Music review: Simple Minds
Barrowland, Glasgow ****
Frontman Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill were showing their age a little more than these songs, so a couple of brief sit-down interview interludes were convened to divide up the next portion of the evening – a chronological run through their new album Walk Between Worlds.
Despite the distillation of the signature Minds sound on recent single Magic and distinct shades of their mid-80s pomp to the title track, this new material could not compete with the old classics. Instead, they appealed to the emotions with the nostalgic Barrowland Star, a big, bombastic number with some heroic riffola from Burchill.
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Hide AdBetter still and far mightier was Waterfront, the song which launched the good ship Barrowland when the band filmed the video here in November 1983 – quite possibly with a good number of this show’s audience in attendance as extras.
The encores were given over to their biggest arena rock hits – Sanctify Yourself, Alive and Kicking and Don’t You (Forget About Me) – and the one misfire of proceedings, an overblown rendition of Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old Town, before Kerr took a well deserved moment to survey his spiritual home with the lights up.
FIONA SHEPHERD