City on 17 January 1978. In January 1978, Simple Minds recruited Duncan Barnwell as
56376-523: Was replaced for the second leg of the Sons and Fascination tour by the Kilmarnock -born percussionist Mike Ogletree (the former drummer for Café Jacques ) in early 1982. Simple Minds started working on their next album in an old farmhouse in Fife . In February 1982 the songs "Promised You a Miracle" and "King is White and in the Crowd" were premiered on a BBC session for Kid Jensen . The band then moved to Townhouse Studios for recording sessions with producer Peter Walsh . The band told Walsh they wanted
56619-409: Was session keyboard player Peter-John Vettese who played live with the band at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Concert and on a short German tour. He was subsequently replaced in the live band by Mark Taylor. In 1991, Simple Minds returned with Real Life . The album's cover showed a trio of Kerr, Burchill and Gaynor and the writing credits for all songs was Kerr/Burchill. The album reached No. 2 in
56862-411: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
57105-548: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
57348-439: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
57591-424: Was the first to be completed and released (later in 2001). In the video for the Neon Lights single "Dancing Barefoot", the band consisted of Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Gordon Goudie and Mark Kerr. A 2-CD compilation, The Best of Simple Minds , was released soon afterwards. Cry was released in April 2002. Although the album did not sell in great numbers in the U.S., Simple Minds felt confident enough to mount
57834-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
58077-400: Was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated
58320-415: Was the only Simple Minds album released by Chrysalis Records , who refused to release the album in the U.S., citing lack of interest. The music video for "Glitterball", the album's lead single, was the first production of any kind to film at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao , Spain. A European tour followed between March and July 1998, undermined by problems with ill-health and contractual fiascos (including
58563-436: Was then supplanted by an increase in the band's political activism, something which they had begun to stress in recent years (by giving all of the income from the "Ghostdancing" single to Amnesty International, and playing cover versions of Little Steven's "(Ain't Gonna Play) Sun City" on tour), inspired by Peter Gabriel with whom they had toured in the early 1980s. Simple Minds were the first band to sign up for Mandela Day ,
58806-484: Was unable to appear at all the gigs, and Mark Taylor returned to cover for him on several occasions. From this point onwards, the two alternated as Simple Minds' live keyboard player, depending on Gillespie's schedule with his other projects. With the Kerr/Burchill/Duffy/Gaynor lineup, Simple Minds released Black & White 050505 (their fourteenth studio album), on 12 September 2005. The album's first single, "Home", received airplay on alternative rock radio stations in
59049-432: Was unsuited to the new sound that Idol wished the act to pursue, and had developed doubts about Laff's professional capabilities since the recording of the Valley of the Dolls , when Laff was judged to be technically inadequate by its producer Ian Hunter , to the degree that a session drummer had to be hired by the band for the work in the studio. Laff and the session drummer, Clive Bunker , eventually played together on
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