Simple Minds’ ‘Neon Lights’ turns 25 on 8 October
Simple Minds’ “Neon Lights” turns 25 this year. The Scottish band’s covers album was released on 8 October 2001 through Eagle Records.
Simple Minds released their twelfth studio album, “Neon Lights”, on 8 October 2001 through Eagle Records. The Scottish post-punk and new wave band’s collection of cover versions turns 25 this year, arriving as the group’s first release after a period away from active recording.
“Neon Lights” was conceived as a warm-up ahead of the following year’s “Cry” and gathers Simple Minds’ versions of songs by artists including Them, David Bowie, Pete Shelley, the Patti Smith Group, Kraftwerk, the Doors, Echo and the Bunnymen, Neil Young, Roxy Music and the Velvet Underground. Frontman Jim Kerr set out the thinking behind the project at the time of release: “Neon Lights is the first time Simple Minds have put together a collection of non-original material. We thought it was appropriate at a period of looking back that we go to the very foundations of Simple Minds, which of course is the music and the bands who influenced us.”
The album followed a difficult stretch for the band. Their prior record, “Our Secrets Are the Same”, had been delivered to Chrysalis but was caught up in the label’s merger with EMI, remained unreleased, and was then leaked on the internet in 2000. Discouraged by the lost momentum, band members Eddie Duffy, Mark Taylor and Mark Kerr moved on to other projects, and Jim Kerr relocated to Sicily to work part-time as a hotelier. In 2001, Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill began working with multi-instrumentalist Gordon “Gordy” Goudie, a former member of the Primevals, on new material intended for “Cry”. Recorded in parallel with those sessions in Glasgow, Dublin and Taormina, Sicily, “Neon Lights” was completed and released first.
Simple Minds’ ‘Neon Lights’ tracklist and credits
The UK edition ran ten tracks: “Gloria” (Them), “The Man Who Sold the World” (David Bowie), “Homosapien” (Pete Shelley), “Dancing Barefoot” (Patti Smith Group), “Neon Lights” (Kraftwerk), “Hello, I Love You” (the Doors), “Bring on the Dancing Horses” (Echo and the Bunnymen), “The Needle and the Damage Done” (Neil Young), “For Your Pleasure” (Roxy Music) and “All Tomorrow’s Parties” (the Velvet Underground). A US release added two further covers, “Being Boiled” (the Human League) and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Joy Division). The album was produced by Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill with Gordy Goudie, except for “Gloria”, which was produced by Phunk Investigation, Daniele Tignino and Emiliano Patrik Legato; Simon Heyworth handled mastering. Two singles followed the album: the “Dancing Barefoot” EP and a series of “Homosapien” remixes.
The full album is available via Spotify.
About Simple Minds
Simple Minds trace back to Johnny and the Self-Abusers, a Glasgow punk band formed in early 1977 by Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Tony Donald and Brian McGee. That group released a single, “Saints and Sinners”, on Chiswick Records in November 1977 and split the same day. The remaining members regrouped under the name Simple Minds, drawn from a lyric in David Bowie’s “The Jean Genie”, and played their first show on 17 January 1978 in Glasgow. Duncan Barnwell joined on second guitar that January, Mick MacNeil added keyboards in March, and Derek Forbes replaced Donald on bass in April; Barnwell left by November, leaving a settled quintet of Kerr, Burchill, MacNeil, Forbes and McGee.
Manager Bruce Findlay signed the band to Zoom Records, licensed to Arista, for a 1979 debut, “Life in a Day”, which reached number 30 on the UK Albums Chart. Further albums followed in quick succession: “Real to Real Cacophony” (1979), “Empires and Dance” (1980) and the double release “Sons and Fascination” / “Sister Feelings Call” (1981). Brian McGee left after those sessions and was eventually replaced by Mel Gaynor, recruited by producer Peter Walsh in 1982 and later the band’s longest-standing drummer. Released from Arista in early 1981, Simple Minds signed to Virgin Records, and “New Gold Dream” (1982) gave the band its first Billboard 200 entry and a number 3 UK placing.
“Sparkle in the Rain” (1984) debuted at number 1 in the UK and was later certified Platinum, and “Once Upon a Time” (1985) reached number 1 in the UK and the Netherlands and was certified triple Platinum in Britain, driven by the US number 1 single “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from the film “The Breakfast Club”. Bassist Derek Forbes was dismissed in the mid-1980s and replaced by John Giblin, who debuted at Live Aid in 1985. “Street Fighting Years” (1989) topped the UK chart despite Gaynor and Giblin leaving mid-session, and keyboardist Mick MacNeil quit at the close of the subsequent tour. “Real Life” (1991) and “Good News from the Next World” (1995) followed as the band’s lineup narrowed to the core of Kerr and Burchill, with Forbes and Gaynor rejoining in 1996 and 1997 respectively. “Neapolis” (1998) was the band’s only album released through Chrysalis Records.
By the time of “Neon Lights” (2001), the band had regrouped around Kerr, Burchill and new recruit Gordy Goudie, who remains in the lineup today. “Cry” followed in 2002, backed by the band’s first North American tour in seven years. Simple Minds went on to release “Black & White 050505” (2005), “Graffiti Soul” (2009), which gave the band its first UK top 10 album in 14 years, “Big Music” (2014), “Acoustic” (2016), “Walk Between Worlds” (2018) and “Direction of the Heart” (2022) through BMG. The band’s catalogue has topped 60 million albums sold worldwide, and its accolades include the 2016 Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection and the 2014 Q Inspiration Award. The current lineup pairs founders Kerr and Burchill with Goudie, Sarah Brown, Ged Grimes, Cherisse Osei and Erik Ljunggren; in September 2026 the band announced a new studio album, “Sacrosanct”, due for release on 29 January 2027. Twenty-five years after “Neon Lights”, the covers album remains the clearest record of the influences, from Kraftwerk to Joy Division, that shaped the band’s own sound.
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