When Simple Minds first played US and why, for singer Jim Kerr, the band is ‘a crusade’
The frontman of Scotland’s biggest band, Jim Kerr talks about the early days in Glasgow, their success in the 1980s, and The White Lotus
When the Scottish band Simple Minds made their live debut at the Satellite City club in Glasgow on January 17, 1978, it is fair to wonder just how big the four teenagers in the band dared to dream.
“That’s a good question,” says singer Jim Kerr, who along with guitarist Charlie Burchill, are the only founding members of Simple Minds to have stayed in the band for the 47 years since that first gig. “And it’s one that we’ve been reflecting on a lot recently, because Charlie and I have just finished off a book on the history of the band.”
At the time, Kerr and Burchill were both 18 and had been friends for a decade, Kerr says.
“By the time we became teenagers, with Brian (McGee, the original drummer), we were in the same class at school. That’s when you start to identify your tribe, especially walking around with vinyl albums under your sleeve you find out, oh, these are the guys I’ve got something in common with,” he says on a recent call from Los Angeles, where Simple Minds were rehearsing for a US tour.
Burchill had a guitar, McGee had a drum kit, and Kerr would have done anything to be involved with music or a band.
“I’d have been happy to be a manager or a road manager. But we were so passionate, especially about live music.”