Simple Minds And The Pretenders – Live In Concert – 1979 – Past Daily Backstage Weekend

Click on the link here for Audio Player: 1979-09-08 BBC In Concert (Simple Minds & Pretenders) H

A double bill this week – Simple Minds and The Pretenders, recorded in concert on September 8, 1979 by BBC Radio 1.

Two bands relatively early-on in their careers. Simple Minds just getting ready to release their second (then-as yet unnamed) album, and The Pretenders, having released their first single, getting ready to release their first album.

Still at the ground floor for two bands who went on to make hugely popular names for themselves and still works-in-progress.

History of the exciting sort.

I originally ran this back in 2012, but most of you missed it the first time around. So why not run it again in case you missed it? Makes perfect sense. Obviously, we take these bands and their success stories for granted these days – two bands that have become household names, and if you weren’t around at the time, it’s hard to imagine how it was, hearing or seeing these bans for the first time. There hadn’t always been a Pretenders or a Simple Minds, so we had no preconceived notion. It’s that way a lot with music that has a past and an audience who wasn’t there at the time; it’s almost impossible to hear it with the same ears as the ones who did originally – and it’s difficult, at best, to describe the feelings that went along with those first impressions. It’s that way with most music – having only seen Elvis Presley during the last few years of his life, I can’t convey what it must’ve felt like hearing him back in 1956; what the excitement was all about and how that felt. Much the same way as people who grew up with The Beatles, who either saw them in concert or saw the fabled Ed Sullivan performances live at the time can’t explain to someone who only heard them well after the fact what the excitement was all about. Much the same way as it is now – one of the nice parts about music is that it creates such an imprint on people – no matter how we feel about current music – it’s all stuff that creates lasting impressions; part of our DNA.

All that by way of saying; hit the play button and enjoy.