Simple Minds are no strangers to Margate. They previously visited the seaside town in 2013 on a Greatest Hits tour, and again two years later, promoting ‘Big Music’ – arguably been the best Simple Minds record in many a year. Both gigs took place in the currently closed Winter Gardens, and the band’s presence in the shabby listed building seemed like a bit of a departure from their 80s arena days. It’s also been said that, around that time, Jim Kerr’s voice was supposedly not as good as it had been, but for the hardcore fans, these shows were still well received.
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SIMPLE MINDS – Acoustic
Thanks to a long running MTV show, the idea for rock bands to rework their wares acoustically – or, indeed ‘Unplugged’ – reached the point of frenzy in the 1990s. That MTV show saw appearances from the likely (Neil Young, Bob Dylan), to the more interesting (REM, Alanis Morrissette), right through to the completely unexpected (Nirvana, Staind, Pearl Jam). Naturally, some performances worked better than others – it showed how Staind, in particular, just didn’t have the spark or the songs for the format – but, nevertheless, the idea of the acoustic show proved popular with audiences across the globe. Years on from MTV’s peak popularity, the acoustic format still endures: in 2016, we saw acoustic albums from Status Quo, Peter Frampton, Jimmy Somerville and more… Even UB40 got in on the act – with disastrous results.