Various Artists "Platinum 80s"

Platinum 80s is a double CD compilation album, released in 2002 by Warner Strategic Marketing.

Track list:

CD 1

1. Queen & David Bowie Under Pressure 3:57
2. Madonna Holiday 3:51
3. Peter Gabriel Sledgehammer 4:40
4. David Bowie Let's Dance 3:36
5. Talking Heads Road To Nowhere 4:19
6. Depeche Mode Personal Jesus (Single Edit) 3:43
7. Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) 4:35
8. Madness Our House 3:21
9. Genesis Invisible Touch 3:12
10. Simply Red Money's Too Tight 4:12
11. Fleetwood Mac Little Lies 3:37
12. The Smiths This Charming Man 2:42
13. Blondie Call Me 3:29
14. A-Ha The Sun Always Shines On TV 5:06
15. Tears For Fears Shout 4:45
16. Culture Club Do You Really Want To Hurt Me 4:22
17. Human League* Don't You Want Me 3:56
18. Prince Kiss 3:38
19. Falco Rock Me Amadeus 3:20
20. The Cars Drive 3:55

CD 2

1. John Lennon (Just Like) Starting Over 3:54
2. Pink Floyd Another Brick In The Wall (Pt. 2) 3:50
3. Van Halen Why Can't This Be Love 3:31
4. Frankie Goes To Hollywood Relax 3:56
5. Duran Duran Rio 4:44
6. Crowded House Don't Dream It's Over 3:53
7. Belinda Carlisle Heaven Is A Place On Earth 4:04
8. Bananarama Venus 3:38
9. Fine Young Cannibals Good Thing 3:09
10. Communards* Don't Leave Me This Way 4:29
11. New Order Blue Monday (88 Radio Edit) 3:48
12. Erasure Sometimes 3:37
13. Kim Wilde Kids In America 3:24
14. Simple Minds Don't You (Forget About Me) 4:18
15. Kate Bush Babooshka 3:28
16. Spandau Ballet Gold 3:52
17. Tina Turner What's Love Got To Do With It 3:35
18. The Pretenders Don't Get Me Wrong 3:46
19. Bee Gees You Win Again 3:50
20. Phil Collins In The Air Tonight 5:29

Simple Minds "Real Life"

Real Life is the ninth studio album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released in April 1991.[4] This was the first Simple Minds album recorded without keyboardist and original bandmember Mick MacNeil, who left the band after the previous tour in 1990. The core band on this album comprise only Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, and Mel Gaynor (who all appear on the rear cover), with the remaining personnel being session musicians.

The album features several songs that are reworkings of older material or were reworked into new songs on subsequent releases. "Let the Children Speak" is based on the 1981 Simple Minds instrumental "Theme for Great Cities" from Sister Feelings Call. A re-recorded version of that piece, called "Theme for Great Cities '91" appeared as a B-side of the "See the Lights" single. "Travelling Man" bears some resemblance to the 1983 song "Waterfront" from Sparkle in the Rain. "When Two Worlds Collide" is based on the title track as is the 1995 song "And the Band Played On" which appeared on the following album Good News from the Next World. "Women and Ghosts" [included on the US edition of 1995 single "Hypnotised"] is a reworked instrumental version of the title track.

The original album cover was replaced in later pressings by the original rear cover shot of the band.

The album reached No. 2 in the UK,[5] and No. 74 in the United States. Four singles from the album were Top 40 hits in the UK, including the Top 10 hit "Let There Be Love". In the US, "See the Lights" reached the Top 40 and also reached No. 1 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Virgin reissued the CD as part of the Simple Minds remasters in late 2002 and early 2003. On the remastered version, a couple of differences are apparent when compared to the first edition: the 2002/2003 remaster features an extended mix of "Let There Be Love", not the one used on the first edition of the album, although it is not mentioned on the cover or in the booklet; the segues between tracks have also been re-edited, so that the running time of individual tracks may differ slightly between the editions; also, the CD version of the first edition had "Banging on the Door" split into two tracks in the disc's table of contents (running time was 1:16 + 4:22), but the music as such did not indicate any break between the parts. On the 2002/2003 reissue, the track is indexed as one.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Burchill and Kerr; except where indicated.

1. "Real Life" 4:53
2. "See the Lights" 4:22
3. "Let There Be Love" 4:57
4. "Woman" Burchill, Kerr, Lipson 4:40
5. "Stand By Love" 4:04
6. "Let the Children Speak" 4:16
7. "African Skies" 4:52
8. "Ghostrider" 3:22
9. "Banging on the Door (Intro)" 1:16
10. "Banging on the Door" 4:22
11. "Travelling Man" Burchill, Kerr, Lipson 3:34
12. "Rivers of Ice" Iain MacLachlan, Simple Minds 3:30
13. "When Two Worlds Collide" 4:01

Simple Minds "Once Upon A Time"

Once Upon a Time is the seventh studio album by Scottish pop rock band Simple Minds, released in October 1985 by record label Virgin (A&M in the US).

The record paired the group with music producer Jimmy Iovine. He had worked with artists featuring an aggressive guitar-based sound, including singer-songwriters Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Nicks, and he brought that approach to the band. Iovine particularly pushed frontman Jim Kerr, aiming for more energetic vocals.


Although already successful in their native U.K. and various countries in Europe and Oceania, Simple Minds had also recently become popular in the U.S., mainly due to the Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff-penned "Don't You (Forget About Me)". That track appeared on The Breakfast Club soundtrack and had become a #1 hit there. However, the band deliberately left the track off the album due to their reluctance to record it. Still, the bombastic pop rock sound proved influential in the construction of much of Once Upon a Time, particularly the arena-friendly single "Alive and Kicking". Once Upon a Time also shared many influences with their previous studio album, Sparkle in the Rain, which explored a similar songwriting style.

Once Upon a Time was available with two covers upon its original LP release. The alternate cover uses the back image for the front and vice versa. It also moves the Simple Minds logo to the right of the cover. The two cover images fit together when placed side by side or above each other, and the release of the album in British record shops saw the two covers placed in a grid, alternating like the two colours on a chessboard. The album cover was standardised for the original CD release and this version has since been used for the various reissues of the album. A collectable picture disc LP was also produced. Housed in a luxury gatefold die-cut sleeve, the record featured the mottled gold effect of the sleeve. A unique lyrics sheet was also packaged in the gatefold. A magnetic jigsaw puzzle was also produced by Virgin Records to promote the album.


The album has been re-released in remastered form on several occasions, most recently in 2015. Virgin Records reissued the album as a remastered edition in 2002 (cardboard vinyl replica edition) and early 2003 (jewel-case). It was released on SACD in 2003. In 2005, Virgin released another reissue of the album: a DVD-Audio version (actually, the disc bears a DVD-Audio/Video logo), which is notable for being a completely remixed album. All the tracks were remixed in 5.1 surround sound, and additionally, a downmixed 2.0 stereo version was created for compatibility with non-surround DVD-Audio set-ups. The tracks on the remixed album differ in length in comparison to the original version. In most cases, they are longer than in the original mix. All the tracks on the remixed album contain material that has frequencies above the CD-Audio cut-off frequency, reaching beyond 30 kHz (a tribute to the original analogue multi-track tapes, and to the producers). In 2012, the original 8-track album was included in the box set 5 Album Set, which also included four other Simple Minds albums: Sons and Fascination, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), Sparkle in the Rain and Street Fighting Years. On 4 December 2015, multiple formats of the album were re-issued as Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions, including a Deluxe double CD digipack and a Super Deluxe 5 CD / 1 DVD boxset.

In 2008, Once Upon a Time was listed as the 864th greatest album of all time by the French retail chain Fnac.


In 2013, "All the Things She Said" was featured on a radio station in Grand Theft Auto V, the fourth best-selling video game of all time (as of February 2017).

Simple Minds "Sparkle In The Rain"

Sparkle in the Rain is the sixth studio album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released in February 1984 by record label Virgin in the UK and A&M in the US.

A breakthrough commercial success for the band, the record peaked at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart on 18 February 1984, and reached the top 20 in numerous other countries around the world, including New Zealand, Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, and Australia. Receiving mostly positive reviews in the United Kingdom and the United States, Sparkle in the Rain was ultimately certified double platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry, and significantly increased media interest in the band.

Signs of a possible change in musical direction into a more stadium-oriented sound first became apparent during a series of live performances in the summer months of 1983 by Simple Minds to huge European crowds. Lead singer Jim Kerr returned to a natural, unadorned facial and hair style, as "whatever they would have to say would be in the music." "Those gigs brought us back to the rawest kind of state, I think," Kerr said. "In places like that, 50,000 people, there's just no room for subtlety, and there's no need for it, there's no want for it." This foresaw the band coming into direct contact with U2 for the first time at the Belgian rock festival Torhout-Werchter; upon meeting the two bands immediately developed a strong liking for each other. Kerr remarked, "we saw a lot of ourselves in them and vice versa," and refuted the accusation that Simple Minds were merely joining the "new rock" led by U2. "We get this thing levelled at us of being influenced by them, but they're equally influenced by us. It might be in a much subtler sense, in dynamics or some of the sounds."


A new song, "Waterfront", was performed by the band when selected as "special guests" of headline acts U2 at Dublin's Phoenix Park in August 1983. "The song's throbbing pulse and enormous sense of space suggested the way the band were thinking," Adam Sweeting commented, "the elaborate, almost ornate arrangements of New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) were receding into the distance. Simple Minds were making bigger music for bigger occasions." Shortly afterwards, the band were looking for a producer for their forthcoming sixth album; initially Alex Sadkin, of the Compass Point All Stars, was sought after due to his work with Grace Jones, but his schedule was incompatible with that of Simple Minds. Steve Lillywhite however, had wanted to produce for the band for a long time, and ultimately Simple Minds completed a three-way Celtic grouping along with U2's War and Big Country's The Crossing under Lillywhite.

In September 1983, Simple Minds travelled to Monnow Valley Studio in Rockfield, near Monmouth in Wales, for three weeks to work on some new material; Lillywhite accompanied them for the last two weeks to meet the musicians and suggest some modifications to their music. This material consisted of around six tracks developed during a session the band had spent at a recording studio called The Chapel in Lincolnshire in January, and other initial samples recorded in London's Nomis Studios before their performance at Phoenix Park. At Rockfield, most of the tracks were dramatically changed, as they had begun as demos consisting only of work by Mick MacNeil and Charlie Burchill, with some drum and bass machine sounds overlapping. With drummer Mel Gaynor now having fully integrated himself into the band, the songwriting was beginning to be influenced consistently from all group members.

The group relocated to Townhouse Studios in London by October, by which time their updated material retained "only a bassline or keyboard melody from the original four-track demo". As a producer, Lillywhite differed from Peter Walsh on the previous album by going with "the feel of the moment" rather than following "any preconceptions about how he wanted the album to turn out". He tried to emphasize musical unity between the band members; for instance, he pressed Jim Kerr to write lyrics for songs as soon as he could, such that his vocal melodies were influenced by the instrumentation. "On their earlier records, everyone's parts didn't really bear much resemblance to everyone else's," said Lillywhite. "Mick would be fiddling away like this, Charlie would be going like this, then Jim would come in and sing something completely different to what the other two were doing. Whereas I now think Jim is taking some of the melodies from the guitar and the keyboards, which he didn't use to, which makes it more like a song."


Burchill likened Lillywhite's producing style and manner to that of the film director Werner Herzog. Generally starting studio work at eleven o'clock in the morning, the band found the recording process repetitive, as each track was meticulously refined and sharpened through multiple iterations. With this leading to the group becoming tense and distracted, Lillywhite occasionally asked the band members to vacate the studio while he worked on mixing. The album's working title was Quiet Night of the White Hot Day, which eventually survived as a lyric in the complete album's seventh track "White Hot Day". The recording process drew to a completion with Lillywhite and the band adding some finishing touches to "Up on the Catwalk"; Jim Kerr sang some additional lines that had been stored in his notebook instead of name-dropping some extra famous people towards the song's end. Minor imperfections in phasing and pitch were then corrected to complete the album.

Due to a desire to release the album worldwide simultaneously, Simple Minds decided not to put the record out for sale before Christmas 1983, instead releasing Sparkle in the Rain on 6 February 1984. The first UK pressing was issued on white vinyl and the first Canadian pressing was issued on transparent vinyl; all other foreign editions were initially issued on black vinyl; the album immediately entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 1 to become the band's first chart-topper, and it remained in the charts for 57 weeks; among the band's records, only Once Upon a Time has bettered this chart run. The first Canadian pressing was issued on transparent vinyl (but using the standard green/red Virgin label instead of the custom design); the album peaked at No. 14 in the Canadian RPM national album chart. Sparkle in the Rain was certified gold in Canada for selling over 50,000 units in that country, and topped the New Zealand Albums Chart for two weeks, further remaining in their charts for eighteen weeks. Sparkle in the Rain also peaked at No. 2 in both Sweden, charting for six weeks, and the Netherlands, charting for thirty weeks. By 1988 Sparkle in the Rain had sold approximately one million-and-a-half copies worldwide.

Sparkle in the Rain produced three UK Top 40 singles. The first was "Waterfront", peaking at No. 1 in the New Zealand Singles Chart and charting for thirteen weeks. It also reached No. 13 in the UK Singles Chart, and remained in the charts for ten weeks. It remains one of the band's signature songs to this day. The album was also preceded by the release of "Speed Your Love to Me" which reached No. 20 in the UK, although "Up on the Catwalk" fared less well; released in March 1984, the single only managed a peak of #27.

Virgin Records reissued Sparkle in the Rain as a remastered edition on 21 October 2002; this edition features improved sound quality and faithfully reproduced artwork and packaging from the original record. Around 2006, a set of eight demos for the album from 1983 were leaked to the internet. The drumming for "Speed Your Love To Me" is less dramatic, while "Book of Brilliant Things" is driven by a much stronger bass line than the album version. "White Hot Day" is at a slower tempo, and "Shake Off the Ghosts" sounds more related to the instrumental B-side "Brass Band in Africa" at this stage.

On 16 March 2015, a new 4CD/DVD deluxe remastered boxset of Sparkle In the Rain was released, containing B-sides and remixes on Disc 2 and live performances and radio sessions on Discs 3 and 4. The DVD features both a regular DVD-Video layer and a DVD-Audio layer. The DVD-Video layer contains a surround sound mix of the album in both 5.1 DTS (24/96 - 1509 kbit/s) and 5.1 Dolby Digital (448 kbit/s), along with a new, high resolution (LPCM stereo 24bit/96 kHz) stereo mix. The DVD-Audio layer contains a new, high resolution (24/96), MLP stereo mix and a high resolution (24/96), MLP 5.1 mix, as well as the three promotional videos for the singles and three TV performances. These new stereo and 5.1 mixes were created by Steven Wilson in 2014 and mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Andrew Walter. Unfortunately, a manufacturing error resulted in faulty DVDs and a missing paragraph in the liner notes in the early copies of the deluxe boxset release. This error was subsequently resolved, with owners of the faulty disc being asked to email Universal, who sent out replacement discs and booklets. Subsequent copies of the box set featured the corrected DVD disc and booklet. The corrected DVD can be identified by the matrix number in the centre of the disc (Matrix/Runout (DVD Layer 0): 06025 470 143-2 50 01 + 53747525 - Matrix/Runout (DVD Layer 1): 06025 470 143-2 51 01 + 53747523 A A) 


Released at the same time as the box set was a Blu-Ray Audio package that contained the original 1984 stereo mix along with Steven Wilson's 2014 stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes. Initial copies of this Blu-Ray had a mono mix instead of Steven Wilson's 2014 stereo mix, and problems with the 5.1 mix were acknowledged too. As with the DVD in the box set, Universal supplied a corrected disc to owners and subsequent copies of the Blu-Ray featured the corrected disc in the box. Matrix numbers help distinguish the corrected Blu-Ray from the faulty one (Matrix/Runout: 56100044/00602537973552V3 S 21). The disc is a High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray that features no video content. Audio formats available on this Blu-Ray are stereo (2.0) PCM (24bit/96 kHz) on both the original stereo mix and Wilson's 2014 stereo mix, as well as 5.1 PCM (24bit / 96 kHz) and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (24bit / 96 kHz) versions. Although mentioned on the Blu-Ray disc, there is no Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

Simple Minds "Sons And Fascination/Sister Feeling Call"

Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call is the (double-LP) fourth album by Scottish post-punk band Simple Minds. It was released in September 1981 and was their first to reach a wide international audience. It includes the singles "The American", "Love Song" and "Sweat in Bullet".

Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call were two separate albums. They were assembled from the same sessions and released at the same time and, in some instances, sold as a double-LP set. The two releases are variously categorised as a double album, two single albums or a single album and an extended play. The current CD remaster contains all the tracks once split onto two LPs, with their respective track running orders preserved. The original 1985 CD reissue deleted two songs from Sister Feelings Call, as the maximum running time of Red Book CD releases at the time would not accommodate the entire set, and Virgin were unwilling to issue the material as a two-CD set.

The sessions are the last to have the same line-up as all its predecessors. Drummer Brian McGee left just after recording the set, and was replaced by Kenny Hyslop as part-time member for the upcoming tour. Hyslop also appeared in the "Sweat in Bullet" and "Love Song" videos.

Having ended their contract with Arista the sessions were the first recordings the band made for Virgin Records. They worked with producer Steve Hillage, who was a guitarist in the progressive rock band Gong. One thing Hillage and Simple Minds had in common was a love of krautrock music. The band's previous three albums were produced by John Leckie.

The rhythm section was made more prominent than on any earlier album of the band, loud, heavy and sometimes anchoring a track to one or two driving rhythm patterns, but also often put at moving angles with some of the other instruments or with Kerr's vocals (as in "The American" or "Sweat in Bullet"); this gave the songs a spatial, multi-planed and atmospheric sound, whilst keeping up propulsion.


"Boys from Brazil" is inspired by the novel, as Kerr has said in interviews. The line "babies cannot manage crocodiles" is likely inspired by the Lewis Carroll logic puzzle: "All babies are illogical / Nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile / Illogical persons are despised".

Viewed as vinyl LPs, Sons and Fascination is the fourth Simple Minds album, with Sister Feelings Call being the fifth one. Or their double-LP fourth album. Indeed, the two were released simultaneously in 1981, Sons and Fascination being the main feature, and Sister Feelings Call included as a bonus disc with the first 10,000 copies of the original release. It reached number eleven on the UK Albums Chart, number thirty-one on the Australian Kent Music Report chart, number 7 on the New Zealand RIANZ chart and number four the Swedish Sverigetopplistan chart. Since 1981 the album has been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry.

The restructured Canadian version of the Sons and Fascination album (expanded to ten tracks, six of the eight on the UK release and a further four taken from Sister Feelings Call, there shortened to five tracks on the vinyl release and six tracks on cassette) had a significantly different running order, beginning with "Love Song".

Upon its first CD release in 1985, Sons and Fascination came with five of the seven tracks from Sister Feelings Call added directly after the main set, so that the CD played as a single long album. As two tracks from "Sister Feelings Call" had been dropped due to the technical limitations of Compact Discs at the time (the disc's running length having to fit within 74 minutes), the album was therefore not complete. No indication was given on the inserts or the disc that the latter five tracks were from "Sister Feelings Call". The dropped tracks included "League of Nations" and "Sound in 70 Cities" (an instrumental version of Sons and Fascination's "70 Cities as Love Brings the Fall"), both of which later appeared on the CD single of the 12-inch cut of "The American" and would re-appear in album form in 2002 and 2003 when remasters of the double set were issued under the title Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call.


In 2012 Virgin Records released the X5 CD box set containing the band's first five albums, each containing extra tracks. This could be considered to contain the definitive version of the album(s), collecting all the tracks spread across the various releases to date.

Simple Minds "Real To Real Cacophony"

Real to Real Cacophony (sometimes incorrectly referred as Reel to Real Cacophony) is the second studio album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds. It was released in November 1979, through record labels Zoom and Arista.

Real to Real Cacophony did not chart, nor did its only single, "Changeling".

The 2002/2003 re-issues by Virgin Records incorrectly render the album's title as Reel to Real Cacophony, and the opening track as "Reel to Real". The new spelling also appears in the discography section of all the inlays in the 2002/2003 Simple Minds remastered edition series. Subsequent editions render the title of both the album and track correctly.

Real to Real Cacophony has been generally well received by critics. AllMusic praised the album, describing it as "where Simple Minds ventured beyond the ability to mimic their influences and began to manipulate them, mercilessly pushing them around and shaping them into funny objects the way a child transforms a chunk of Play-Doh from an indefinable chunk of nothing into a definable chunk of something", calling it "an achievement that's on a plane with other 1979 post-punk landmarks like Metal Box, 154, Entertainment! and Unknown Pleasures".

Simple Minds "Life In A Day"

Life in a Day is the debut album by Simple Minds, released in April 1979 by record label Zoom.

It reached number 30 in the UK Albums Chart. The title track and "Chelsea Girl" were issued as singles.

Life in a Day spent six weeks in the UK LP charts and reaching number 30. The title track was released on 12 May as Simple Minds' first single and reached No. 62 in the UK Gallup charts, spending two weeks there. However, the next single, "Chelsea Girl", failed to chart at all. A tribute to Nico and the Andy Warhol film Chelsea Girls, it was a popular live song for the band.

Andy Kellman of AllMusic rated the album the lowest of Simple Minds' first five album releases, remarking on its derivativeness of Magazine and Roxy Music and ranking "Someone" as the best track. NME's Tony Stewart praised the lyrics and arrangements despite noting the overt influences of 1970s music, and rated "Murder Story" the standout track. Although noting the album as overproduced and undermining the band's sound, he rated the album favourably.


In a 2012 interview, the band's frontman Jim Kerr expressed regret that the album's production had resulted in the tracks lacking "a real spark" that was part of their live performances, and described his feelings about the album as "bittersweet". He recalled at the time, "as we were about to drive up to Scotland, someone gave me a cassette of Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division... and I thought, we've completely blown it."—ruing that their live material had sounded more like Velvet Underground and less like the Boomtown Rats.