In a way, it all began during the recording sessions of 2009 Graffiti Soul when Jim Kerr realized how varied and experimental their first years were and, somehow, wanted that feeling to be all over Graffiti. This record was not like Sons and Fascination actually, but it was indeed their most thorough and most solid since 1997’s Neápolis (if we don’t count the lost album Our Secrets Are the Same, due to be released in 1999 but that got lost in the middle of the merging battles between Chrysalis, EMI and other companies). Also, that some big current names such as Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream or The Horrors have cited and even been inspired by those seminal songs by Simple Minds, helped Kerr and Burchill to revisit their first years.
So, to that conscience of their own legacy followed the rescue of some of those early tracks onstage, such as “Sons And Fascination” or (what I personally think is their best song ever) “This Earth You Walk Upon”. But that was not enough and, after some greatest hits releases and tours and solo projects and other stuff, in early 2012 Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill decided to reissue their first five records, including b-sides and live takes, in six CDs – with the twin records Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call being included separately – under the name X5. All that was followed by an end-of-the-year short tour based on these same records, where Simple Minds played each night five songs from each album.
And now those live songs have been captured in a double cd simply entitled 5X5 Live. “I never dreamed we’d play these songs again. Nostalgia is something that never comes easy, particularly if you are hell bent on living the present,” says Kerr in the liner notes of the record. Indeed, some of the songs are even almost impossible to find in old bootlegs and if found, the quality is less than acceptable. Thus the great enthusiasm of old and new fans of the band who packed all venues of the tour to listen to some songs the Glaswegians neither played in decades nor in a close-to-the-original arrangement.
And as it happens with Peter Hook’s ‘The Light’ or The Cure’s ‘Reflections’ gigs in Sydney, the work by the current line-up of the Scottish combo was to recreate, rather than copy, the sound of those times. And nobody seemed to change more his way of playing than drummer Mel Gaynor. “I had to adapt my style dramatically as most of those songs I played for the first time. And that was in no way easy as the sets were two hours and a half long,” commented the Londoner. Instead of sounding big, Gaynor sounds effective, less flashy and more to the point than his stadium-playing persona, a factor emphasized by a somehow smaller drum kit that the castle-like he has used in the past.
And that adaptation and recreation is evident from the word go. The first 20 minutes of the first CD set is dedicated to almost all tracks from 1980’s Empires and Dance, a record that resulted in Simple Minds being one of the first, if not the first, to merge post-punk and dance music and somehow unintentionally paved the way to many latter combos like Tears for Fears, the early Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, INXS or Gary Numan (each in their own style, of course). These may be the bunch of songs, the ones belonging to Empires, that sound way better and luminous than in record as they gain in organic feeling as opposed to the sequencing and processing they had in studio, but elsewhere any of the songs of the first four records – fifth album New Gold Dream has always been present in the Minds’ repertoire – are bright and are a true testament of the hours and hours dedicated to this set. But well, if you want to know which ones are recommendable, they could be: “Today I Died Again”, “Calling Your Name”, “Scar”, “Premonition”, “Someone”, “Sons and Fascination”, “This Fear of Gods”, “Factory” or “Life In a Day”. Also, a detail worth mentioning is the sound achieved by current bassist Ged Grimes, more subtle, surrounding if necessary and also leading the way depending on the song, but always supporting the melodies, not sounding separate from them. That was what original bassist Derek Forbes achieved and exactly that was what Grimes emulated.
Once the second CD ends, it’s kinda inevitable to think about how people will see a feat like this. A gig of this kind is always received with a sense if cynicism. Stupid comments suggest the band only want to be sold in and be cool again just for the sake of it and if that was the case, then the Minds would’ve toured the set for much more than the scarcely 15 or 16 dates they played in Europe. Also other comments suggest the songs don’t sound like they did on record, and that’s true. The current incarnation of Simple Minds only have Kerr and Burchill as original members… the same way as the aforementioned Peter Hook’s The Light only have him as an original member of Joy Division (or now New Order) or The Cure’s ‘Trilogy’ or ‘The Reflection’ concerts only have Robert Smith and Simon Gallup as full-time members when they had other keyboardists, bassist or drummers with them in the original records. And a live record is never meant to sound exactly, totally and a 100% like the original. If that was the aim, live music would’ve ended with Supertramp.
It’s not about doing a full playback of those songs. It’s to visit them with a new perspective and the freshness and ideas new members give to them. It’s not about being cool again as statements by other current and popular bands pay off more than a handful of gigs. It’s not about using these gigs in order to regain the experimental vibe again as Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are past the 50-year-old point and if they experiment in their next record, they will be aware they cannot be radical.
It’s simply about stating “We have made some bloody good songs and we want to celebrate it with our hardcore fans” (now read that with a Glaswegian accent)
The rest is mental onanism.
Simple Minds – Scar (Live 5X5 2012 Tour)
