Jim Kerr Of Simple Minds On Story Behind 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' And New Simple Minds Music

In 1985, the Simple Minds cut "Don't You (Forget About Me)" ran during the opening and closing credits of the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club.

The global success of the chart-topping breakout No. 1 hit drove sales of the film's soundtrack, which reached No. 17 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in America. The film itself went on to make more than $50 million worldwide despite a budget of just about $1 million.

No one tapped into youth culture in the 80s quite like Hughes and association with The Breakfast Club pushed the next Simple Minds album, 1985's Once Upon a Time, to gold sales.

But the Scottish group didn't write "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and had to be convinced to even record it. Writer Keith Forsey wrote it specifically for the film and artists like Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol both passed on it. While the group has experienced massive success around the world with a number of hit songs, they were never able to duplicate the success of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" in the United States.

"John [Hughes] particularly was a fan of the sounds. He sprinkled the sounds of what was coming out of the U.K. throughout his movies then. Whether it was Psychedelic Furs or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. He loved those sounds," explained Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr. "It’s kind of an unlikely combination when you think that a lot of the movies were set in Chicago and stuff. And yet, he was using really the new wave sound. He just loved it."

In the midst of a rare U.S. tour in support of their eighteenth studio album Walk Between Worlds, I spoke with Kerr about the group's biggest American hit, how the inception of punk rock informed Simple Minds' sound in the years to come, working at Abbey Road on the new album and performing and recording in Manchester just hours after last year's suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert. A lightly edited transcript of that phone conversation follows below...

Q. Getting started in 1977, how did emerging from the dawn of punk rock wind up informing your sound, or maybe even more so your mindset, as Simple Minds started finding success within the next ten years?

JK: Punk rock was a brilliant catalyst. A year before, there was just no feeling of possibility. You felt you had to play like Jeff Beck or Rick Wakeman or all these people - that you couldn’t put a band together only on attitude or musical limitation. But punk rock came along and it was about all of that.

In our case, we formed a band. Other kids decided, borrowing on the same mentality, to start fanzines. Or they were gonna do their own fashion labels or publish their own little documentaries. Suddenly, it felt that self-expression... that you could do it without feeling that you couldn’t because you didn’t go to a good school or mommy and daddy hadn’t sent you to Paris or Vienna or whatever. That was a thing that got us going.

After a few months of the mayhem of playing in punk bands, we realized that we were gonna have to bring a lot more to it than just the jumping up and down aspect. We’re gonna have to knuckle down and learn how to write songs and learn about sounds and learn how to expand.

But the catalyst is important because, sadly, think about how many people do have an idea. Many English schoolteachers have still got their novel under their desk. They never sent it away. How many people come up with a film outline but never really commit? That’s what we loved about the punk thing: it made us commit.

That homemade spirit was ideal for people like us.

Q. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about your music - and it’s certainly there on Walk Between Worlds - is the way that whether it’s [longtime Simple Minds guitarist] Charlie Burchill’s ripping solo on "Barrowland Star" or your interplay with backing vocalist Sarah Brown - that so many different sounds and so many different genres kind of blend seamlessly. How do you go about bringing all of that together when it comes time to write and record a new album?

JK: First of all, it’s great to hear you acknowledge Charlie’s solo. I think it’s a beauty. I really do. I think it’s a great one. And you don’t hear many of those kind of solos these days. So I will pass that on.

Simple Minds have always been about... the influences that we had way back then are still the same influences. I’m talking about The Doors, The Velvet Underground. Kraftwerk, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. Roxy Music. So many more. We grew ourselves out of that.

If you add to that as well, Stevie Wonder, Motown music and lots of different stuff, somehow we managed, mongrel that we are, to become Simple Minds.

Q. You guys did some work on the new album at Abbey Road, as you did almost forty years ago on the Life in a Day album. What was it like coming full circle in that way?

JK: Well, you still go through those hallowed doors because of the people who have gone through those doors and the legacy of the music that’s been made. Sadly, there’s not so many studios now.

When we were kids, that was actually exciting - but also intimidating. Going through Abbey Road all these years later, it was something to behold and something to enjoy. I guess I felt we had earned our stripes.

To go in there and work with these classical musicians as well, and see them go about their thing… yeah, it was a blast.

Q. The cover of “Dirty Old Town” that you & Sarah Brown did was recorded in Manchester only hours after the bombing, not far from where it happened. What was that experience like?

JK: The next day, yeah. You witness some stuff touring that you never did think you would ever.

We were not far from Paris a few years ago when that whole thing went off at the Bataclan. The world’s a weird place - or certainly it’s been weird in Europe anyway. You’re in uncharted territory.

The night the bomb went off, we were in Liverpool, which is only fifty minutes drive away along the motorway. We finished the gig in Liverpool and jumped on the bus because we were due to stay in Manchester that night and relax the next day and then play in the evening.

As we were getting on the bus, the driver said, “Something terrible has happened. I’m not sure that we’re going to get into Manchester.” By the time we got there, the reality of what had happened was out in the open. And it was a pretty miserable night. It was a shocking night and a tragic night.

We got up the next day and had to wait to see if the authorities were going to let gigs go on, public events go on. Because the city was still in turmoil and a state of alarm.

But we had to find out as well, from the band, from the crew, from everyone, did they feel like playing. What was the attitude? How did everyone feel? Was it the right thing to do? And, to a man, to a woman, everyone said, “No, we want to play. This is what we do.”

And when we found out that the authorities were keen for things to get back to normal - there would be no normal for a few days, but as normal as they could - we thought, “Well… Ok. Let’s play. It’s going to be a weird one but let’s play." And, while we’re at it, is there something we can do - a gesture or a kind of tribute to Manchester itself? And "Dirty Old Town" was a favorite song of ours.

Written in the 60s by Ewan MacColl who was from south of Manchester - well, actually, he was born in Scotland as we proudly say - we thought, “Let’s run this at soundcheck and see what’s what.” And I think we captured some kind of magic. Some kind of pathos is in there.

We used that live recording as part of the extended Walk Between Worlds album package.

Q. In America, unlike virtually everywhere else in the world, Simple Minds is known primarily for placement in John Hughes movies - there was a poster in Ferris's room in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and, more notably, the placement of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" in The Breakfast Club. I’m guessing John was a fan but how did that association first start?

JK: Indeed it was. John and the writer/producer Keith Forsey were huge fans.

John particularly was a fan of the sounds. He sprinkled the sounds of what was coming out of the U.K. throughout his movies then. Whether it was Psychedelic Furs or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. He loved those sounds. It’s kind of an unlikely combination when you think that a lot of the movies were set in Chicago and stuff. And yet, he was using really the new wave sound. He just loved it.

And the thing about John in meeting him, he was such a music fan - a real music fan - and a sweetheart of a guy as well from my experience in meeting him. Keith Forsey was just a raging enthusiast. And we were hedging our bets. We weren’t sure about this idea of doing someone else’s song.

The song that they brought to us sounded pretty good but it didn’t really sound like ours. And we’re thinking, “Why would we do someone else’s song? Why can’t you take one of our songs?” And they were saying, “But this has been written for the movie…” And it took us a while to come around.

But we did come around in the end, primarily because they were good guys. They were great guys and they made you want to do it. And it’s not often we needed to be made wanting to do stuff. Usually, we were enthusiastic enough. But we were young and we were brattish and all that. But they made us feel good about it.

Having said that, we had no inclination whatsoever that it would even be the main song from the movie. And we certainly had no inclination that it would go on to do what it did.

Q. Back then, like no one else at that time, John Hughes really tapped into and captured the youth mindset. What did that partnership, or that association of your band with his work, mean to you then?

JK: Well, it was weird. First of all, we didn’t want to do it. Then we did it. And then we were kind of cool about it… until it started to climb the charts. And then we were like, “Well, oh... That’s interesting!” Then, suddenly, it was the drummer’s favorite song. And it was just, “And then, and then, and then…” It was just so unlikely.

I’ll tell you a funny story. The day we got the news that it was #1 on the Billboard charts - now come on, who wouldn’t want to be #1 on the Billboard charts? And certainly, if you’re some little guys from Glasgow, it’s unheard of - I was in France doing some promotion stuff. And it was a day off. So I was on my own. And how cute is this? I got a telegraph saying, “You’re #1 on the Billboard charts.” And I was like, “Jeez…” We knew that there was some talk that it may be but they didn’t want us to be disappointed so they didn’t say for sure. So there it was. Then I got a call from the president of the record company or whatever.

And I’m sitting in my [hotel] room and it’s like six o’clock. And I don’t even drink. But I thought, “I’ve got to go down to the bar and make a toast.”

So I go down to the bar and it’s me and the barman. And I say, “Open a bottle of champagne.” He says, “Really? Which one?” And I said, “A really, really good one.” He says, “Well, who are you celebrating with?” And I said, “No one.” He said, “Why are you celebrating?” I said, “Well, I’m in this band and we’re #1 in America.” And he looks at me like, “Yeah, right.”

So I have a couple of hits of that - it only takes me a couple of hits - and I’m getting rollicking drunk. Everyone who walks into the bar, I’m like, “Give that man a drink!” Suddenly I’m Frank Sinatra. And it cost me a fortune.

I don’t think anyone believed me. And I had a headache the next morning that I can still recall. But it had to be done!

Q. At eighteen studio albums, you guys have really gone out of your way to exist as more than merely a retro or nostalgia act. How important has it been to you to try and keep pushing the music forward, trying different things all these years with new sounds and even new members of the band?

JK: It is important. It’s important to us because, even though the industry has changed, we’ve always been creative people. To stop the creativity would be like cutting off an arm. We talk to all the people and they say, “Why bother? Why go through the costs?” It’s who we are. It’s always been who we are.

As for the rest, the chopping and changing, that’s gotta be done as well. The biggest enemy is sort of autopilot. Or just going around and around through the same old, same old.

You do want to retain the original spirit. You do want to call up the ghosts of the past. But you want to retain the energy. You want to bring in people with energy. You want to bring in people who will kick you as well and make you raise your game. When you bring in new life, you see it through their eyes as well.

So, for all of those reasons, it’s important to keep it fresh... though that sounds absurd when you’re talking about something that’s entering its fifth decade!