Simple Minds (support act: Grad)
Date: Wednesday, 3 July 2024
Venue: Pula / Arena / Croatia
Simple Minds need no lengthy introduction. They are new wave and art rock legends with a formidable commercial track record. True to their name, their music — across all the years and the many albums Simple Minds have released — has never undergone any fundamental change at its core. It remains light, uncomplicated, instantly catchy. Even if the run of recent studio albums signals a clearly perceptible artistic leap that has, for quite some time now, all but erased every trace of the modest first steps Simple Minds took back in 1977 in Glasgow, Scotland.
From the late seventies right up to today, Simple Minds have carried the reputation of one of the most recognised Scottish bands in history, with a career tally of over 60 million records sold and a string of singles that topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK alone, they racked up five number-one albums: “Sparkle In The Rain” (1984), “Once Upon A Time” (1985), “Street Fighting Years” (1989), the live album “Live In The City Of Light” (1987), and the compilation “Glittering Prize 81/92” (1992).
The past decade has only confirmed their continued influence, and their live shows have proven they still pull tens of thousands through the gates. Their gloriously rich and sprawling catalogue of concert staples includes timeless classics such as Don’t You (Forget About Me), Alive & Kicking, Belfast Child, Promised You A Miracle, Glittering Prize, Waterfront, Sanctify Yourself, Someone Somewhere in Summertime, and plenty more from a career spanning over 40 years.
A full two years have passed since the band last visited Zagreb! That night, ŠRC Šalata sold out completely (capacity around 5,000). In autumn 2022 they dropped the new album “Direction Of The Heart” (RockLine review), and this summer they set off on a new tour. The “Global Tour” takes them across the Mediterranean for this summer leg of 2024, with stops in Italy, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, and France. The Pula Amphitheatre is about as ideal a concert venue as you can get. The sheer atmosphere adds that unique finishing touch — you just know you’re in for the perfect gig experience. And if you happen to be a die-hard fan of the act you’ve come to see, right there in that Roman Arena, then nothing can possibly let you down.
At half past eight in the evening, Grad took to the stage. Legends of the Rijeka new wave. A casual listener might slot them somewhere between their generational peers Laufer and Ogledala. The band, represented today by three original members — vocalist Dean Škaljac and guitarists Igor Stevanović and Orijen Modrušan — made no secret of being in great, frankly excellent spirits. Why wouldn’t they be? A packed venue. It’s not every day that a couple of thousand people are there for your set. Though plenty more were still streaming in at that point. The band is highly seasoned and experienced — their tightness and cohesion come as no surprise. In a solid half-hour set, Grad ran through the highlights of a career that isn’t much shorter than Simple Minds’. Among the songs we heard: Eni, Kreni, Nebo, Kako da zaboravim (to which Simple Minds have their own answer: Don’t You (Forget About Me)!), Ima li nešto, Vodi me. Cast your mind back to the eighties and Grad’s early days, and you can clearly pick up on the flavours of that era — the era when new wave was born. That much is obvious. And it’s precisely there that the parallels with Simple Minds emerge, so you have to hand it to whoever picked Grad as the support act: it was a smart call, and one that Grad themselves will probably never forget for the rest of their days.
By half past nine, everything was set for the stars of the evening. The core of Simple Minds in 2024 consists of founding and original members — the iconic vocalist James Kerr and guitarist and occasional keyboardist Charlie Burchill. On stage, Simple Minds take the shape of a septet, which is what they have officially been in recent years. Joining the two main protagonists are: bassist Ged Grimes (with Simple Minds since 2010), the hugely charismatic and energetic drummer Cherisse Osei, the outstanding backing vocalist Sarah Brown, additional guitarist Gordy Goudie, and the most recent addition, Norwegian-born keyboardist Erik Ljungrenn — an exceptional, genre-fluid, and versatile session musician everyone knows! Well, in Norway at least. From A-HA to Satyricon. He recently stepped in to replace his predecessor Berenice Scott.
This time, Simple Minds put on a set nearly half as short as the one two years ago in Zagreb, where — including the interval and encore — they played for almost three hours across two parts. They retained tracks from the setlists of the past two years and delivered a show running, with the encore, to just under an hour and three-quarters. But there’s nothing to complain about. The unique venue — which the band was experiencing for the first time in their career, just as the audience was experiencing Simple Minds in it — with its superbly balanced sound, tight ensemble playing, and top-tier execution, delivered every bit of what it promised. The musical fingerprint they’re famous for. And within it, Simple Minds rolled out hit after hit, drawing the best out of themselves and the ecstatic crowd.
The material focused on the central albums of Simple Minds’ career: “New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)” (1982), “Sparkle In The Rain” (1984), “Once Upon A Time” (1985), and “Street Fighting Years” (1989), with two more tracks drawn from “Real Life” (1991). The standout surprise of the setlist was Big Slip from “New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)”, a song the band had not included in their live repertoire since the late eighties.
Jim Kerr is holding up brilliantly — vocally and physically. Alongside the guitar singularity of Charlie Burchill, Kerr is one of the two defining hallmarks of the band’s look and sound. On stage he remains extraordinarily agile. Infectious. Full of magnetism. Full of his trademark dance moves, constantly urging on the crowd with calls and waves. In a few days he would be turning a round 65. A long-time resident of Sicily, an Italian citizen, and the owner of a hotel in Taormina — where his guests, during the Pula show, could snap selfies through the hotel windows with a view of Etna erupting in the background. The veteran vocalist shows not a single sign of wear. The same can be said without hesitation about his Simple Minds companion Burchill, a few months his junior, who once again impressed with his refined guitar touch — reaching for a red Fender Stratocaster during Mandela Day to lay down a captivating fingerpicked solo. Burchill of course stays faithful to his white Gretsch Falcon and a run of Gibson Les Paul guitars fitted with a tremolo. That distinctive sound — where Burchill deftly leans on chorus and delay effects — remains hypnotically alluring and intoxicating throughout. The remaining building blocks of the sound and stage presence fit together like a glove, perfectly in tune. Sarah Brown, an exceptional vocalist, was given more of the spotlight this time around. She stepped right to the front several times for duets with Kerr, while in the first song of the encore — Book of Brilliant Things (“Sparkle In The Rain”, 1984) — Kerr handed the vocal over entirely to Brown.
A concert charged with top-tier atmosphere from the first note — opening with one of the best possible choices for a Simple Minds show opener, the hard-hitting and gloriously bombastic Waterfront, which gets you swaying the instant it kicks in, through a series of the most iconic eighties moments, with Sanctify Yourself standing out early in the set, all the way to the outstanding second (instrumental) section of the classic Belfast Child, and of course the grand finale, which arrived far too soon: the infectious Someone Somewhere in Summertime followed by the song of all songs, the globally beloved evergreen Don’t You (Forget About Me).
After the first encore track, the incendiary See The Lights built the perfect runway into the final crescendo of our evening with Simple Minds. Last to arrive was, of course, Alive & Kicking, which Simple Minds always intentionally stretch out. And so it was this time. A crowd of nearly 10,000 on tiptoe, every arm raised skyward, matching Kerr’s every move and step on stage, roaring along to the chorus! A thunderous finale all the way to the theatrical peak of the night! Another unforgettable experience with Simple Minds. Both main protagonists of the septet still project youthful energy, so there’s no sense at all that Simple Minds have aged, even as they approach their 50th anniversary in three years. They keep on ripening. Long may it stay that way.
text: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen (photos no. 1, 2, 3 and 66)
Simple Minds – setlist:
1. Waterfront
2. Once Upon a Time
3. Mandela Day
4. Hunter and the Hunted
5. Big Sleep
6. Sanctify Yourself
7. Let There Be Love
8. Come a Long Way
9. Glittering Prize
10. Promised You a Miracle
11. New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
12. Belfast Child
13. Someone Somewhere in Summertime
14. Don’t You (Forget About Me)
—encore—
15. Book of Brilliant Things (Sarah Brown on vocals)
16. See the Lights
17. Alive and Kicking
