Simple Minds Albums in Order: 20 Releases, 1979 to 2022
The Simple Minds' albums, in order, run to 20 releases, from Life in a Day in 1979 to Direction of the Heart in 2022. Only Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are credited on all 20. On my music map, each release is a station, and each credited musician is a line, so every arrival, gap and return in that 43-year run is readable at a glance.
The 20 Simple Minds Releases in Order, 1979 to 2022
- Life in a Day (1979)
- Real to Real Cacophony (1979)
- Empires and Dance (1980)
- Sons and Fascination / Sister Feelings Call (1981)
- New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (1982)
- Sparkle in the Rain (1984)
- Once Upon a Time (1985)
- Street Fighting Years (1989)
- Real Life (1991)
- Good News from the Next World (1995)
- Néapolis (1998)
- Our Secrets Are the Same (recorded 1999, issued 2004)
- Neon Lights (2001)
- Cry (2002)
- Black & White 050505 (2005)
- Graffiti Soul (2009)
- Big Music (2014)
- Acoustic (2016)
- Walk Between Worlds (2018)
- Direction of the Heart (2022)
A note on what that list is. My Simple Minds research grid follows the band's own release sequence rather than studio records only, so Neon Lights (2001), a covers set, Our Secrets Are the Same, shelved in 1999 and issued in 2004, and Acoustic (2016), a set of re-recordings, all get stations. Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call share one station because they were issued together in 1981. Live albums and greatest hits compilations are not on the map.
Mel Gaynor Has More Album Credits Than Any Founder Who Left
Mel Gaynor is not a founding member. He first appears on New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) in 1982, drumming on tracks 1, 4 and 6 to 9, and his last credit in my grid is drums and percussion on the title track of Walk Between Worlds in 2018.
Across those 36 years, he is credited with eleven of the release columns. Derek Forbes appears on nine, Mick MacNeil on nine, and Brian McGee on six.
So the drummer who joined after three albums outlasts, on paper, all three founders who left. That is the sort of thing a line on a map shows immediately, and a discography list never does.
Derek Forbes Vanishes After Sparkle in the Rain and Comes Back Fourteen Years Later
Forbes plays bass on the first six releases, Life in a Day (1979) through to Sparkle in the Rain (1984). Then he is simply gone.
He is absent from Once Upon a Time (1985), Street Fighting Years (1989), Real Life (1991) and Good News from the Next World (1995). He reappears on bass guitar on Néapolis in 1998, fourteen years after his previous credit.
He is not the only one who does this. Peter-John Vettese plays keyboards on Real Life in 1991, then does not appear again until piano and string arrangements on "Barrowland Star" from Walk Between Worlds in 2018, a gap of 27 years. On the print, those two read as lines that stop, skip a run of stations, and start again.
New Gold Dream Was Drummed by Three Different Men, and Herbie Hancock Plays Track Eight
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) is the album most people name as the band's best, and it has no one drummer. It has three.
Mel Gaynor takes tracks 1, 4 and 6 to 9. Mike Ogletree takes tracks 2 and 5. Kenny Hyslop takes track 3 on his own.
Neither Ogletree nor Hyslop appears on another Simple Minds release apart from the archival Our Secrets Are the Same. Herbie Hancock guests on keyboards on track 8, and Sharon Campbell is credited as "girl's voice" on tracks 1 and 7.
Street Fighting Years Carries Twenty Credited Names, One of Them Uncredited
If you want the moment the band stopped being five people in a room, it is 1989. Street Fighting Years carries twenty credited names in my grid, more than any other release on the map.
Lou Reed sings additional lead vocals on "This Is Your Land". Stewart Copeland of The Police plays LinnDrum on tracks 3 and 6 and is listed in the credits as uncredited, which is my favourite contradiction in the whole sheet. Manu Katché drums on tracks 1, 2 and 9.
Around them sit Roger Sharp on bagpipes, Maureen Kerr on penny whistle and bodhran, cellists Sheena McKenzie and William Lithgow, and percussionists Abdul M'boup and Sidney Thiam. It is also Mick MacNeil's last album, credited on piano, accordion and keyboards.
Good News from the Next World Needed Four Bassists and Three Drummers
Six years later, the band is down to two people, hiring help. Good News from the Next World (1995) has no Forbes, no MacNeil and no Gaynor on it at all.
The bass parts are split between Lance Morrison, Marcus Miller, Mark Browne and Malcolm Foster. The drums are split between Mark Schulman, Tal Bergman and Vinnie Colaiuta. Maxann Lewis, Pat Hodges and Stefani Spruill handle backing vocals.
Four bassists and three drummers on one record is the sound of a line-up that no longer exists, and Néapolis, three years later, pulls Forbes and Gaynor straight back in.
Reading the Simple Minds Albums in Order as a Map, and the Rule That Decides Who Gets a Line
I work by one rule that settles who gets a line and who does not. A producer only earns a musician line if they are also credited with playing something.
Stephen Lipson is credited on Street Fighting Years as additional bass guitar and producer, and on Real Life as production, bass, keyboards and odaiko, so he is in the print. Keith Forsey is credited on Good News from the Next World as producer, full stop, so he is not.
Same job title, opposite outcome, because one of them picked up an instrument. Gordy Goudie clears the same bar on Cry (2002), credited with guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, effects and programming alongside the production.
Seven Guests Who Turn Up on Exactly One Simple Minds Record
Some of the best names in these credits appear once and never again. This is the table I come back to when someone asks what there is to read on the print.
| Guest | Release | What the credit says |
|---|---|---|
| Herbie Hancock | New Gold Dream (1982) | Guest keyboardist, track 8 |
| Kirsty MacColl | Sparkle in the Rain (1984) | Voice on "Speed Your Love to Me" and "Street Hassle" |
| Lou Reed | Street Fighting Years (1989) | Additional lead vocals on "This Is Your Land" |
| Stewart Copeland | Street Fighting Years (1989) | LinnDrum on tracks 3 and 6, listed as uncredited |
| Bono | Our Secrets Are the Same (1999) | Vocals, disc 2 track 11 |
| Sean Kelly | Black & White 050505 (2005) | Guest vocals on "Too Much Television", Japanese edition bonus track |
| Russell Mael | Direction of the Heart (2022) | Vocals, track 3 |
Forty years separate Hancock's track 8 from Russell Mael's track 3, and every one of those names sits on the print. That is the section people read standing up, which is also the argument for the larger size.
Twenty Names on One Album, and Why That Decides the Size
The print comes in A2 (420 x 594mm) and A1 (594 x 841mm), with 24x18 in and 36x24 in for the US, from £42. Every size is a Giclée on 230gsm textured matte fine art paper, archival and acid-free, supplied unframed or ready to hang in a black wood frame.
A2 suits the fan whose relationship with the band is built on "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and "Alive and Kicking". Kerr, Burchill and Gaynor are findable without leaning in.
A1 is for the one who will want to read all twenty names on Street Fighting Years and check that the bagpipes really are there. For someone who saw the New Gold Dream tour, an A1 in a black wood frame tends to end up in the hall rather than the spare room.
The Simple Minds discography art print maps all 20 releases and every credited musician on them, drawn from my own research grid rather than a stock discography listing.
Related Music Maps
If the shelves you are buying for start around 1979 and keep going, two neighbours read well beside this one: Joy Division and New Order albums in order and The Cure albums in order. The R.E.M. discography art print sits in the same stretch of years.
Simple Minds Discography Questions
How many Simple Minds albums are there?
My map carries 20 Simple Minds releases, from Life in a Day (1979) to Direction of the Heart (2022). That figure includes the covers album Neon Lights, the archival Our Secrets Are the Same and the re-recorded Acoustic, and it counts Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call as the single 1981 release they were issued as.
What is not on the Simple Minds map?
Live albums and greatest hits compilations are not on it. The map is built from release credits, so records like Live in the City of Light and the various hits collections have no stations, and nothing released after Direction of the Heart (2022) is on the artwork.
Does it include Néapolis, Neon Lights and Acoustic, or only the famous albums?
It includes all three. Néapolis (1998) matters because it is where Derek Forbes and Mel Gaynor both return, and Acoustic (2016) matters because it brings in KT Tunstall, Cherisse Osei and Ged Grimes.
Why did Mick MacNeil stop in 1989?
Street Fighting Years is his final credit in my research, listed as piano, accordion and keyboards. After that, the keyboard work scatters across Peter-John Vettese, Andy Gillespie, Owen Parker and Charlie Burchill himself, which is exactly the sort of handover a map draws better than a paragraph.
Is the current line-up on there, or does it stop in the eighties?
It runs to 2022. Ged Grimes is credited on bass from Big Music (2014) onwards, Sarah Brown on vocals across the same run, and Cherisse Osei on drums from Acoustic (2016).
Buying One
If you are buying this as a gift and you are not certain which size suits the wall, a gift card for music fans lets them pick the map and the size themselves. Everything else lives in the music map art print collection. I research and draw each one from the credits upwards, which is why no two of them look the same.
