{"id":3073,"date":"2025-10-07T18:23:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T18:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/?p=3073"},"modified":"2025-10-01T08:33:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T08:33:36","slug":"simple-minds-on-psychedelic-experiences-redneck-run-ins-and-reconstructing-a-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/2025\/10\/07\/simple-minds-on-psychedelic-experiences-redneck-run-ins-and-reconstructing-a-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Minds on psychedelic experiences, redneck run-ins and reconstructing a classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code module_class=”custom-cat” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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\t\tMojo<\/pee>\t<\/div>\t
\t\tFEATURE<\/pee>\t<\/div><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Simple Minds on psychedelic experiences, redneck run-ins and reconstructing a classic<\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Forty years ago, a band of Glaswegian art-rock misfits located the formula for a spectacular transformation. From base metals, Simple Minds alchemised New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)<\/em>, an album which would change their lives for ever. As they prepare to reconstruct the album live in Edinburgh, Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill ad their former bandmates tell Keith Cameron the whole miraculous tale, from psychedelic experiences in the Scottish countryside, to redneck run-ins in Saskatoon\u2026\u201cWorldwide on the widest screen!\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Words: Keith Cameron <\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-157841108.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” alt=”A group portrait of Simple Minds, near Edinburgh, Scotland, 27th August 1981. L-R Derek Forbes, Charlie Burchill, Kenny Hyslop, Mick MacNeil and Jim Kerr. (Photo by Virginia Turbett\/Redferns)” title_text=”Simple Minds” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Simple Minds, near Edinburgh in 1981, (L-R) Derek Forbes, Charlie Burchill, Kenny Hyslop, Mick MacNeil and Jim Kerr<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

ON SEPTEMBER 25, 1982, Simple Minds\u2019 fifth album entered the UK chart at Number 6 \u2013 the band\u2019s first Top 10 record. It was titled New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), an auspicious, slightly pretentious declaration of context, momentum, and intent: there\u2019s where we\u2019ve been, here\u2019s where we\u2019re going. \u201cOn previous albums I still felt we were a student band,\u201d says Jim Kerr. \u201cIn the sense we\u2019re still learning from those who inspired us \u2013 Magazine, Bowie, Roxy and so on, using base metals to get to our own thing. With New Gold Dream, it was like: this is us now. These are our times.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

One week later, Glittering Prize, a celestial union of iridescent melody, assertive rhythm and Kerr singing about \u201cthe price of lost love\u201d and \u201cthe attraction of fame\u201d, sashayed into the Top 20 singles chart like a counterfactual \u201980s Roxy Music that Eno had never left. Six months earlier, their Top 20 debut had \u201cpromised you a miracle\u201d; here now was the assured confirmation of Simple Minds\u2019 metamorphosis from agitated art-rock misfits into heralds of an aspirational new pop.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, however, the sublime bowed to the ridiculous. Having prefaced their album\u2019s release with some low-key UK gigs, by the time New Gold Dream charted, Simple Minds were touring Australia and New Zealand. The journey home included 12 dates in Canada, with Vancouver and Toronto bookending an eastward slog across the endless prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. \u201cThe tour from hell!\u201d chuckles drummer Mike
Ogletree. \u201cThere was a truck accident, one of the drivers broke his collarbone, my drums were strewn across the highway\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Late October found Ogletree in a Saskatchewan hotel room watching a documentary about the Ku Klux Klan \u2013 a weird premonition of the subsequent gig in a local student union hall. \u201cBecause it was a Halloween party, these people had turned up dressed as Ku Klux Klan,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were basically in redneck country. Jim freaked out at the promoter: \u2018Get them the fuck out of here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bassist Derek Forbes remembers grabbing the promoter by the throat. \u201cHe was dressed as Dracula. His head\u2019s down, he\u2019s ashamed, people in the audience thinking Ku Klux Klan outfits were a good choice for a band with a black drummer. I says, \u2018You\u2019re an asshole.\u2019 He says, \u2018Hey \u2013 I might be an asshole, but I\u2019m the biggest asshole in Canada.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Jim Kerr\u2019s recollection, the promoter later tried to make amends by driving the singer, guitarist Charlie Burchill and Ogletree across town in search of entertainment, only to be stopped by the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately we weren\u2019t carrying anything, but Dracula got hauled off. We\u2019re left by the side of the road in Saskatoon. That was one of my favourite tours. A fucking disaster, but riveting. Dodgy equipment, dodgy trucks, a bus that was 20 years out of date. It was a Heart Of Darkness feeling: \u2018If we can get to Toronto, we\u2019ll be saved.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto on November 7 would be Mike Ogletree\u2019s last act as a member of Simple Minds. Upon returning to the UK, at a band meeting in London\u2019s Columbia Hotel he was told he wouldn\u2019t be on the forthcoming UK tour. \u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019re using Mel Gaynor from now on. Here\u2019s 500 bucks and a ticket to Scotland.\u2019\u201d Ogletree laughs. \u201cIt was good-natured \u2013 because of me, y\u2019know, I\u2019m an easy-going guy. And I loved the band. Still do.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the second time in a matter of months that Ogletree had been usurped by Mel Gaynor. During the New Gold Dream recording sessions, producer Peter Walsh identified the need for a drummer who worked \u201cquicker and more accurately\u201d. Having engineered Gaynor on a slew of Brit-funk records by Beggar & Co, Central Line and Light Of The World, Walsh knew he fitted that bill and more. In the end, Gaynor played on five tracks to Ogletree\u2019s three. \u201cMike did the bulk of the groundwork, and Mel\u2019s stepped in and taken the glory in the studio,\u201d says keyboardist Mick MacNeil. \u201cBut once Mel was on the seat, it was obvious nobody was gonna beat that guy. He was like Muhammad Ali on drums.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian debacle impelled an upgrade of the band\u2019s components to a level commensurate with their new record\u2019s gilded aura and next-level commercial status. Fundamentally, in Charlie Burchill\u2019s estimation, \u201cwe realised we need to get better live.\u201d Ironically, however, Mike Ogletree had played a pivotal role in re-orienting Simple Minds towards this brilliant future. His tenure in the band lasted barely eight months, similar to his predecessor Kenny Hyslop, who succeeded founder member Brian McGee in August 1981 and played on the band\u2019s breakthrough hit, only to be sacked shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

Yet if Hyslop\u2019s brief period in Simple Minds proved significant \u2013 he sourced the riff that begat Promised You A Miracle from a New York Kiss FM megamix \u2013 Ogletree\u2019s was even more so. During his time, Simple Minds utilised a brand new tonal palette, profoundly shaped by the drummer\u2019s particular style, from which they created New Gold Dream, a Simple Minds album unlike any before or since \u2013 and one with which the band are still reckoning today.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

\u201cIt was springtime, Scotland at its most dreamy version of
Avalon, with the River Tay below us\u2026 and, I have to say, quite a lot
of amphetamine. Because we wanted to play 24 hours a day!\u201d<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Jim Kerr<\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

IN APRIL 1982, THE REGISTERED unemployment total in the UK was 3,007,726 \u2013 one in eight of the population, and the highest figure since the 1930s. That same month, Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Meanwhile, on a farm just outside the Fife village of Newburgh, Simple Minds began work on a new album.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

\u201cI call New Gold Dream our Sgt. Pepper,\u201d says Derek Forbes, \u201cbecause the farm in Newburgh had a cook. \u2018Do you boys like mushrooms?\u2019 \u2018Aye\u2019. \u2018OK, we\u2019re having mushroom pizza tonight.\u2019 Whooft! \u2018Would you like some mushroom tea as well? Try it!\u2019 So we tried it. Every night was mushroom this, mushroom that. And the penny dropped. I was in the shower following a bubble of steam around. That was us, the whole album. The chemistry was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite, or in reaction to, the often grim political landscape, 1982 was a year of transformative energy for bands forged in the post-punk cauldron. Also in April, New Order unveiled their single Temptation, an exultant synthesis of machine precision and raw emotion, while The Associates, high-concept pop mavericks from Dundee, made a bravura entry into the Top 10 with the head spinning Party Fears Two. With Promised You A Miracle heading in the same direction, maybe it was time for Simple Minds to paint in different colours. In the barn at Newburgh, from his vantage point on top of Derek Forbes\u2019s 8 x 10 Ampeg speaker, Jim Kerr was keeping his eyes and ears wide open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was springtime, Scotland at its most dreamy version of Avalon, with the River Tay below us\u2026 and, I have to say, quite a lot of amphetamine. Because we wanted to play 24 hours a day! I had this huge ghetto blaster and would record everything. No one really came in with a song. \u2018What have you got?\u2019 \u2018I\u2019ve got this bassline.\u2019 We would play with it for hours, like Krautrock, going round in a loop, the mood would be amazing. Then somebody would change a chord \u2013 wow, what\u2019s that?! And I\u2019d go back to the tape at night and take notes. \u2018There\u2019s this bit here\u2026\u2019 The songs were collages that bit by bit got edited down. It was a very home-made language, there was no real writer. Even the drummer would come in and start with the groove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Ogletree was working as a driver and guard for Securicor in Kilmarnock when he got the call from Bruce Findlay, Simple Minds\u2019 manager, who had also managed Ogletree\u2019s previous band, the Rupert Hine-produced sophisto-prog trio Caf\u00e9 Jacques. Accepting Findlay\u2019s offer to audition, he sought the opinion of a musician friend. \u201cI\u2019d heard of Simple Minds, because Bruce was managing them, saw them a couple of times in 1979, but I didn\u2019t really know much about them. My friend said, \u2018Simple Minds? They\u2019re amazing! You got an audition? That\u2019s unbelievable!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Kilmarnock\u2019s Shabby Road studio, Simple Minds watched as Ogletree played along to their two most recent albums, Empires And Dance and Sons And Fascination. \u201cCharlie said it was a formality, just to make sure I could still play,\u201d says Ogletree. \u201cI really liked what Brian had done on those records. Trance rock, very powerful, tribal drumming. I thought, I could do that, but make it jazzier, funkier. Funky trance! They thought it could work.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Newburgh, their isolated locale and the personnel change (as well as the psychedelic menu) brought fresh perspectives, calmer rhythms, ethereal textures. \u201cWe started finding a lot of tracks were quite gentle,\u201d says Burchill. \u201cMike was a left-handed player, who played his kit righthanded \u2013 quite an unorthodox way of playing the hi-hat. Because he was new, we didn\u2019t really have any history there. So he was just playing what he was hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mick MacNeil, Simple Minds\u2019 recent rapid turnover of drummers was becoming a source of anxiety. In the pre MIDI era, his plate was full enough dealing with multiple keyboards and pedals, without also worrying whether this latest incumbent was keeping time. \u201cMike Ogletree really did lay it back, and pulled the whole thing into a cooler space where he wasn\u2019t playing so much. We never questioned whether it was sufficient or not, it just fitted perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso,\u201d says Burchill, \u201cwe started realising we could actually write songs! Up to that point, we never saw any of the albums as having songs on them. They were all collections of instrumental parts. Jim did an amazing job of throwing all that together. His overview was great.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1534554897.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” alt=”Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, The Marquee 12\/1\/80 (Photo by Steve Rapport\/Getty Images)” title_text=”Jim Kerr” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Jim Kerr of Simple Minds at The Marquee in 1980<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

WATCHING THE NEWBURGH JAMS ALONGSIDE Kerr was Peter Walsh, a 22-year-old south Londoner schooled in the engineer\u2019s craft by Phil Wainman at Utopia Studios in Primrose Hill, where he\u2019d recorded and mixed the likes of Heatwave, Stevie Wonder, Boomtown Rats\u2019 I Don\u2019t Like Mondays and, in late 1981, a reworking of Simple Minds\u2019 Sweat In Bullet. After successfully delivering Promised You A Miracle in quick order and into the charts, Walsh was now tasked by Virgin Records with his first album production.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

He noted that unlike Promised You A Miracle, which was more or less completely written and arranged in advance, the Newburgh material was very much in development, with no lyrics, apart from the sinister Talking Heads creep of King Is White And In The Crowd, which had featured on a February BBC Radio 1 session for Kid Jensen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a big, open fireplace,\u201d says Walsh. \u201cSo Jim would be tending the fire, as it were. He\u2019d be making comments about what he liked. He\u2019s involved in the discussion but not actively performing. The band were in front of us, and he and I were sitting on sofas. Kind of directing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh was particularly struck by the relationship between Charlie Burchill and Mick MacNeil. In a more conventionally structured band, the guitar and keyboards might behave as virtuosic rivals, competing for the listener\u2019s attention. In Simple Minds, however, the combination was so self-effacing it was often unclear who was playing what. \u201cThe way the keyboards and the guitar sat in the same space was respectful of each other. Their interaction was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

After four weeks in Fife, Simple Minds moved to Virgin\u2019s Townhouse Studios in west London to begin recording. They brought with them a compilation of the farm instrumentals, recorded on Kerr\u2019s ghetto blaster which compressed the music around the bass drum, lending a pulsing ambience. Informed by his grounding in club music, Walsh was determined to retain that characteristic. His approach was also shaped by watching the band live in Belgium earlier in the year. \u201cThe beat and the power \u2013 I was blown away. I thought if we can capture that excitement by playing live on tape it would be very special. So, in the bass and drums in particular, I was after a very precise articulation of what we\u2019d rehearsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After four days, only two songs had backing tracks. \u201cIn a few, we couldn\u2019t get through it to the end,\u201d says Walsh. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a problem, if you\u2019re recording on tape, and you want to get a live feeling. There\u2019s a difference between live and recording. Maybe Mike had a bit of red light fever. The last thing I wanted was to get a new drummer in, but I remember a certain amount of frustration. Jim went: \u2018We need to work faster on this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Mel Gaynor with his big bag of drums. Accounts differ over the whys and wherefores of Ogletree\u2019s sidelining. Although the drummer acknowledges feeling uncomfortable in the \u201cglass cage\u201d environment of the studio, he saw the time issue as a red herring. \u201cI thought it was going pretty good, but Pete liked Mel\u2019s sound, and him and Peter had a working relationship. I think Pete really wanted to get him in the band. So Mel basically just played the grooves that I\u2019d been doing\u2026 Because the grooves weren\u2019t the problem. It was the sound Peter wanted that he said he wasn\u2019t getting. It wasn\u2019t a subterfuge. It was an agreement for the good of the band and the album \u2013 and I agreed as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond dispute is the fact that Gaynor nailed the parts right away, as directed by Walsh and Ogletree. The two drummers even played together, on what became the album\u2019s euphoric title track: sat opposite each other, Gaynor on the left, Ogletree the right. Between them, amid the almighty noise filling the 30-foot-high Townhouse stone room (where Phil Collins\u2019s In The Air Tonight was recorded), stood Derek Forbes, thundering his cyclical bassline to infinity and beyond. \u201cOne of the best moments in a studio I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d he says. \u201cThe two of them, looking at each other. What a sound! What a brilliant sound!\u201d<\/p>\n

With backing tracks approaching completion, an unexpected guest appeared at the Townhouse to check out the facilities. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know who Herbie Hancock was,\u201d admits Burchill. \u201cWell, Mike would have, and Pete Walsh. But the rest of us knew nothing. We just said, \u2018Do you fancy having a play?\u2019 Because they were saying, \u2018This guy\u2019s amazing!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Suitably awestruck at meeting the legendary jazz pianist, Walsh set aside the three remaining tracks on the song Hunter And The Hunted and pointed Hancock towards Mick MacNeil\u2019s Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. As soon as Hancock began perfectly essaying a solo, MacNeil knew he was in the presence of greatness. \u201cI think he heard the track once, he never even asked for a run through, he just went up and played the thing. It was fantastic. I was frightened of the guy, I gotta say. And then I\u2019m just sitting about for the next month, thinking, \u2018Shit, I\u2019ve got to learn how to play that now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After three flawless takes, Hancock bade them farewell. \u201cThanks for letting me drop by guys. Hope I didn\u2019t ruin your album.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]

“His voice had changed, he\u2019d got more confident, I think because there was space in the music.”<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Charlie Burchill<\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

WORK MOVED TO THE MANOR, VIRGIN\u2019S residential facility in Oxfordshire, for overdubs and Jim Kerr\u2019s vocals. Until that point, an album\u2019s worth of music had been recorded without the singer committing a single word to tape. Songs had working titles \u2013 Arpeggio Riff became Colours Fly And Catherine Wheel; The Low Song became Hunter And The Hunted; Festival Riff became New Gold Dream itself \u2013 but the album\u2019s specific character had yet to be defined. The process entailed a certain amount of jeopardy, primarily for the singer.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

\u201cThere\u2019d always be a lyric in my head, a melody,\u201d says Kerr. \u201cBut I really had to match the atmosphere of what I perceived in the music. After three or four weeks, these tracks are sounding monumental. I started to have the fear of the penalty taker, because you\u2019ve got that long walk out to the mike, everyone\u2019s in the room: is he gonna put the ball in the net or sky it over the bar?\u201d<\/p>\n

As Burchill notes, however, Kerr\u2019s omnipresence during the sessions meant the singer saw the big picture clearer than anyone else, and understood exactly what was required. \u201cHis voice had changed, he\u2019d got more confident, I think because there was space in the music \u2013 a lot easier to sing across.\u201d<\/p>\n

The predominant mood, almost palpable amid the humid vistas of Someone Somewhere In Summertime or Hunter And The Hunted\u2019s stately processional, was sweet, romantic melancholy, the music permanently on the verge of immaculate ascent. When finally revealed, Kerr\u2019s lyrical gaze had shifted decisively, from previous albums\u2019 alienated third-person cut-ups to first-person entreaties, evoking a universal oneness. The evangelical subtext bubbled over on the title track vocal, delivered in late July at the eleventh hour as Walsh lobbied Virgin for extra time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were meant to finish on the Friday, and we had a festival in Sweden,\u201d says Kerr. \u201cBetween the soundcheck and the gig, I had a bath. Listening to the track, I thought, \u2018That \u2018new gold dream\u2019 chant I had a while back\u2026 That\u2019s it!\u2019 When I\u2019d heard the stuff at the Townhouse, the feeling in the room was ecstatic. That ecstasy in the sound brought these ecstatic lyrics. \u2018Worldwide on the widest screen\u2019. I was trying to say: we\u2019ve arrived.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-85064012.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” alt=”UNSPECIFIED – JANUARY 01: Photo of SIMPLE MINDS; L-R Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Derek Forbes, Mick Macneil, Brian McGee (Photo by Virginia Turbett\/Redferns)” title_text=”Photo of SIMPLE MINDS” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]

(L-R) Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Derek Forbes, Mick Macneil, Brian McGee<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

FORTY YEARS AFTER THAT Archimedes moment, New Gold Dream continues to ripple through the lives of all its participants. MOJO meets Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill the morning after the current Simple Minds play Paris on the 40 Years Of Hits Tour, a two-and-half hour celebration delayed for two years by the pandemic. In Paris, New Gold Dream is the most-represented album, with five songs. The remaining four are guaranteed to air on August 13, when the entire record will be performed, in sequence, in Edinburgh\u2019s Princes Street Gardens, to benefit the UNICEF For Children In Ukraine appeal.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

New Gold Dream occupies sacred space within the Simple Minds community. It managed the rare feat of taking a band to a whole new audience without alienating the old one. Subsequent albums, most notably Sparkle In The Rain and Once Upon A Time, sold more but are loved less. Kerr and Burchill are taking great lengths to do their landmark record justice. Burchill, in particular, the band\u2019s de facto musical director, has been diligently working out the logistics of taking 21st century technology, and personnel, back in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to sit down with Cherisse [Osei, drums] and get forensic on that drum area. The keys are the keys. The bass, Ged [Grimes]\u2019s got that nailed. Obviously the guitar, I can sort out. The only thing we can\u2019t do is get Jim sounding like 23 years of age!\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so easy to mess up an album like that live. We could never do it properly with Mel, funnily enough. Because live, Mel would just go into \u2018Mel\u2019. And he wasn\u2019t \u2018Mel\u2019 on New Gold Dream. So we had to always keep a lid on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derek Forbes and Mick MacNeil are above-averagely interested in their old pals\u2019 legacy curation. Forbes still plays New Gold Dream material with his band The Dark. \u201cWe sound more like Simple Minds than they do now!\u201d he grins. \u201cNew Gold Dream is a masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s rookie producer, meanwhile, flourished in its wake and continues to enjoy a successful career. Peter Walsh\u2019s long association with Scott Walker began, in 1984, directly because of Walker\u2019s appreciation for New Gold Dream. In 2016, Walsh presented an Abbey Road Institute mix workshop using the original multi-track tapes \u2013 a kind of new gold wet dream for SM tech-heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very dear to me,\u201d he says. \u201cThe funny thing is, I\u2019m so much more experienced as a producer and engineer, I could probably do a much better mix of it now. But I don\u2019t know if it would be as good.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Mike Ogletree, he took his one-way ticket back to Scotland and kept on going. He subsequently joined Fiction Factory, scoring a UK Top 10 single with (Feels Like) Heaven, a whole 12 months before Simple Minds achieved similar with Don\u2019t You (Forget About Me). Today he\u2019s the artist in residence at the Meadowlark Motel in North Carolina\u2019s Great Smoky Mountains, singing traditional Scottish and Irish songs \u2013 a remit that does, he admits, extend to granting requests for New Gold Dream unplugged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created a new space, a new sound for Simple Minds,\u201d Ogletree says. \u201cOne that everybody loved.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

This article first appeared in the August 2022 issue of Mojo<\/em><\/p>\n

Images: Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty years ago, a band of Glaswegian art-rock misfits located the formula for a spectacular transformation. From base metals, Simple Minds alchemised New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), an album which would change their lives for ever. As they prepare to reconstruct the album live in Edinburgh, Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill ad their former bandmates tell Keith Cameron the whole miraculous tale, from psychedelic experiences in the Scottish countryside, to redneck run-ins in Saskatoon\u2026\u201cWorldwide on the widest screen!\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3073"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3098,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073\/revisions\/3098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}