Simple Minds Herald World Tour with New Live Record Out April 25

Simple Minds are heralding their biggest North American headline tour in four decades with Live in the City of Diamonds, an all-new double live album arriving everywhere via BMG on Friday, April 25. Recorded in concert last April at Amsterdam, NL’s Ziggo Dome as part of the legendary UK band’s epic Global Tour 2024, Live in the City of Diamonds will be available in a variety of formats, including digitally, 2x clear/glitter and standard black vinyl LP (with 18 tracks, housed in gatefold sleeve with hi-spec finish), and 2xCD (with 24 tracks and 24-page Media Book featuring exclusive photos and tour notes). Pre-orders are available now.

“All we wanted was to be in ‘a great live band’ and to spend our lives taking our music with us around the world,” says Simple Minds co-founder and frontman Jim Kerr. “Decades later we still relish that challenge every night on tour. Live In The City of Diamonds captures both the spirit and fever of Simple Minds live at this moment in time.”

Live in the City of Diamonds collects stunning concert performances of classic tracks and fan favorites from across Simple Minds’ monumental body of work thus far, including a spectacular live rendition of their much-beloved Billboard “Hot 100” #1 hit single, “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” premiering today at all DSPs and streaming services.

LISTEN TO “DON’T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME) (LIVE IN THE CITY OF DIAMONDS)”

Last month saw Simple Minds kicking off what looks to be a milestone year with an electrifying US network late night TV performance of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! (streaming HERE). Indeed, 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most significant periods in Simple Minds’ extraordinary history, a landmark moment in their legendary career which saw the worldwide chart-topping success of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and release of their RIAA Gold-certified seventh studio album Once Upon A Time, not to mention their unforgettable set in front of 135,000 fans – and a TV audience of millions – on the American leg of 1985’s Live Aid. The occasion was further celebrated last month with the digital premiere of a special new 9-track edition of Once Upon A Time featuring the addition of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and updated Ruby Anniversary artwork. Physical versions and other anniversary reissues will follow later in the year.

“Hindsight is a glorious thing!,” says Kerr. “40 years on and it now feels right for Simple Minds to have ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ included in this classy new nine track edition of Once Upon A Time.”

WATCH “DON’T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME) (LIVE ON JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!)”

STREAM/DOWNLOAD ONCE UPON A TIME (RUBY ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

Produced by Live Nation, Simple Minds’ Alive & Kicking Tour 2025 gets underway May 16 at Ridgefield, WA’s RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater and then continues though a June 22 finale at Noblesville, IN’s Ruoff Music Center. Support on all dates comes from Soft Cell and Modern English. Highlights include shows at such famed arenas and amphitheaters as Seattle, WA’s Climate Pledge Arena (May 17), Inglewood, CA’s Kia Forum (May 22), Denver, CO’s Ball Arena (May 27), Woodlands, TX’s Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (May 31), Columbia, MD’s Merriweather Post Pavilion (June 10), Wantagh, NY’s Northwell at Jones Beach Theater (June 13), Mansfield, MA’s Xfinity Center (June 15), and Toronto, ON’s Budweiser Stage (June 18). For complete details and ticket availability, please visit simpleminds.com/tour. A variety of different VIP packages and experiences are also available allowing fans to take their concert experience to the next level. Packages vary but include premium tickets, behind-the-scenes tour, group photo in front of the stage, exclusive VIP merch item & more. VIP package contents vary based on the offer selected. For more information, please see vipnation.com.

# # #

ABOUT SIMPLE MINDS:

Inimitable musical pioneers for nearly half a century, Simple Minds are among the most successful UK bands of all time, having achieved more than 1B global streams on Spotify alone (with over 8.3M monthly listeners on Spotify alone) and total worldwide sales in excess of 60M, including six #1 albums in the UK and chart-topping releases in countless other territories including Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand.

Coalescing around childhood friends Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill, Simple Minds emerged in 1978 with an immediately distinctive sound simultaneously rooted in punk, art-rock, and the electronic avant-garde. Over the next four decades, the band has pushed their open-armed approach to fashion a broad array of stylistic varieties – spanning pop, funk, gospel, soul, dance music, and more – into their own world-straddling brand of stadium-sized rock. Their continually evolving body of work is highlighted by such landmark LPs as 1982’s New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84), 1984’s Sparkle In The Rain, 1985’s Once Upon A Time, and 1989’s Street Fighting Years, along with a stunning canon of iconic global hit singles spanning “Love Song,” “Someone Somewhere (In Summertime),” “Glittering Prize,” “Promised You A Miracle,” “Up On The Catwalk,” “Speed Your Love To Me,” “Waterfront,” “Belfast Child,” and of course the timeless teen anthem, 1985’s US #1 classic, “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” the latter of course famously featured in the classic John Hughes film, The Breakfast Club.

Named as the world’s “Best Live Band” by Q Magazine in 1991, Simple Minds have long commanded the stages of sold-out arenas and stadiums around the planet. Their world-class credentials have been burnished in recent years by an array of equally remarkable accomplishments – from acclaimed new albums (including 2018’s Walk Between Worlds and 2022’s Direction of the Heart, both of which had top 5 chart debuts in the UK), best-selling live albums, career retrospectives, and epic world tours to accolades and honors like a 2014 Q Inspiration Award (presented by avowed fan Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield) to a prestigious Ivor Novello Award for “Outstanding Song Collection” – all of which serve as timely reminders to a new generation of Simple Minds’ ongoing appeal as well a springboard for their next burst of creativity. Now as ever, Simple Minds remain a band touched by powerful magic, continually willing to experiment while remaining true to their original instincts.

“The truth is we never fully wound down,’ says Charlie Burchill. “There have been lots of different incarnations of Simple Minds, but we’ve always kept our identity. A legacy can be a burden if you allow it to be. For us, it’s been empowering.”

“We’ve been on one hell of a journey,” says Kerr. “I’m grateful for the career we’ve had, but I’m mad enough to think we can still hit new levels. This is what we do – write, record and play live. One of the things I’m most proud of is that people say to me, what Simple Minds are you talking about? The avant-garde, the art-rock, the pop, the ambient, the instrumental group, the political, the folk, the stadium band? To play all those different styles but at the same time be quintessentially Simple Minds is an amazing thing.”