Classic_Pop_Issue_30_July_2017

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I

t’s hard to know who

started this fashion

for proving your back

catalogue via acoustic

treatment. Perhaps it

was the MTV Unplugged

albums of the 90s, or

the contrived informality

of Mumford & Sons, but

everyone’s at it, even A-ha

next year. At this rate we can

anticipate Kraftwerk’s Electric

Café on mandolin and bongos.

However, Jim Kerr mentions

Simple Minds’ reluctance to

sound like hippies halfway

through this West End show,

by which point they’ve already

proven that their idea of

acoustic is akin to sharing

a hanger with a jet plane

taking off. After all, this is a

band whose last album was

called Big Music.

Longtime drummer Mel

Gaynor might be absent, but

the phenomenal percussionist

Cherisse Osei does the work of

20 drum machines.

Like a ninja choreographing

Future Islands, Jim Kerr has

already grabbed a fan’s phone

for a selfi e, upheld his mic

stand, and walked through the

auditorium before set opener,

the evergreen New Gold

Dream (81–82–83–84), has

even fi nished.

With entertaining stories

between songs, Kerr’s the

defi nitive frontman, attacking

every track like it’s the encore.

Charlie Burchill’s spent 40

years watching his mate’s

gleeful dad-dancing, although

there are less scissor kicks

these days. Yet Burchill’s

refl ective guitar playing is as

unique as Marr, Clapton or

the Edge, with his distinctive

pose of holding it like a

dance partner to tease out

unforgettable stadium riffs.

It might be acoustic, but it’s

classic Simple Minds.

The only song that really

misses the synthesizers is classic

closer Alive And Kicking,

which adopts its football chant

defi ance nonetheless.

Tellingly, there are no tracks

beyond their imperial period

of the 80s, only what Kerr

shamelessly describes as

‘these classic songs’, but their

pompous reputation is ruined

here by effortless passion and

playfulness, with the sound

quality more crystal than the

huge chandelier above the

stage. Glittering Prize certainly

chimes as majestically perfect

as ever. The tough Stand By

Love is somehow reminiscent

of Tom Jones, while they pull

unknown funk from Someone

Somewhere In Summertime,

which follows a blissfully

melancholic Big Sleep.

They’re as kind to Don’t

You (Forget About Me) as it

has been to them. Their cover

of Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old

Town is diverting enough, but

they return for several encores

to allow Kerr to show off his

new jackets and reinvented

arrangements of Waterfront

and Promised you a Miracle.

He’s grinning to the last, as

is the crowd, as though high

on knowing they’ve made a

superfl uous acoustic album

an essential live experience.

They’re extraordinary.

Tom Hocknell

SIMPLE MINDS

LONDON PALLADIUM

27 MAY

THE SCOTTISH POMP ROCK LEGENDS STRIP DOWN AND GO ACOUSTIC FOR A

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE PALLADIUM SPECIAL AND SOUND LIKE... WELL... SIMPLE MINDS

© Naomi Dryden-Smith

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