Simple Minds’ ‘Sons and Fascination’ turns 45 on 4 September
Virgin Records released Simple Minds’ “Sons and Fascination” on 4 September 1981 as a double set with “Sister Feelings Call”. The album turns 45 this year.
Simple Minds released their fourth studio album, “Sons and Fascination,” on 4 September 1981 through Virgin Records. The Scottish post-punk band’s record turns 45 this year and arrived as one half of a companion pairing with “Sister Feelings Call,” recorded during the same sessions.
Produced by Steve Hillage, a former guitarist in the progressive rock band Gong, “Sons and Fascination” was recorded at Farmyard Studios in Little Chalfont and Regent’s Park Studios in London, engineered by Hugh Jones and Alan Jakoby. It was the band’s first album for Virgin after ending their contract with Arista Records, and the last studio work by the original line-up of Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Mick MacNeil, Derek Forbes and drummer Brian McGee, who left shortly after the sessions were completed. The eight-track UK vinyl edition opens with “In Trance as Mission” and runs through “Sweat in Bullet,” “70 Cities as Love Brings the Fall,” “Boys from Brazil,” “Love Song,” “This Earth That You Walk Upon,” the title track “Sons and Fascination” and “Seeing Out the Angel.” The band recorded fifteen backing tracks during the sessions and could not agree on which to drop, so the surplus material became “Sister Feelings Call,” a seven-track companion set. The first 10,000 copies were shrink-wrapped together as a limited double set with a free “Sister Feelings Call” LP included; once that pressing sold out, the two records were sold separately, “Sons and Fascination” at full price and “Sister Feelings Call” at a budget price. Charted together, the pairing reached number 11 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry in 1986.
Three singles marked the campaign: “The American” in May 1981, “Love Song” in August and a Peter Walsh remix of “Sweat in Bullet” in October. “Love Song” became the band’s first genuine international hit, reaching the singles charts in the UK, Australia and Sweden, while “The American” gave Simple Minds their first UK chart entry since 1979. “Sons and Fascination” streams on Spotify alongside “Sister Feelings Call” on the same digital release.
About Simple Minds
Simple Minds formed in Glasgow in 1977 out of the punk band Johnny and the Self-Abusers, whose members Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill and Brian McGee regrouped under a new name taken from a lyric in David Bowie’s “The Jean Genie,” debuting at Glasgow’s Satellite City on 17 January 1978. Keyboardist Mick MacNeil joined that March and bassist Derek Forbes that April, forming the line-up that recorded the band’s earliest albums. Signed to Bruce Findlay’s Zoom label under a licensing deal with Arista Records, the band released its debut, “Life in a Day,” in April 1979, followed the same year by the more experimental “Real to Real Cacophony,” and in September 1980 by the dance-influenced “Empires and Dance.” All three were produced by John Leckie and drew critical praise but limited sales, and frustration with Arista’s promotion led the band to leave the label in early 1981.
Simple Minds then signed to Virgin Records and worked for the first time with producer Steve Hillage, releasing the single “The American” in May 1981 ahead of “Sons and Fascination” and its companion “Sister Feelings Call” that September. Drummer Brian McGee left after the sessions and was replaced by Kenny Hyslop, then Mike Ogletree, for touring. The band’s commercial breakthrough followed in September 1982 with “New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84),” produced by Peter Walsh and featuring new drummer Mel Gaynor, which reached number three on the UK Albums Chart and produced the singles “Promised You a Miracle” and “Glittering Prize.” “Sparkle in the Rain” went to number one in the UK in February 1984, and “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” recorded for the film “The Breakfast Club,” gave the band its only US number one single in 1985. The following album, “Once Upon a Time,” also topped the UK chart that November. Simple Minds continued through “Street Fighting Years” (1989), “Real Life” (1991) and “Good News from the Next World” (1995) before a period of lineup changes and reduced commercial profile in the late 1990s, later returning to chart prominence with “Graffiti Soul” (2009), “Walk Between Worlds” (2018) and “Direction of the Heart” (2022). The band, now centred on original members Kerr and Burchill, remains active on record and on tour 45 years after “Sons and Fascination” marked its move to Virgin and its first steps toward wider international recognition.
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