Simple Minds

Ah. A drum solo. As intro. They can't shake off that big arena band thing, even if it was in The Phil, which is anything but an arena. But, I loved it. As an entrance it was just superb. Jim Kerr still has all the charisma he had in the heady days of their ridiculous phase of electronic keyboard wankery, deciding he'd prefer a walkabout with the faithful at one point, rather than being confined to the stage. It was case of going with the flow, but it was an easy flow with which to get swept along. It was everything we railed against as juvenile punks, but as a grumpy middle aged curmudgeon it somehow worked just fine.

And as I wrote the words above there was carnage happening in Manchester. I can only feel for those caught up in it. We do these things because we love music and we enjoy a shared experience. We don't expect to have the shit kicked out of us just because we want a bit of fun. Whatever the cause, it sucks.