There’s been loads said on the blog about Simple Minds, sometimes positive, but occasionally they’ve taken a kicking. I’ll just stick to the music today:-
mp3: Simple Minds – Premonition (Peel Session)
Recorded on 19 December 1979 and first aired on 7 January 1980 along with Changeling, Citizen (Dance Of Youth) and Room, which means the session comprised three tracks from the then recently released album Real to Real Cacophany, while Room would make it onto the next album, Empires and Dance.
I thought this was the first time the Peel Session version of Premonition had been posted, but I just checked and remembered it was the final track on Side B of ICA 72, back in June 2016. It’s hard to keep up.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
“Premonition” was the first time that magic occurred for this band. The Magic of Derek Forbes! What an utterly compelling game-chnager of a song.
One of my big musical volte faces of the last decade has bene my newfound appreciation of Simple Minds (up to about 84/85). Superb stuff. I just came to it very late.
Simple Minds with Derek Forbes released a lot of great music, like this track. Then they recorded ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’, got world-famous, ditched Forbes, and spiraled downhill.
I’m very much with The Friendly Lawyer here.
And ten years later they began their hand-by-hand climb out of the mire. The last 25 years are way better that the ’85-’95 period, if nowhere near the ’79-’84 period.
If you came to it late, I can understand why it took so much time. If “Alive + Kicking” were the second thing I’d heard from Simple Minds [as it was with most Americans] I may never have become a Simple Minds fan! What I wonder about are the people who came to Simple Minds in the ’85-’95 era. How many uncovered the early material and loved it? How many carried on for a few years and dropped them? What percentage of people who came to them on “Once Upon A Time” still identify as fans? I’d be interested to know.
I’d be surprised if many people who picked up on the band post-New Gold Dream would find Real to Real Cacophony very appealing. It’s their least commercial album (and therefore one of the best, natch!) without any tracks that would trouble the charts in any way. I remember that several of the tracks were used as soundtrack to a documentary about the French director Bertrand Tavernier filming his sci-fi movie ‘Death Watch’ in Glasgow.
Love all the conversation a track like Premonition can foster! As Monk says, it’s the point where Simple Minds found their fire, their voice, their beat.