Due to phenomenal demand Simple Minds have added five extra U.K. arena dates to their world tour in 2020 celebrating 40 iconic years. The tour will now include a night at Liverpool’s M & S Bank Arena on August 22nd. Tickets will go on sale from 10am on Friday 6th December and will be available from the Arena’s Box Office.
“Simple Minds are different now,” says Jim Kerr. “We’re not a stock rock band, but we haven’t changed our line-up to be cool. We’ve done it because it’s great to have so many amazing players on board. I’m grateful for the career we’ve had, but I’m mad enough to think we can still hit new levels. This is what we do, write, record and play live.”
“The perception that we’re now gathering pace is down to our attitude to playing live,” adds Charlie Burchill. “There have been lots of different incarnations of Simple Minds, but we’ve always kept our identity. A legacy can be a burden if you allow it to be. For us, it’s been empowering.”
Simple Minds marked their 40th anniversary celebrations with the release of the career-spanning compilation 40: The Best Of – 1979-2019 out now via UMC. Collating their early fan favourites with their era-defining hits and their essential recent material, the collection also includes a gloriously euphoric new track – a cover of King Creosote’s celebration of weekend revelry For One Night Only.
Simple Minds have experienced a remarkable journey since releasing their debut album Life in a Day in 1979. Constantly evolving, the band’s rousing choruses, and booming atmospherics made them one of the most iconic bands of the Eighties. Along the way, they’ve landed five U.K. #1 albums, topped the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic, sold over 60 million albums and packed stadia the world over.
But the story didn’t end there. After taking some time out, they returned revitalised and resurgent with the 2014 album Big Music and have maintained that upward momentum ever since. They claimed the Q Inspiration Award that same year, which was followed by an Ivor Novello in 2016. And when last year’s Walk Between Worlds album crashed into the U.K. charts at #4, it represented their highest position in 23 years. No wonder that the Manic Street Preachers, Moby, Primal Scream and many others cite Simple Minds as a vital inspiration.
A night in which the M & S Bank Arena will surely shudder with anticipation for, the hot evenings of August by the waterfront cannot come soon enough.