Simple Minds Tickets

SIMPLE MINDS – 40 YEARS OF HITS TOUR
With ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK

“It’s been said that SIMPLE MINDS has a love affair with Australia and I think that’s true.”

So says SIMPLE MINDS singer Jim Kerr.

And the love affair is continuing, with seminal Scottish band SIMPLE MINDS announcing they will be returning to Australia and New Zealand for their 40 Years of Hits Tour, performing at a day on the green wineries as well as indoor shows. 

They will be joined by very special guests, UK electronic pioneers ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK, who will be touring Australia and New Zealand for the first time in more than 30 years.

This tour celebrates SIMPLE MINDS’ 40: The Best Of – 1979-2019, a 40-song collection that marks the band’s 40th anniversary. The compilation features a new song, a cover of For One Night Only by Scottish singer-songwriter King Creosote.

SIMPLE MINDS, who have sold more than 60 million albums, have been musical pioneers for 40 glittering years. Catching the mood of the post-punk era, when the angry sounds of 1977 were splintering into a thousand different shapes, they emerged with a style ingrained in the art-rock of David Bowie and the electronic dance of Donna Summer. They went on to become one of the great bands of their generation, deploying rousing choruses and booming atmospherics to provide a soundtrack that has endured.

SIMPLE MINDS will never forget their first Australian tour, with Icehouse in 1981. “I cannot tell you how much fun we had during that six-week period,” Jim says. “Going from nobodies to overnight success due to our appearance on Countdown. People were screaming for us to play encores. We’ve always had a wonderful bond with Australian audiences.”

Australia gave SIMPLE MINDS their first hit single, Love Song, and first gold album, New Gold Dream. A string of unforgettable hits followed, including Promised You A Miracle, Glittering Prize, Don’t You (Forget About Me), Alive and Kicking, Sanctify Yourself, Belfast Child and Let There Be Love. No wonder the band recently received the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. 

ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK are acclaimed around the world for bringing avant-garde music into the mainstream. Led by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, the group is best-known for If You Leave, the smash hit from the classic teen movie Pretty In Pink, plus the anti-war song Enola Gay, and Souvenir, Locomotion, (Forever) Live And Die, We Love You, Dreaming and Pandora’s Box. Revered as synth-pop pioneers, The Scotsman newspaper wrote: “If Kraftwerk were the Elvis Presley of synth-pop, then Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were its Beatles.” OMD are also celebrating their 40th anniversary, and Jim Kerr is one of their biggest fans. Jim bought OMD’s debut single, Electricity, in 1979 and loved both it and its B-side, Almost. “I played it nonstop,” Jim says. “I was downright jealous to be honest, and I still am when I hear those tunes.”

EUROGLIDERS are contemporaries of both SIMPLE MINDS and OMD. The band was called Living Single when it formed in Perth in 1980, which was ironic because its two key members, Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch, became one of the most potent partnerships in Australian music. Renaming the band EUROGLIDERS, they went on to conquer the Australian charts, with a string of pop gems, including Heaven (Must Be There) – which also charted in the US – We Will Together and the aptly titled Can’t Wait To See You. This will be the first time EUROGLIDERS have played with SIMPLE MINDS since the opening night of the Narara Music Festival in 1984!

SIMPLE MINDS recently released the acclaimed live album, Live In The City Of Angels, which captures the band at the height of their powers on their biggest North American tour ever in 2018. “This live album shows they still play the hits from the many genres they straddle, from synth to arena rock, brilliantly,” wrote News Corp music writer Cameron Adams.

SIMPLE MINDS remain one of the world’s greatest live bands. But they’re not content to rest on their laurels. “I’m grateful for the career we’ve had,” Jim says, “but I’m mad enough to think we can still hit new levels.”

“The perception that we’re now gathering pace is down to our attitude to playing live,” guitarist Charlie Burchill adds. “A legacy can be a burden if you allow it to be – for us, it’s been empowering.”

Four decades on, they are still very much alive and kicking.

SIMPLE MINDS – Australia’s favourite Scottish band – celebrating their 40th anniversary. With OMD and EUROGLIDERS. This is a tour you won’t want to miss!