Just joining us? We’re covering the tracks that were unfortunately left off of the still mandatory Simple Minds X5 boxed set of their first five albums, remastered with bonus tracks. Of course, I’m all about the bonus tracks since I already owned the 2002 remasters of these titles. Nevertheless, buying this for the bonus tracks was a no brainer, since  a) the price was generously low b) the packaging was assiduously detail oriented and c) 19 rarities make their not insignificant presence known here. Seven of which are making their digital debut. Let’s begin anew, shall we?

Sweat In Bullet [7″ remix]

Virgin | 2x7" | UK | 1981 | VS 451

The third single from “Sons + Fascination/Sister Feelings Call” was the muscular “Sweat In Bullet,” and the single was remixed by Peter Walsh for both 7″ and 12″. Walsh would later get the nod to produce their next album, “New Gold Dream [81, 82, 83, 84]” and his ferocious mix here surely got him the nod. Derek Forbes fretless bass is a wonder as he goes for the throat here. The 4:30 album track was nicely remixed into a 7:23 monster for 12″ with that mix getting a curt 3:00 edit for 7″ release. Of course the original 2×7″ is your best bet, for reasons we’ll get into shortly, but the discerning collector has other options.

Stiff America | US | LP | 1981 | TEES 102

The unique, US-only Simple Minds compilation “Themes For Great Cities” was hastily but wisely compiled for quick US licensing when after making sone tour dates in The States in 1981, it came to management’s attention that they had not had an album released in America since their debut, three years earlier! The “Sweat In Bullet” 7″ remix appears here, as does the “Love Song” 7″ edit, making this LP valuable for the Simple Minds connoisseur. If you’re like The Monk, you’d buy it just for the great Malcolm Garrett cover! In fact, I bought two.

Ronco | UK | LP | 1981 | RTL 2063

Finally, the 7″ mix appears on this rather excellent Ronco UK compilation named “Hits Hits Hits!” Scope those simulated lo-res computer graphics! I actually own this record as well, since it is full of desirable cuts that I never got elsewhere. I have not listened to this record in decades, but knowing that mass market compilations of this stripe often contained unique edits to the material they contained to allow for cramming in of ever more songs per side [this album has 21 tracks], I would not be surprised if the version of “Sweat In Bullet” here might be even shorter than the scant 3:00 of the actual 7″ single!

Premonition [live @ Hammersmith 9/25/81]

This second live recording of the crucial “Premonition” surfaced on the 2×7″ version of “Sweat In Bullet” [as shown above] and nowhere else. This marked the second time the group trotted out this classic live as a B-side. Their only single from their second album “Real To Real Cacophony” was “Changeling” b/w “Premonition [live @ Hurrah, NYC ’79]” and if you have the “See The Lights” 2xDVD, the live film footage of that earlier performance is included in the bonus materials! The recording of “Premonition” here is from the band’s Hammersmith Odeon show of 1981. The 12″ single of “Sweat In Bullet” contained “League Of Nations” from that show as a B-side, but substituted “In Trance As Mission” instead of “Premonition” whereas the 2×7″ has “Nations” but lacks “Mission;” instead offering “Premonition.” The bonus tracks on X5 were taken from the 12″ with the 7″ B-sides left out to pasture… unless you act!

30 Frames A Second [live]

I Travel [live]

Arista | UK | 12" | 1982 | ARIST 12 448

Finally for today, when Simple Minds signed to Virgin, Arista still tried to work that action, up to the point where Virgin bought out their back catalogue. So 1982 saw a re-release of the always contemporary “I Travel” in a sleeve redolent of the “Celebration” Arista compilation that the single was ostensibly taken from. The extended A-side had been previously released only in France in 1980, but it’s the B-sides that we’re concerned with here. Live recordings of “30 Frames A Second” and “I Travel” are the reason to grab this lovely record. Simple Minds live tracks are usually painstakingly source referenced on their packaging. These cuts are unique in Simple Minds canon for being presented rather haphazardly and without credits, but scuttlebutt has it that the source recording for these tracks is the same live ’81 Hammersmith master [owned by Virgin] that Arista would have had to license from Simple Minds new masters. Oops! But the band were at a live peak beginning at this time, and any material you can get from this period onward is stellar.

Next: Miracles happen…