Rarely Covered looks at who’s mining the darkest, dustiest corners of iconic catalogs.
Simple Minds has existed for close to 50 years, featuring schoolboy friends Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill, still the nucleus of the lineup. You have heard their music. At least one of their songs, anyway. In the US they are considered One Hit Wonders (even though “Alive and Kicking” hit #3). Here at Cover Me we have had not one feature on “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” but two, along with the occasional standalone mashup version. Nevertheless, it is atypical of their work. And when I say “work,” I mean that Simple Minds were the most commercially successful Scottish Band of the ’80s, and a version of the band records and continues to fill UK and European arenas each year.
Those decades of effort have had many important stages. It is not worth pretending that punk act Johnny and the Self-Abusers had such a glorious future, but once the band evolved into the electronic, Krautrock-flavored field, their sound began to take its mature form, in the albums Real to Real Cacophony and Empires and Dance, and the song “I Travel.” A switch of record labels led to a stream of single and album successes, hits across the world (but not yet the US). Their classic albums Sparkle in the Rain and Street Fighting Years endure as classics. They developed different, innovative, sounds and hit records with legendary producers like Trevor Horn and Jimmy Iovine. With occasional breaks they have remained active ever since. They have embraced many sounds and line-ups. Fully 23 of their albums have been hits in the UK, 5 reaching number 1. Their live act remains a strength to this day; they toured extensively, pre-COVID, across the world, with big tours in the US, periodically strengthened by refugees from other Scottish rock bands around Kerr and Burchill. The breadth and vigor of their work is remarkable.
The band developed an outstanding live capability as well as their stellar recorded work. Their own smaller events were augmented by supporting the likes of Peter Gabriel. By the time of New Gold Dream (81 82 83 84) their act was well honed, and they had also developed stadium-friendly hits as sing-alongs. The iconic, single note, bass introduction to “Waterfront” let the audience know it was time to get crowd’s vocal chords ready. In 1984 they may have had home advantage at the iconic Barrowlands Ballroom venue, but they held their own against the likes of The Cure and U2, and they carried their techniques to the world’s biggest stages in years to come.
There was, of course, the hedonism of rock in the ’80s and ’90s but there was also idealism. They performed at Philadelphia Live Aid, but took a much bigger role in the Mandela Day concert in 1988. In effect they were the anchor band, the big name that got the ball rolling on the event which eventually featured Stevie Wonder, Sting and Harry Belafonte, but only after a bona fide star name had signed up. They created a new anthem for the event, and Mandela himself personally thanked them around his 90th Birthday Party concert. They also took the brave step, for a band from the West of Scotland, to venture an opinion on the still ongoing “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, repurposing an Irish Folk Song as “Belfast Child” to protest at an atrocity in Ulster and the detainment of Ulsterman Brian Keenan in Lebanon, and taking it to Number 1 in the UK.
The band did release a covers album, Neon Lights, in 2001. That record should not trouble a quality covers website, and its reception led Kerr and Burchill to take an extended break from performing before returning much stronger with new material. We have thus focused on cover versions of their non-Breakfast Club songs.
Madame Sandowsky – I Travel (Simple Minds cover)
Italian “New Wave Tribute Band” Sandowsky capture the muscular, German-influenced sound of early ’80s Simple Minds. “I Travel” was never a hit, but it put down a marker about the band and its commitment to its influences.
The Blaxcotsman – Promised You a Miracle (Simple Minds cover)
By the mid-80s Simple Minds had an advanced, lush sound as their success afforded them luxuries in the studio. So it is surprising that the Blaxcotsman could produce such a great version of “Promised You a Miracle” in an acoustic setting.
Leæther Strip – Waterfront (Simple Minds cover)
The great singalong classic “Waterfront” is given an industrial makeover by this Danish outfit. The bassline is there but replaced by electronic sounds, but the robustness of this version of an iconic song is tribute enough. This is taken from the band’s Reptile Man Drop: A Tribute to Simple Minds.
Sarah Menescal – Alive and Kicking (Simple Minds cover)
You can dial up the stadium sound and industrialize the sound of Simple Minds, but you can also dial it down and create a new ambiance. Bossa specialist Menescal is a favorite of ours and she does an exceptional job with her take on “Alive and Kicking.”
Patrick Lück and the Street Life and String Ensemble – Belfast Child (Simple Minds cover)
Simple Minds’ biggest hit outside of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” is “Belfast Child,” a heartfelt tale based on an Irish Folk Tune. German singer Lück augments his usual sound to augment both the music and the emotion, without mangling the meaning. The whistle is a haunting counterpoint to his vocals, and when the strings and lead guitar kick in it just stays on the right side of overwrought, demonstrating that it is not just Simple Minds themselves that can create a stadium sound from traditional beginnings.
