SIMPLE MINDS/OMD
London Wembley Arena
7/12/2009
In the course of my teenage and adult lives I have seen literally thousands of concerts so when I was making the arrangements to see this show it shocked me to realise that I've never seen Simple Minds live before. I love Simple Minds, how could I have let that happen? OMD I have seen before although probably not for over fifteen years and I love them too! So to see them on the same bill was an ideal opportunity for me to make up for some lost time.
It may seem a bit odd to start a review with the encores, but stick with me and you'll see that it will begin to make sense. After an epic, massively extended and celebratory version of 'New Gold Dream' Simple Minds left the stage for a few minutes to reappear a few minutes later with OMD's Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys for a joint rendition of Kraftwerk's 'Neon Lights'. Bleeps, it seemed, were provided by Paul Humphreys and vocals were mostly shared between Jim Kerr and Andy McCluskey. I was prepared for this, the bands had announced this collaboration shortly before the tour, but up until the point of actually seeing the performance I couldn't quite make it work in my head so it was a huge relief for me to see how well it did work and also to see the easy relationship between the two bands and their obvious enjoyment to be paying tribute to Kraftwerk together.
Once 'Neon Lights' was over OMD disappeared into the shadows, making this track my only sighting of them all night. I am absolutely sure that they played a brilliant set and am equally sure that the audience will have loved them, but sadly for the duration of their hour onstage I was sitting in interminable traffic on the North Circular on the latter part of a journey that took almost two hours to cover less than thirty miles.
Now you can see why I chose to start this review at the end, and I hope you can also sympathise with my frustration... still, it does give me a great excuse to see OMD next time they play!
Simple Minds we were in plenty of time for and the fact that they kicked off with 'Theme For Great Cities' was enough to break my bad mood straight away. When he talked between the songs Jim Kerr sounded as if the rigours of touring had been taking their toll on his voice but during the songs he managed to overcome that every time, hitting the high notes with apparent ease, swaggering across the stage and never missing the chance to live up to his reputation as a top class showman. The next three songs - 'Sanctify Yourself', 'Stars Will Lead The Way' and 'Waterfront' - rolled out with breezy confidence, the band sounded great - their sound greatly enhanced by a single backing singer with an incredible soul voice - a suitably responsible audience and an incredible light show.
For my money the setlist rather lost its way for a while at that point, neither showcasing the songs from the band's excellent new 'Graffiti Soul' album (just 'Moscow Underground' appeared in this part of the set, one of only three songs from the album that appeared in the entire concert, the other two being the singles 'Rockets' and 'Stars Will Lead The Way') or playing the big live favourites and although I can see that the setlist might well be a hardcore fan's dream, including as it did some their most respected tracks ('Book Of Brilliant Things', 'Real Life', 'Sons & Fascination', 'The American') it didn't pick up for me (I guess I'm just not hardcore enough!) until a fantastic version of 'Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)' which picked up the pace for an inevitable, and very welcome, succession of huge hits including 'Don't You (Forget About Me)', 'Promised You A Miracle', 'Glittering Prize' and the aforementioned main set closer 'New Gold Dream'.
Following 'Neon Lights' the exuberance continued with a rousing version of 'Rockets' - sitting comfortably among Simple Minds' greatest singles - an anthemic 'Alive & Kicking' and an intense swirling extended version of 'Ghostdancing' followed by a freeform version of Van Morrison's 'Gloria' which filled every second of the countdown to an 11pm curfew at which point the band said a reluctant final goodnight.
Simple Minds didn't need OMD to make this a fantastic evening but the presence of both acts on the same bill made this a very special night indeed. Especially for anyone who managed to arrive in time to see both acts!
Photographs © Andy Sturmey
It may seem a bit odd to start a review with the encores, but stick with me and you'll see that it will begin to make sense. After an epic, massively extended and celebratory version of 'New Gold Dream' Simple Minds left the stage for a few minutes to reappear a few minutes later with OMD's Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys for a joint rendition of Kraftwerk's 'Neon Lights'. Bleeps, it seemed, were provided by Paul Humphreys and vocals were mostly shared between Jim Kerr and Andy McCluskey. I was prepared for this, the bands had announced this collaboration shortly before the tour, but up until the point of actually seeing the performance I couldn't quite make it work in my head so it was a huge relief for me to see how well it did work and also to see the easy relationship between the two bands and their obvious enjoyment to be paying tribute to Kraftwerk together.
Once 'Neon Lights' was over OMD disappeared into the shadows, making this track my only sighting of them all night. I am absolutely sure that they played a brilliant set and am equally sure that the audience will have loved them, but sadly for the duration of their hour onstage I was sitting in interminable traffic on the North Circular on the latter part of a journey that took almost two hours to cover less than thirty miles.
Now you can see why I chose to start this review at the end, and I hope you can also sympathise with my frustration... still, it does give me a great excuse to see OMD next time they play!
Simple Minds we were in plenty of time for and the fact that they kicked off with 'Theme For Great Cities' was enough to break my bad mood straight away. When he talked between the songs Jim Kerr sounded as if the rigours of touring had been taking their toll on his voice but during the songs he managed to overcome that every time, hitting the high notes with apparent ease, swaggering across the stage and never missing the chance to live up to his reputation as a top class showman. The next three songs - 'Sanctify Yourself', 'Stars Will Lead The Way' and 'Waterfront' - rolled out with breezy confidence, the band sounded great - their sound greatly enhanced by a single backing singer with an incredible soul voice - a suitably responsible audience and an incredible light show.
For my money the setlist rather lost its way for a while at that point, neither showcasing the songs from the band's excellent new 'Graffiti Soul' album (just 'Moscow Underground' appeared in this part of the set, one of only three songs from the album that appeared in the entire concert, the other two being the singles 'Rockets' and 'Stars Will Lead The Way') or playing the big live favourites and although I can see that the setlist might well be a hardcore fan's dream, including as it did some their most respected tracks ('Book Of Brilliant Things', 'Real Life', 'Sons & Fascination', 'The American') it didn't pick up for me (I guess I'm just not hardcore enough!) until a fantastic version of 'Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)' which picked up the pace for an inevitable, and very welcome, succession of huge hits including 'Don't You (Forget About Me)', 'Promised You A Miracle', 'Glittering Prize' and the aforementioned main set closer 'New Gold Dream'.
Following 'Neon Lights' the exuberance continued with a rousing version of 'Rockets' - sitting comfortably among Simple Minds' greatest singles - an anthemic 'Alive & Kicking' and an intense swirling extended version of 'Ghostdancing' followed by a freeform version of Van Morrison's 'Gloria' which filled every second of the countdown to an 11pm curfew at which point the band said a reluctant final goodnight.
Simple Minds didn't need OMD to make this a fantastic evening but the presence of both acts on the same bill made this a very special night indeed. Especially for anyone who managed to arrive in time to see both acts!
Photographs © Andy Sturmey
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