Katerinas Magic World

More than two decades on, it's hard to believe that Simple Minds were once regarded as the coolest band in the world. Between 1979 and 1984 they delivered a string of devastating albums before willingly succumbing to the dark side and hamfistedly embracing stadium rock.
In 1978, however, the outfit, which was still a vehicle for Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill's compositions, were performing a collection of exciting but derivative pop tunes in Glasgow and, occasionally, Edinburgh venues. This is not to deny the band's popularity, which consequently saw them supporting voguish bands such as Siouxsie and The Banshees, and eventually signed to Bruce Findlay's Zoom records.
This, their debut release (ignoring the Saints and Sinners/Dead Vandals single, released, with a slightly different line up, as Johnny and the Self-Abusers), contains ten songs recorded pretty much beat for beat and note for note as they were played live. Their stilted performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test denies the energy evident on live bootlegs from this period, and the studio recordings fall somewhere between these extremes. However, the quality of the musicianship is clear and the accomplished playing of each member of the band formed the foundation for their more experimental and interesting work that was to follow.
The album is only worth buying if you are a completist (obviously) and possibly for the Velvet Underground derived Pleasantly Disturbed.
Tellingly, when Jim Kerr married Chrissy Hynde, this was the one Simple Minds album that he asked her not to play. Of course, they hadn't yet recorded Once Upon A Time... By F. Pearson
Tracks
1. Someone
2. Life in a Day
3. Sad Affair
4. All For You
5. Pleasantly Disturbed
6. No Cure
7. Chelsea Girl
8. Wasteland
9. Destiny
10. Murder Story
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