Simple Minds at Bell Centre: A simply amazing reminder of 1980s new wave power

Montreal Gazette

18-06-2025

Music
By
Montreal did not forget about Simple Minds.
Just under 9,000 fans made the trek to the Bell Centre on Tuesday to see the Scottish band, which was part of the slew of ultracool British new wave bands during the first half of the 1980s that revolutionized the music world, and it was very clear that a big chunk of the folks there had been following them from way back in the day.
'Montreal was one of the first cities to get behind Simple Minds and really encourage us,' said the band's charismatic and oh-so-down-to-Earth frontman Jim Kerr.
There was a lot of grey hair in the crowd. Which was super cool to see. Pop music is a young person's game, but there are loads of people of a certain age who still love the music they listened to in high school and university during the '80s.
There are '80s DJ/dance nights happening all over the city. I even do one myself, called High Fidelity, and every time I hold one, people — inevitably 40 and older — tell me they love reliving the dancing fun they had all those years ago. There's also VV Taverna, a bar devoted to the same scene at the corner of St. Denis and Rachel Sts.
There are loads of folks who still dig listening to bands like The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Psychedelic Furs, to name a few. And it's not just nostalgia. It's because the music still sounds fab.
'It's still great music 40 years later,' said Jean Boudreau, who was at the Bell Centre Tuesday. 'Even young people today listen to music from the 1980s. It's aged better than the music of the '90s, like grunge. These songs have strong melodies. I remember hearing this music at the Limelight, at the Passeport on St. Denis St., at the Thunderdome.'
Nancy Faraj said it's only natural that you return to the music of your youth.
'When you listen to music from the age of 16 to 25, it influences you for the rest of your life,' said Faraj.
Before the concert, I texted my old friend Ivan Doroschuk, lead singer of Men Without Hats, the Montreal band that produced one of the iconic anthems of the '80s new wave, Safety Dance, and I asked him why this music was still so popular.
'It's a decade that hearkens back to better times in a lot of people's minds (even though it was the Reagan/Thatcher era),' wrote Doroschuk. 'It's one of the last decades where there were real songs, real melodies, but also social/political commentary. A lot of singalongs, too. The music is dance-oriented as well, which gives it a cross-generational appeal and which explains why '80s nights are popping up all over the place, taking the place of disco in a lot of clubs. Contemporary pop music also borrows a lot from the '80s, with artists like The Weeknd.'
Montreal music fans have always loved British bands. It started with prog rock during the '70s by groups like Genesis, King Crimson and Gentle Giant and continued into the '80s with the post-punk and new wave bands like U2, New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Simple Minds.
And people were so into it Tuesday at the Bell Centre. They totally loved the high-octane opening set from Modern English, flagged a little during Soft Cell's lacklustre performance, but all was forgiven once Simple Minds took the stage.
Songs like Once Upon a Time, Wish You Were Here, Someone Somewhere, New Gold Dream, and Miracle had fans on their feet all night, singing along to every word. Kerr clearly hadn't lost any of his enthusiasm over the years and he still exudes the same down-home charm, a very Glaswegian style that, like the Scottish city, is all about genuine emotion and zero tolerance for any b.s.
'You're going to make us very emotional,' said Kerr, right near the beginning, moved by the crowd's passion.
His voice is still remarkably strong after all these years and guitarist Charlie Churchill, the only other original member, was also in fine form, whipping off some remarkably muscular guitar riffs to remind you that they were much more than a limp synth band.
By the time they got to their biggest hit, Don't You (Forget About Me), at the end of the set, every single person in the arena was lustily singing along to the chorus. It was partly about nostalgia, about getting lost in a song that we associate with key moments in our life, but it was also about the communal power of live music and Montreal audiences' amazing ability to keep the faith with artists they've loved for decades.
You could see this was anything but just another night at the office for Kerr and his bandmates. They got emotional and so did we.