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Simple Minds biography

Simple Minds are a rock band from Scotland, who had their greatest worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The band, from the south side of Glasgow, produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s.

Simple Minds have secured a string of successful hit singles, the best known being their number 1 worldwide hit single "Don't You (Forget About Me)", from the soundtrack of the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club and number 3 worldwide hit single "Alive and Kicking".

Founding members Jim Kerr (vocals) and Charlie Burchill (guitar, keyboards), along with drummer Mel Gaynor, are the core of the band, which currently features Andy Gillespie on keyboards and Eddie Duffy on bass guitar.

The band have sold more than 40 million albums worldwide since 1979.

The roots of Simple Minds were in the punk band Johnny & The Self-Abusers, dreamed up by would-be Glasgow scenemaker Alan Cairnduff in 1977 - although he left the task of actually fleshing out and creating the band to his friend John Milarky. At Cairnduff's suggestion, Milarky teamed up with two musicians he'd never worked with before - budding singer and lyricist Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill.

Kerr and Burchill had known each other since the age of eight and were longstanding allies. After joining Johnny & The Self-Abusers, they brought in two of their schoolfriends, Brian McGee on drums and Tony Donald on bass (all four had previously played together in the schoolboy band Biba-Rom!). With Milarky established as singer, guitarist and saxophonist, the lineup was completed by Milarky's friend Alan McNeil as third guitarist. To expand the band's potential sound, Kerr and Burchill also doubled on keyboards and violin respectively. In common with the early punk bands, various members took on stage names - Milarky became "Johnnie Plague"�, Kerr became "Pripton Weird"�, McNeil chose "Sid Syphilis"� and Burchill chose "Charlie Argue"�.

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