Simple Minds, Glasgow review: 'We're going to have a great night guaranteed'

The Eighties may be long gone but Simple Minds are Alive and Kicking, writes Fiona Shepherd

Simple Minds, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow ****

Back in their mid-Eighties pomp, Simple Minds were among a coterie of bands who modernised the tradition of the stadium show, with the beefy soundtrack to match. Four decades on, they braved the rain to perform their first outdoor gig in their native city since their legendary Ibrox shows of 1986, true events at a time when Glasgow was not so blessed with open-air extravaganzas.

With his usual galvanising charm, frontman Jim Kerr claimed that, despite growing up on the southside of Glasgow, he and guitarist Charlie Burchill had never visited Bellahouston Park before now. Back in their adolescence, they couldn’t afford the bus fare; now, he deadpanned, they have their bus passes.

Frontman Jim Kerr led Simple Minds in a crowd-pleasing set (Picture: Jean Christopher Verhaegan/AFP/Getty)

“We're going to have a great night guaranteed,” he proclaimed with justified confidence, having opened the show with the undeniable bassline of the mighty Waterfront. However, the main body of the set was to be given over to a celebration of their 1985 hit album Once Upon A Time, which caught the band at their commercial, if not creative peak.

Album tracks Oh Jungleland, Come A Long Way and Wish You Were Here were scattered through the set, not quite landing with the potency of the big anthems nor the curated cuts from the rest of the catalogue such as the eternal Glittering Prize and atmospheric instrumental Theme from Great Cities. However, drummer Cherisse Osei made almost every song sound like the big finish, while soulful powerhouse co-vocalist Sarah Brown shone on All The Things She Said and Sanctify Yourself. Kerr encouraged the audience to milk those “la-la-las” on non-album single Don't You (Forget About Me) before dialling down the volume and upping the Celtic mysticism for Belfast Child.

These respective US and UK chart-toppers are behemoths in their own way but set closer Alive and Kicking was Number One with the crowd.