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Glückaufkampfbahn, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
June 8th 2006
Simple Minds, Born
 
In 2006 there is an important large event for Gelsenkirchen: the football world championship. In June and July thousands of people from many different nations will be guests. Next to watching the games on over 30 days on a 60 square meter large screen in the legendary tradition stadium of the FC Schalke 04, there will be also daily spectacular shows on a large open air stage with international top acts of the music business in time from 8th June to 9th July 2006. For cheap and sensational ticket prices you can see bands like Simple Minds, Status Quo, The Gipsy Kings, Mustafa Sandal, Suemer Ezgue, Die Fantastischen Vier (support act: Clueso), Tokio Hotel or Bryan Adams (sold out already!). Details can be found under: www.glueckaufkampfbahn2006.de.


Born

No riddle, message or philosophical thoughts, just a name. The first name of an inspired singer, composer en guitarist: Born. And with the release of the song You & Me, taken from his forthcoming debut album “At the End of the Day”, the moment is here to make a wider audience acquaintance with his music. After playing in rock bands for the last decennium, his solo debut is the next step. His songs were recorded in 2004, supported by Dutch producer Gordon Groothedde. ‘Born’ has literally sucked in music with his mother's milk. Father Stuyven was violin player by profession. He took his family from Belgium to Holland, where he earned a spot in one of the leading Dutch orchestra's. In's-Hertogenbosch, Holland, ‘Born’ was born. However, his first musical soul mate he found in Belgium. Together with nephew Daan Stuyven, the man behind Belgium pop acts like ‘Dead Man Ray’, ‘Born’ discovered the guitar. The debut album of ‘Born’, “At the End of the Day ...” was released in Belgium and Luxembourg on February 27th 2006. http://bornformusic.nl/ / http://www.myspace.com/born4music

Music
The most important thing of his music is his guitar and his voice. At some parts it reminded me of ‘Reamonn’, but the songs were still slower – ‘Reamonn’ is more pop music. The songs were romantic and had nice melodies and the people seemed to enjoy it. We don’t have the whole list of songs, but ‘Still here’ and ‘Needless To Say’ was played during the set.

Performance
At first there was just a man with his guitar. A few minutes later he was joined by other musicians. Of course also for ‘Born’ the world cup was something to talk about and his orange shirt was speaking for itself for which team ‘Born’ was keeping his fingers crossed and especially because of he was coming from the Netherlands. After a few songs he thanked the ‘Simple Minds’ crew. He wished everyone shall enjoy the world cup, although the German team will loose (as we know now it all came different…). Very fast he completed this sentence by saying “well ok, I’m not sure”. He must have recognized that he was in a ‘dangerous’ situation, saying something like this as a Dutch man in Germany.

Rating
Music 6
Performance 5
Sound 6
Light 6
Total 6 (5.7)




Simple Minds

Best known for their 1985 number one hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from the movie ‘The Breakfast Club’, Scotland's ‘Simple Minds’ evolved from a post-punk art rock band influenced by ‘Roxy Music’ into a grand, epic-sounding pop band along the lines of ‘U2’. The band grew out of a Glasgow punk group called ‘Johnny and the Self-Abusers’ which featured guitarist Charlie Burchill and lead singer Jim Kerr. The inaugural 1978 line-up of ‘Simple Minds’ featured a rhythm section of Tony Donald on bass and Brian McGee on drums, plus keyboardist Mick McNeil; Donald was soon replaced by Derek Forbes. In all that years there were other line up changes. After Bryan Ferry rejected the opportunity to sing "Don't You (Forget about Me)," ‘Simple Minds’ almost did so as well; Kerr was dissatisfied with the song's lyrics, which he regarded as formulaic. His change of heart gave ‘Simple Minds’ their international success. However Kerr's feelings about the song remained ambivalent and it did not appear on the follow-up album, “Once Upon a Time”. Simple Minds are: Jim Kerr (voc), Eddy Duffy (bass), Charlie Burchill (guitar), Mel Gaynor (drums) and Marc Schulman (key). Official website: http://www.simpleminds.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/simplemindscom



Before the ‘Simple Minds’ entered the stage there was an interview shown on the big video screen next to the stage which was held just a few minutes before. Singer Jim Kerr was asked about their trip to Gelsenkirchen and what it means to him to play as part of the world cup “fan fest” (fan event). This was just great for him and the rest of the guys because they are also very big football fans. Of course it’s sad that Scotland is not in the team. Jim’s birthday is on 9th July, the day when the final game will be played. He was asked what he thinks who will be the champion in the end. He said: “Well, it won’t be Scotland. The best and fairest team shall win.”

There was such a great audience, that already the road crew felt the mood. After ‘Born’ has left the stage they changed the instruments for ‘Simple Minds’ - most of them were still hidden under clothes, especially the drums - and with every piece they unveiled more of the instruments they got an “ooooh” or “aaaahhh” from the audience. It was really funny.



Music
‘Simple Minds’ stand for great pop and rock songs with lyrics of deep importance - about love, feelings, life in general or political statements and opinions. They always shared their thoughts with the rest of the world. That’s only one reason why they survived nearly 30 years in this business. There were also up and downs for them and they knew when they needed a break and surprised often with new fresh rock music. They played old and new songs. Classics like ‘See The Lights’, ‘Mandela Day’, Waterfront’, ‘Alive And Kicking’ have been played as also their two single releases ‘Home’ and ‘Stranger’ from their latest album ‘Black & White 050505’. Of course ‘Don’t you (forget about me)’ had to be played too. Charlie Burchill was once again the hero at the guitar. A set of 1.5 hours was absolutely not long enough.



Performance
When Jim Kerr came on stage he did the best he could do at that place and straight into everybody’s heart, he just shouted one word: SCHALKE! - which is the name of the football club in Gelsenkirchen. I’m sure you can imagine all the screaming jubilation he got in return. Even after nearly 30 years in music business you see and feel that the ‘Simple Minds’ still enjoy playing live. There is always and was also in Gelsenkirchen this special atmosphere. Jim Kerr was smiling nearly the whole concert, waving to different people and made everybody feel like we are all his friends. He also came closer to the audience and involved us into the show. One of his most important sentences was “Let me see your hands”. During the concert he mentioned different countries, so I guess he had seen already different shirts from different countries in the audience - foreign people who arrived already for the world cup. Jim was also lying on the ground and was singing in this position. ‘Simple Minds’ and the people were one during that evening. So until some day somewhere in the summertime they will come back to Germany, lads we don’t forget about you!



Setlist
01. Stay Visible
02. Home
03. Different World
04. See The Lights
05. Mandela Day
06. All The Things She Said
07. Ghostdancing
08. Waterfront
09. Someone Somewhere In The Summertime
10. Don't You (Forget About Me)
11. Sanctify Yourself
--------------------------------------------
12. Stranger
13. Belfast Child
14. New Gold Dream
15. Alive And Kicking

Rating
Music 9
Performance 8
Sound 7
Light 6
Total 8 (7.95)



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