Report: Rockfeedback @ iTunes Festival Night 16 Simple Minds, 16/7/09
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
Visit iTunes on Facebook here - still lots of free tickets to be won!
This year, Rockfeedback is delighted to be the official blog partner for the rather exciting iTunes Festival, taking place at London’s Roundhouse every night in July. Over the course of the festival, we’ll not be missing a night, delivering morning-after reports on everyone from Oasis and Bloc Party to Franz Ferdinand and Kasabian playing intimate sets to fans lucky enough to have won tickets to the shows.
‘Moscow Underground’ throws itself on stage as one of the most significant bands of the 1980’s enters. Anybody with at least a shadow of a brain has seen, and loves, classic 80’s flick The Breakfast Club, and those who have will know the movies even more classic ending. The voiceover fades and in steps Simple Minds with a “hey, hey, hey, hey…”.
They walk on stage as legends, and even with all their cliché dance moves and dad-rock façade, they’re cooler than Bruce Springsteen in on New Jersey workingmen’s club jukebox. It’s all delightfully nostalgic, dare we argue fabulously dated, with newer material flushing not quite as heavily with the mums and dads as much as the oldies, but still marking them out as a slightly more acceptable version of bands like U2. There’s a lot of other 80’s golden boys in there as well, like Echo and the Bunnymen, but these Scots show more where acts such as Glasvegas come from; with their dark pop melodies, dirty riffs and beastly choruses.
That said, when it comes to classics, they don’t come more imposing than ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. The song begins two thirds of the way into their set and lasts pretty much until the end. It’s milked, but when you’ve grown up punching your arm into the air every time you hear a chorus, you don’t mind hearing it played live again and again. The goosbumps on the back of our necks were proof enough of this songs heritage.
The iTunes Festival has wheeled some real gems out this year, with new and old acts alike playing at the Roundhouse, but for having the chance to see one the most seminal bands of the 80’s, we have to hand it to them. This was a really special gig, and a phenomenal opportunity to introduce London’s youth to a great band’s back catalogue, they might otherwise never have the inclination to discover. We applaud them for it, as we do Simple Minds… throughout every one of their encores.
Artists in this article: Simple Minds
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment