1985-84 8, I’m completing my first Master’s degree in Kingston, Ontario (Bryan Adams’s birthplace). I’m living with 5 other students, the house is chaotic and with the kitchen radio constantly turned on, like all day. A regular student mad-house! So what’s the one song that is blaring non-stop throughout the entire day? What else but “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, taken from the (then) great hit movie, “The Breakfast Club”. Some 25 years later it was with immense pleasure, and for the 4th time now (Winnipeg, Montréal, Rome and Spilimbergo), seeing live that great Scottish band that produced that great hit—perhaps their greatest—Simple Minds, in the beautiful little town of Spilimbergo, Italy, home to a rather nice church dating back to the 13-14th century.
And there they were once again, all still in splendid form, original band members Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill (on crutches due to a cast on his leg! The poor fellow had to play sitting down for the entire concert) and drummer Mel Gaynor (all 51 year-olds by the way), breaking into great version of “Sanctify” and concluding some 2 hours later with “Gloria” (and along the way “Alive&Kicking”, “Mandela Day”, “Waterfront” and their other great old and new hits). They were joined on stage by keyboard player Andy Gillespie, bass player Eddy Duffy plus a backing female vocalist who hit the high chords on “Alive&Kicking”. A great concert for a band that has been around since 1977 and 8 years later became part of concert history during their “Live Aid” performance at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia with “Ghost Dancing” (which they also played in Spilimbergo) and “Don’t You (Forget About Me”). And Kerr’s voice the other night? Still romantic, soave and electrifying, albeit with the only small difference of those few added kilos since that epic 1985 performance!
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