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BCC Tues May 9 An abridged, more intimate Convention Centre greeted ‘80s giants Simple Minds, once stadium fillers to rival U2, now with a smaller and, on tonight’s evidence, extremely loyal audience. First, Expatriate played appropriately post-punk flavoured synth rock, complete with floppy fringes and jeans tucked into boots. Their music had a pleasing Icehouse-esque chill and, although the audience was clearly not here to see them, Expatriate appealed to this old FM104 demographic enough to incite some clapping along. Good effort, fellas.
Then it was time for Scottish titans Simple Minds, with the ageing Jim Kerr and his trusty guitar hero sidekick Charlie Burchill looking a little grizzled around the edges, but Kerr in particular didn’t care a fig that this was a smaller audience than in the Minds’ heyday: he gave as much gusto as when he performed to audiences 20 times larger. In fact, Rave’s esteemed publisher Colin was present and said this was a more energetic band than he saw back in the day. Jim was an unrestrained rock sweatmeister, with constant calls to “put your hands in the air” and regular encouragements for us to provide the appropriate “la la las” or “ba da da-das”. Love Song, Waterfront, (Don’t You) Forget About Me and Alive And Kicking were all great, and the band also did a healthy chunk from their greatest album New Gold Dream, with the likes of Someone Somewhere In Summertime and Glittering Prize as atmospheric and powerful as the original versions (curiously, no Promised You A Miracle, though). An exciting, spot-on performance. MATT THROWER
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