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On this day, 5 August 1989, Scottish rockers Simple Minds played Cardiff Arms Park on their Street Fighting Years tour. Support was provided by Texas, Welsh band The Darling Buds and The Silencers.
Street Fighting Years Tour
"After we'd finished the record we knew what would work on stage: by the time we did the Street Fighting Years tour all those songs fitted beautifully in to that set. We were definitely down the Celtic road – it was "this is who we are and we’re not ashamed of it." We'd avoided that before."
The rehearsals took place at The Point, Dublin, Ireland for three weeks before the tour. This included all the prep work for the equipment and culminated with full dress rehearsals. (The second day of the full rehearsals was on the 9th May 1989). The songs worked on were: Street Fighting Years, Wall Of Love, Mandela Day, This Is Your Land, Soul Crying Out, Waterfront, Ghostdancing, Book Of Brilliant Things, Don't You (Forget About Me), Gaelic Melody, Take A Step Back, Oh Jungleland, Big Sleep, Kick It In, Let It All Come Down, Belfast Child, Sanctify Yourself, Alive And Kicking, East At Easter, Sun City and Biko.
The rehearsals were recorded and can be recognised by the lack of audience reaction before and after the songs. (Lone roadies and support staff can be heard clapping and cheering after several tracks).
The "live" version of Big Sleep, which appeared on the Kick It In single, was taken from these rehearsal sessions.
"We played things like Celtic songs with a fiddle break in the middle and we were giving everything a shot. We opened our Wembley show with the title track of Street Fighting Years, which doesn't even really have any drums in it! It was a bit mad, but we had to play stadiums on our terms. If we were going into that environment, we had to do what we wanted." - Charlie, Classic Pop Magazine, March 2020
Review - South Wales Echo
Simple Minds are a long way from becoming an endangered species - 50,000 adoring fans at the National Ground on Saturday night proved that.
Having said that, they have other similarities to the blue whales they showed on the video screens during an ecologically-conscious interlude halfway into the set. Impressive and powerful, even magnificent but, it has to be said, a little bit dull really.
On the night Kerr and Co just couldn't be faulted, managing to communicate a genuine warmth and enjoyment.
They open opened up in a relatively low-key manner but things improved with a stunning Great Wall Of Love, Charlie Burchill's beautifully pure lead guitar and Mel Graynor's awesome drums powering the song along. The celebratory Mandela Day followed, and already Jim Kerr had the crowd where he wanted them - nestling comfortably in his waistcoat pocket.
Kick It In, Ghostdancing, The Book Of Brilliant Things - they were all tight, sharp, and powerful, but were songs all dressed up with no place to go. The band encored with a ferocious version of Steve Van Zandt's rousting Sun City (I Ain't Gonna Play), and Peter Gabriel's worthy but rather dull Biko. A triumphant Alive and Kicking closed the show with what looked like the entire crowd waving and singing. Simple Minds left the stage very much alive and kicking.
Concert Preview and Review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qd4LQMPzV8
Setlist
Theme for Great Cities
(intro)
When Spirits Rise
(intro)
Street Fighting Years
Wall of Love
Mandela Day
This Is Your Land
Soul Crying Out
Waterfront
Ghost Dancing
Book of Brilliant Things / Five to One
(The Doors cover)
Don't You (Forget About Me)
Gaelic Melody
Once Upon a Time
Oh Jungleland
Big Sleep
Kick it In
Let It All Come Down
Belfast Child
Sun City
(Artists United Against Apartheid cover)
Biko
(Peter Gabriel cover)
Sanctify Yourself
East at Easter
Alive and Kicking
Theme for Great Cities
(outro)
