Simple Minds – Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Mel Gaynor, Andy Gillespie Ged Grimes coming to SA in Nov

Simple Minds have been many things to many people: sound scapers, sound-shapers, soundtrack makers, serial chart-toppers.

They have influenced acts as diverse as the Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Moby and The Horrors.

They have been sampled by Nicky Minaj, David Guetta, Joey Negro and Freddy Bastone. They have provided memorable movie moments for directors Christian Carion (L’Affaire Farewell), Gregor Jordan (The Informers), Cameron Crowe (Elizabethtown) and, of course, John Hughes (The Breakfast Club).

They have topped the British charts half a dozen times, with the studio albums Sparkle In The Rain (1984), Once Upon A Time (1985) and Street Fighting Years as well as the Ballad Of The Streets EP (both 1989), the concert recording Live In The City Of Light (1987), and the compilation Glittering Prize 81/92, and returned to the UK Top Ten with Graffiti Soul, their most recent studio album, in 2009.

“When we started Simple Minds, our objective was to be considered as one of the great live bands. A band that had the desire to go all around the world – playing everywhere and anywhere,” says Kerr.

Simple Minds are Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Mel Gaynor, Andy Gillespie and Ged Grimes.