Today I received an email from Simple Minds that had me blindsided. It feels like this should have already happened, but while there have been concerts featuring it, there has never been an album released with all of “New Gold Dream [81, 82, 83, 84]” played in full, and in order, live. Until now. The band were captured at Paisley Abbey at the behest of Sky Arts, as part of their “Classic Albums Live” series. The band chose to have Paisley Abbey as the venue as it was a locale near their Glasgow environs that had 860 years of history for them to add their contribution. And this, by the way, is Paisley Abbey.
TONIGHT – SIMPLE MINDS LIVE ON SKY ARTS
The program was recorded last October 6th and will be broadcast tonight on Sky Arts which is one of those UK-only television thingies that anyone outside of the UK won’t be able to watch. But we will be able to hear what went down. The band are issuing a live album of the full show on LP and CD, and it’s currently on pre-order in their webstore.
Simple Minds: New Gold Dream Live From Paisley Abbey – UK – CD [2023]
- Someone Somewhere In Summertime – Live From Paisley Abbey
- Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel – Live From Paisley Abbey
- Promised You A Miracle – Live From Paisley Abbey
- Big Sleep – Live From Paisley Abbey
- Somebody Up There Likes You – Live From Paisley Abbey
- New Gold Dream (81- 82- 83- 84) – Live From Paisley Abbey
- Glittering Prize – Live From Paisley Abbe
- Hunter and the Hunted – Live From Paisley Abbe
- King Is White and In the Crowd – Live From Paisley Abbey
The CD has my name on it. In a digipack at what will be the usual modest price from Simple Minds webstore at only £10.00/€12.00/$14.00. Of course the requisite [and more flashy] LP will also be available in marbelized vinyl at £25.00/€30.00/$33.00. I have have the marbelized colored vinyl LP that came out in America since 1982, but I have to admit, the design team made this one look very appealing.
The album is in pre-order and will be shipping out on the 27th of October, so there’s time to save some shekels, though where I’m going to find any with the upcoming Eurotrip in April is cause for concern. I’ve been selling off lots of our collectibles to fund that excursion and trips to the Post Office during my lunch hours have weighed heavily on this blog of late! With “new keyboardist” Berenice Scott having come and gone from the band’s lineup, this album will remain the one time she got to leave her mark on a recording. D.J. hit that button!
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Post-Punk Monk 
Looking forward to watching the programme on Sky Arts, here in the UK tonight. I saw them on the tour for the New Gold Dream album, back in 1982, just as they were starting to make it big, after a couple of singles that charted. They were excellent and went down a storm. China Crisis were the support band, so it was a cracking night.
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Roy Solomon – Since you can watch the concert, please report back with your findings! I remember the tour book for that ‘82 UK tour a friend of mine had. Now replicated (albeit smaller) in the “New Gold Dream” ultrabox. I still have not seen China Crisis after 40 years of fandom.
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I didn’t buy the program, but I still have the small enamel badge I bought at the concert – after 41 years !!
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hi mr monk,
good timing, and thanks for the heads up.
will be getting both formats. to add to the other 10+ i have.
love the way the vinyl looks, and getting the cd to listen to.
will be interesting to hear how these versions compare to
the originals.
later
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ne gative 1
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Time for one of my dirty little secrets to be confessed: I rarely enjoy live albums and don’t buy them very much unless one or more of the following conditions are met:
1. The artist rarely plays live/I’ve never heard them play live;
2. They’re doing something different and interesting with the material; or
3. I was at that particular gig.
That said, for such a reasonable price and because the original album was so good, I’m in for this one I think, even though it meets exactly none of the stated conditions, so I’m going to blame it on the presence of Berenice, who has done such stellar work with Heaven 17 and elsewhere. Or maybe because of the gorgeous CD design — yeah, that’s the ticket!
I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the live CDs I do have were part of a reissue of the original album or a box set. Now, if someone were to dangle a quality live recording of Sons & Fascination/Sisters Feelings Call …
The other thing I wanted to say about this is that looking over that tracklist has made me nostalgic for the days when songs were often written about topics a million miles away from love/lust emotions, and often had beautiful and/or clever titles like “King is White and In the Crowd” and “Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel.” China Crisis were the kings of this, though Sparks and They Might Be Giants are also often concerned with atypical song topics, among other artists.
The mention of China Crisis reminds me of the one chance I had to see them play live that slipped through my fingers — I was in New York and they were playing somewhere I could have actually, with some effort, gotten to — IIRC something changed (the venue, the date, not sure) and I was unable to attend. I hope I get another chance someday, but they tend to play mostly in the UK so my odds are not looking good, despite my many trips over there.
OTOH, I always said the same thing about Nits, and now I have a ticket to their show in Amsterdam, so never say die!
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I’ve just finished watching it, and I thought it was stunningly good, with the band on top form. They did well by their breakthrough LP.
The only complaint I have is that it’s a TV show with a fixed format, with interview segments between the songs, and even overlapping with intros and outros. Still, I assume that won’t intrude on the CD, and makes me hope for a DVD release of just the concert.
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David Simpson – Good to hear! I’m now thinking, has the band ever played “Somebody Up There Likes You” in concert?
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I’ve not seen the programme yet, but according to Setlistfm, they played Somebody Up There Likes You at several venues on the 1982 New Gold Dream tour. I saw them at Leeds University on the tour, although the set list shows they didn’t play it at this date.
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Roy Solomon – Fascinating to know. I have to wonder how many of the excellent SM instrumentals ever got an airing in concert.
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Addendum: There wasn’t an audience, apart from the TV people who applauded at the end, so not one single request to see people’s hands. Also no showmanship, no playing to the crowd, which I think benefitted the music in this case. The air of commitment was palpable, an air of thinking this was important, so give everything to it.
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Agreed, it was excellent. Like you, I would have preferred the interview to be at the beginning, interesting as it was, followed by the concert of the album as one section, with no interruptions. Hopefully this will be the case with the CD.
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Well the first thought of the tight fisted, cold hearted cynic in me was can I construct this set from all the live Simples that I have already ? Hmm.. couple missing me thinks. But OK , ten quid for the cd. Probably get it.
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AdeW – Like I said, live recordings of “Somebody Up There Likes Me” probably don’t grow on trees.
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I would love to see them tour this album in the US (my fave with Sparkle in the Rain). I saw them at sadly departed Roseland Ballroom in NYC in 2013 (the Greatest Hits tour), which was sooo good.
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AR – Welcome to the comments! We also saw the 2013 tour in Washington D.C. and it was the most exciting time I’ve ever had at a concert. I finally got some insight as to how teen hysteria happens…seriously late in the game!” Once they pulled out “This Fear of Gods” I was losing it for a solid 20+ minutes.
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hi mr monk,
i not sure if there is a limit on replying to a post.
i tried to add to the ‘inxs’ to look at you one from 2013,
to mention an upcoming record store day release,
which has live tracks. and it wouldn’t let me.
so i’m posting here.
later
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ne gative 1
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negative1ne – No limits, other than comments with links I have to manually approve. WordPress has been a little shaky lately. On the desktoop I saw that your comment went straight to spamtrash. Grrrr. So did a link I made in today’s blog to an earlier post!
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