T on the Fringe: Simple Minds @ Princes St Gardens
a good place to finish a tour; in front of a large partisan crowd under a dusk-seared Edinburgh castle.
| 13 Oct 2006
It's good to be home! shouts Jim Kerr, who used to live in Princes Street Gardens, apparently. Nonetheless it's a good place to finish a tour; in front of a large partisan crowd under a dusk-seared Edinburgh castle.
Moments before, the Simple Minds entered, the denim-clad front man waving a peace sign to the crowd of thirty-somethings. Kerr still has it: cooing his way through their hit list, he makes the suits and mothers at the front bounce and wave like pre-teens at a Boyzone concert. Surrounded by a turquoise micro-hurricane of smoke and light he skips like a harlequin to and from the nether regions of the stage, pausing to repeatedly do the splits centre stage, before concertinaing onto the floor during the instrumentals. At one point he attempts the oh-so-familiar mic to the crowd move, but he picked the wrong part of the wrong song as no one knows the words. Yet they recall every ohh of Don't You Forget About Me, the set's lynch pin. And perhaps this is the forte of an older band, one with a large core following who adore every one of their songs, with a blind reverence. [Mike Duffy]
Moments before, the Simple Minds entered, the denim-clad front man waving a peace sign to the crowd of thirty-somethings. Kerr still has it: cooing his way through their hit list, he makes the suits and mothers at the front bounce and wave like pre-teens at a Boyzone concert. Surrounded by a turquoise micro-hurricane of smoke and light he skips like a harlequin to and from the nether regions of the stage, pausing to repeatedly do the splits centre stage, before concertinaing onto the floor during the instrumentals. At one point he attempts the oh-so-familiar mic to the crowd move, but he picked the wrong part of the wrong song as no one knows the words. Yet they recall every ohh of Don't You Forget About Me, the set's lynch pin. And perhaps this is the forte of an older band, one with a large core following who adore every one of their songs, with a blind reverence. [Mike Duffy]