Of course we’re attuned to all things Simple Minds here at PPM. They are a top three band for me and I’ve stuck with them through thick and thin. The thinnest period being 1985-1994 where I bought the occasional single after “Once Upon A Time” showed the former Art Rockers aiming squarely for the stadium. But much of what came after that was a fairly reliable third phase to the band which I’ve enjoyed.
There’s no way any of it compares to the first seven studio albums… what could? [Sorry, Bowie] But their last thirty years have been full of occasional surprises and a lot of good to strong efforts that step away from the stadium and on occasion, reach back to their Post-Punk roots quite effectively.
So when the Simple Minds mailing list sent word out yesterday of their upcoming [as in only a few months away!] North American tour for 2025, my heart sank a little when I saw the branding. With the 1985 logo and a big fat Live Aid photo front and center, this seems like The Minds will be working that popular album action to lean very heavily into their top selling [only selling, really] American success story of “Once Upon A Time” for this jaunt.
The press release breathlessly referenced their “biggest live run across the US and Canada in four decades,” but the fact was that in 2018, this 24 date tour was eclipsed by the “Walk Between Worlds” North American tour where the US leg alone was a fatter 27 dates. Where they might have room to crow was in the size of these particular venues. The venues do run the gamut between 6000-18,000 seats per show. So maybe in terms of tickets sold, they may have a point. But first they have to sell those tickets.
The last Roxy Music tour of North America was similarly ambitious but the hard facts were that the promoter overbooked the shows. Yeah, you and I know that it was Roxy Music…icons! That’s not possible!!! Yet it happened. And Roxy Music is the yardstick by which lesser bands like Simple Minds‡ are measured. So their promoter had better do their job well.
‡ editor’s note: next to Roxy Music, all bands are “lesser bands”
At least the support bands on the bill are either perfectly chosen or delightfully left field. I’m actually very surprised to see Soft Cell on the bill. I never would have thought of them as a complementary act for someone like Simple Minds, but while they only have one hit in America, it was huge. And artistically, they are a much more “underground” act than Simple Minds have been in decades. Their choice shows vision.
And having Modern English open for Simple Minds is just damn near perfect! They have similar New Wave/Post-Punk roots and are such a good fit with the Simple Minds mothership that this couldn’t have been the first time this has ever happened, could it? Having seen them live last year, I know they will deliver a great opening set to the show. Their latest album was an excellent modern album that touched successfully on their roots in much the same ways that Simple Minds have done in the last 20+ years. So they’re a strong choice, yet one which should shock no one paying attention. So what are the dates, then?
SIMPLE MINDS ALIVE AND KICKING NORTH AMERICAN TOUR – 2025
- May. 16 | Ridgefield, WA | RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
- May. 17 | Seattle, WA | Climate Pledge Arena
- May. 20 | Concord, CA | Toyota Pavilion at Concord
- May. 22 | Inglewood, CA | Kia Forum
- May. 23 | Palm Desert, CA | Acrisure Arena
- May. 24 | Chula Vista, CA | North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
- May. 25 | Phoenix, AZ | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
- May. 27 | Denver, CO | Ball Arena
- May. 30 | Austin, TX | Moody Center
- May. 31 | The Woodlands, TX | The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
- Jun. 1 | Irving, TX | The Pavilion At Toyota Music Factory
- Jun. 4 | Rogers, AR | Walmart AMP
- Jun. 5 | Maryland Heights, MO | Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
- Jun. 7 | Atlanta, GA | Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park
- Jun. 10 | Columbia, MD | Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Jun. 11 | Holmdel, NJ | PNC Bank Arts Center
- Jun. 13 | Wantagh, NY | Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
- Jun. 14 | Philadelphia, PA | TD Pavilion at the Mann
- Jun. 15 | Mansfield, MA | Xfinity Center
- Jun. 17 | Montreal, QC | Bell Centre
- Jun. 18 | Toronto, ON | Budweiser Stage
- Jun. 20 | Chicago, IL | Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
- Jun. 21 | Clarkston, MI | Pine Knob Music Theatre
- Jun. 22 | Noblesville, IN | Ruoff Music Center
I see the closest date to where we live would be Atlanta once more. In 2018 they were in The Tabernacle; a 2600 capacity venue. This time they’re at Chastain Ampitheatre with a capacity over two times larger. I’ve posted the info to my offline threads with my posse but the response has been quiet. The last Minds show was good, but not the sort of transcendence they delivered for me in 2002 or especially 2013. They they lacked a dedicated keys player in 2018, splitting the synths between Burchill and Goudy was a misstep to my ears. Now they have a dedicated keyboard player again, but the last album was merely tepid to my ears. It was the single backsliding album of the last 20+ years of strong album development for my ears.
And then there’s the reliance on nostalgia for a period of Simple Minds I actually regret partaking in. None of these factors are encouraging me to spend a minimum of $500 to trek to Atlanta for a weekend to see Simple Minds trying their best to relive what was for me a terrible period in their story. But there is another bit of revisiting that they are doing as well to the far away world of 1985.
ONCE UPON A TIME RUBY EDITION
Simple Minds: Once Upon A Time [Ruby Edition] – STREAMING – [2025]
- Once Upon A Time (5.44)
- All The Things She Said (4.16)
- Ghost Dancing (4.46)
- Alive + Kicking (5.25)
- Don’t You (Forget About Me) (4.23)
- Oh Jungleland (5.12)
- I Wish You Were Here (4.42)
- Sanctify Yourself (5.02)
- Come A Long Way (5.08)
When “Once Upon A Time” dropped in 1985, I was fully expecting it to carry the megaton payload of “Don’t You [Forget About Me]” which had preceded it in the marketplace to an astonishing degree of success. But back in 1984 the band only performed the track, which they didn’t write, under the duress of their American label and out of respect for its writer, Keith Forsey. Whom they met socially and liked. When “Alive + Kicking” climbed to the number two spot it looked like all’s well that ends well, but you, me, and your pet ferret know that had Simple Minds relented and allowed “Don’t You [Forget About Me]” on that 1985 album, they probably would have sold twice the number of copies [500K, by the way] in America, if not the world. I think that their new American fans were probably expecting it.
Now this has come to pass, forty years later. And the artwork has been remastered, and re-jigged to a fresher ruby palette. With DYFAM [as SM fans call it] slotted in between sides one and two of the original album. Exactly what I would have done if asked to. As of today it’s only streaming online, so you kids have fun. But the band say that physical copies and “other anniversary reissues” will hit physical form later this year. Will I be buying one? I can’t imagine as I’m now at the point of purging all of the Simple Minds albums I do not want to listen to for the rest of my life. Including this one. Nothing personal, Simple Minds. You’re still a core collection band for me. My goal is much broader with 25-33% of my entire Record Cell in my sights for a culling. But that’s another story, and for sure my copy of this will be in the out box.
Meanwhile the tour tickets go on sale this Friday if you’ve not had the pleasure [you really should see this band live if you haven’t] with the fan presale happening tomorrow at 10 a.m., so if you want those presale codes, be sure to sign up for the Simple Minds mailing list like Ye Olde Monk here has. DJs hit that button!
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Post-Punk Monk 
I was never more than a casual SM fan back in the day – I knew “DYFAM” and liked “Alive and Kicking” (a 45 of which I may still have somewhere), so I bought OUAT, and that’s the sole SM album I’ve ever purchased until I bought the 2-disk The Best of Simple Minds a couple of years ago. I liked the hits from it (“Alive,” “Sanctify Yourself,” “All the Things She Said”) just fine*, but never warmed to the rest of it. (When I was a teenager, I hadn’t learned to like unconventional singing voices yet.) I had a cassette of it that I eventually sold off to a Half-Price Books somewhere.
It would be a good 30-odd years later before I started actively listening to the pre-DYFAM work**. While I agree that it’s a lot better, to my ears, stuff like “Promised You a Miracle” and “Up On the Catwalk” sound like run-ups to “Alive and Kicking.” Stadium stardom was always their plan, I think – they just balanced out the lighter wavers with more experimental material.
The only post-OUAT SM music I’ve ever heard is a song called “Banging On the Door,” which I have to admit I like a lot.
As for the venues, I think they’re vastly overestimating their American audience, especially between the coasts. They’re playing the Moody Center here in Austin, which is our arena. That’s where I saw Roxy, who couldn’t even fill the place halfway, despite an unbeatable legacy and an incalculable influence on nearly every UK band that followed them. (Bryan Ferry always plays the 2500 seat Moody Theater whenever he comes through, and that would’ve been a perfect venue for Roxy – for one thing, it has one of the best concert sound systems in town.) I suspect SM will face a similarly half to 2/3 empty room. I could be wrong, though – after all, SM had a massive hit that’s still all over the radio to this day.
Side note: I listen to the Steven Wilson/Tim Bowness podcast The Album Years a lot, and they’ve been unsurprisingly effusive about pre-OUAT Simple Minds. So when they did the year 1985 and came up to OUAT, I thought, “Here we go – Wilson’s gonna get the knives out.” Imagine my – and Bowness’ – surprise when he said he really liked OUAT, which I found puzzling in part because he’d spent many episodes complaining about the American stadium rock sound, and that’s the sound SM went for on that record. Though I think the argument could be made that they did so while still retaining their essential personality. Kerr is Kerr, no matter in what musical setting you shove him.
*Yes, I know that sounds like damning with faint praise. That album didn’t make me an obsessive fan. If I ever come across a bunch of CD reissues of the early 80s stuff in the used bins, I’ll probably snap them up. Otherwise, the compilation does me just fine. And I don’t mean that as a diss on anyone’s fandom – I completely understand they’re a lot of folks’ favorite band. They just never quite connected with me that way.
**Thanks to, of all things, a column in Prog Magazine called something like “But Are They Prog?” that covered SM – complete with interviews with Jim Kerr talking about how influenced the band was by Genesis, Can, and Kraftwerk.
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Michael Toland – Well obviously, I will cede to your venue expertise! That was the gist of the discussion on the Trouser Pres forum and I think that if Roxy Music ran out of gas on their last US tour. Which was a farewell tour, in all honesty, what hope do Simple Minds have to mount a tour in venues at least 2x-3x larger than their last tour? I think they got lucky last time. I mean, this is a band in America with a single gold album to their names! But there is that song which never seemed to slack in airplay in over 40 years. Can it compensate for what is actually a mild popularity in The States? “Alive + Kicking” made it to number two but I must hear 20 plays of DYFAM to any one of “Alive + Kicking.” Come to think of it, do I ever hear “Alive + Kicking?”
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Yeah, it definitely feels overambitious compared to their actual commercial impact. Maybe if they were doing fewer shows – like one gig in Texas (maybe in Austin, and I say that not because I live here, but because it’s right in between Irving/Dallas area and the Woodlands/Houston) that would induce all the Texan SM fans to come.
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I haven’t seen Simple Minds live since Real To Real Cacophony – in an Edinburgh night club! Must have been in 1979…
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Robert Saunders – How lucky for you. I didn’t even hear Simple Minds until 1981. I’m still enthralled by “Premonition.” The moment for me where “Simple Minds” was formed.
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I saw them on the OUAT tour at Radio City Music Hall, and it was great, even if that was not my favorite album. I can see no need to revisit that 40 years later in a lesser (i.e., bigger) venue.
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AnEarful – Maybe the money men promoters behind this tour know something we don’t. Maybe they’ve done studies and are putting their money where they think it’s a win. After all, as Michael Toland states, DYFAM is still all over the radio. I might hear it 2-3 times a month in public music systems. That’s pretty darned ubiquitous. Maybe Generation Z is clamoring to experience the OUAT tour that they missed because they wouldn’t be born for two more generations? While we old geezers just roll our eyes and proclaim, “…not that thing again??!”
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I’d be *happy* to hear DYFAM on public muzak systems, in my market the ones I hear with greater frequency than you cite are We Built This City and Africa.
Just shoot me.
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What I am really pleased about are that my mates, Modern English, are going on the longest tour of the US since 1999. Hats off to them, they deserve the recognition, especially after their recent amazing new album 1234. I think Simple Minds and Modern English have shared a stage before at some ’80’s events but I think its the first time ME have supported SM in tour. Wish I could be there to see it.
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richardanvil – Well, I think Modern English totally scooped fave band Simple Minds on the “new album thang.” The Minds came off a modern peak with an album that was missing…something. “1234” was nothing less than delightful.
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Got my ticket for the suburban Boston shed venue date (a very surprising choice, considering it has a 20K capacity including the lawn!). Honestly didn’t think I’d go but the warmups pushed me over. Seeing Soft Cell in London back in 2018 for their farewell concert (HA!) was a bucket list dream ticket and truly one of the finest shows I’ve ever attended. I’m guessing this Simple Minds tour will be woefully undersold, unless they start ramping up the nostalgia aspect even more. But I’m selfishly hoping for a full career retrospective and not a (just) a run-through of Once Upon A Time.
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Taffy – Good for you! I’m hearing noise about the ticket pricing but I’ve decided that there’s no way I would go to what I’m sure will be a high level of expense for a show that all but assures me up front that I won’t enjoy it. But please report back on your findings! The opening acts are quite tasty on their own. So I understand your thinking. Especially since you can see them in town without a bare minimum of $500 more in travel/food/lodging.
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I went to their concert at the Bell Center in Montreal in June, and the place (20.000+ places) was almost full, and with a great energy! It was fantastic, and their setlist was covering many early albums – I loved “This Fear of Gods” live!
I’ve been to concert where they couldn’t fill only half of such arenas 15 years ago, and they were in a much smaller place in Montreal in 2018, so I’m really happy to see that they can fill such a big place live now. It was really great with the background screens, and Cherisse Orsey and Sarah Brown are so good, they fit perfectly in the band now!
I was a bit sad that they didn’t play any recent track, but that’s a best-of tour, so it’s fine…
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Stéphane Wantiez – It encourages me that they have left “This Fear Of Gods” in their sets after rediscovering it’s tremendous power during the “5×5” tour. I got it played in a 2013 show and it thrilled like nothing else! That they are still playing it 12 years later is the best possible news. And I agree that Cherisse and Sarah add plenty to the show. Their latest live album from Amsterdam features Sarah singing new backing vocal arrangements on the early material [even though she was part of the 5×5 tour] and the performance was that much better for her participation.
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