i've almost finished this great little book, it focuses upon simple minds before they made it big, from poor beginnings right up to new gold dream although it does go slightly further. australia plays a big part in simple minds history, a country that got right behind them and gave them the confidence and support they needed to crack the big time. icehouse helped.

i'd always loved them, that sort of weird european electro trash, with equally weird lyrics but  then along came new gold dream, and wow! 

my ex wife was a huge fan so in our early days that's all we listened to, 'new gold dream' and 'sparkle in the rain.' it was the soundtrack to everything we did. i recall driving down the southern coast of spain, summer sun, small little villages, lazy afternoons, the power of youth and foolishness fuelling us with simple minds turned up loud. her fave was 'white hot day' while i loved 'book of brilliant things.'

we could never really understand how they developed that sound, it's so distinctive and unique. i was always enamoured by charlies guitar, it certainly never sounded like a normal guitar, and that drumming! then there's the incredible derrick forbes, possibly the only actual trained musician in the band. he played an incredible bass and was half of the rhythm machine, the other being mel gaynor on drums. then there was frontman jim kerr, who was a very strange front man, very effeminate and graceful. 

the book describes him as a reclusive, bookish, director type. along with charlie they drove simple minds forwards. there's a lot of technical information on how they got certain sounds and  steve hillage certainly added to their overall production sounds and styles. the band seem to keep everything in house, it's built on trust i guess, managers, lighting, engineers, it's like a small family of people who just heard them as a small pre record company band and believed in them, stuck it out and were there for the pay off. it's a good book, i like the writing style and information, it avoids the bitchy items and sticks to the love.