A mind to keep that music coming

Jim Kerr says Simple Minds' live appeal has a lot to do with nostalgia

When Simple Minds play in Auckland next week, it won't be in a stadium they might have once commanded. There won't be any gold discs presented backstage - this country was a breakthrough territory for the Scottish band in their early years, as Jim Kerr says on the phone from London: "New Zealand was one of the first places to make us feel we could be pop stars."

And many of the 30-and 40-something fans in the audience were probably surprised when the tour was announced that the band led by Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill is still a going concern.

But the group hasn't really stopped, even though the spotlight dimmed at the end of the 80s after they had sold 25 million albums and briefly become Scotland's answer to U2.

Kerr says there was a time five or six years ago when he and Burchill thought it might be time to call it a day. Their songwriting had dried up. The shared vision thing had become unfocused.

After all, they could have retired somewhere nice - Kerr lives in Taormina, Sicily - and lived off the royalties.

"It is an interesting question because we weren't a hard luck case. It isn't 'I could have been a contender'. It's not like were 'nearly' there."

But Kerr says if a band is going to embark on a 30 year-career, it's got to expect things to work in cycles. "This is what we are are, we are a band with music in our heads and in our hearts. Until that is no longer the case we do it through good times, through bad times. We do it when we are ripe with inspiration, we do it when it's like getting blood out of a stone. That is what makes you the real deal or not."

For a time in the early 80s, Simple Minds were the real deal. Having worked their way through their influences on their early albums (Bowie, Lou Reed, Kraftwerk among others) and projecting a decidedly Eurocentric rather that Scottish/British image, the band reached their first breakthrough on 1982's New Gold Dream album.

From there, the band's commercial appeal grew while their songs increasingly sounded like they were being arranged to fill the arenas they were soon playing.

From there, their career swung from Hollywood themes (the non-original Don't You Forget About Me for the Breakfast Club broke them big in America) and other hits before the band embraced politics on Street Fighting Years, an album that was to mark the beginning of lean times.

It wasn't a sudden fall says Kerr. "Just as we didn't get into the big league overnight - it was a nice curve - it wasn't like we found ourselves going from Wembley Stadium into a pub. We do play small venues - and arenas in some countries. We still headline festivals, albeit in a 'legendary' spot at the end of the night," he laughs.

The touring that brings them to New Zealand follows the release of last year's Black & White 050505 album, a set of which Kerr is particularly proud.

The record and recent concert dates have won the band some rare critical acclaim - he's especially chuffed about one in hometown rag the Glasgow Herald. "First glowing review we've had from them in years."

Kerr theorises that there's a re-evaluation of his band going on, dovetailing with the 80s music revival by bands like The Killers and Franz Ferdinand from both sides of the Atlantic.

"The 80s is a period that rightly or wrongly has been much maligned until very recently."

He says that, yes, these days the band's live appeal is attributable to nostalgia - there will be plenty of folks in next week's Auckland audience trying to recall seeing Simple Minds at Mainstreet or Sweetwaters - where Kerr met Chrissie Hynde, his former wife and the mother of his daughter, Yasmin.

"There is no taking away from that. Bands of a generation always figure in that's generation's life. I think we have to embrace that but still find something that refreshes the story.

"The nostalgia thing is an important part of it. The band has been on a journey that is entwined with people's lives ... you need to respect that."

Kerr says that even if the sales charts aren't what they once were, Simple Minds is now more than a long-term career.

"In our own little minds it's a crusade. I haven't worked out exactly what the endgame is. But there is still so much to do.

"There are still so many songs to be written. Whether anyone wants to hear them or not is another thing."

Who: Simple Minds
Where: Aotea Centre
When: Wednesday July 17