Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
Derek Forbes is the bassist of Simple Minds, a new wave band from Scotland best known for the song “Don’t You Forget About Me”, which you’ve probably heard in the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club. But you won’t see him talking about that song in this book because it was released after he left the band and it wasn’t a song written by the band. He did play bass on it though. Other than that, I admittedly went in reading this book not knowing much about the band at all and so I learnt a lot.
The book opens with a chapter packed full of stories of Simple Minds touring the world in 1984 with their adventures taking them down under, to the US, all over Europe, and to Japan. That was the peak of the band’s fame and gives a picture of what life on the road is like. There’s a lot of name dropping to be found throughout the book and I particularly liked his story about David Byrne who told him multiple times that he was born in Scotland.
Finally in chapters 2 and 3, we go back in time where he talks about his family, upbringing, and childhood. His parents, Harry and Betty met during WWII and they were working class. His father didn’t serve in WWII because he had six bones removed from each foot, therefore he didn’t pass the medical exam. He was the youngest of three children, born on 22 June 1956. As a baby he contracted double pneumonia because of the poor living conditions in inner city Glasgow, old, overcrowded tenement buildings. Luckily, when he was six months old, his family moved to a nicer home in Castlemilk, in one of the newer projects built to accommodate families after WWII. Just after he turned one, he had surgery for a double hernia. Growing up, gang activity went on nearby. He was a bit of a late bloomer music wise, not picking up a guitar until his teen years. He got his start by buying an acoustic guitar from a friend and learning from his uncle who played guitar and banjo. As a teenager he was an apprentice painter and decorator, and in his free time he would practice guitar and write songs and with his tax return he bought a better guitar, a Gibson SG copy that was good enough for the time being. Eventually he bought a real Gibson SG on hire purchase, but the guitar body broke because of the cold and when trying to get it repaired, it was stolen.
While in college, he met future bandmate Jim Kerr and they’d listen to music by David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Peter Gabriel era Genesis, and Cockney Rebel. Jim liked Derek’s glam rock style and wanted him to be in his band.
In the 70s, he played a lot of Led Zeppelin covers and he was a big fan of 10cc and Frank Zappa, which inspired his playing. Eventually he was hired as bassist for the punk band Subs and during his time in that band, Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO saw them play a show at The Hope and Anchor and they opened for Gary Numan and The Tubeway Army. Jim Kerr would go to their gigs and he wanted Derek to join the band and so he was asked in March 1978 to replace their original bassist Tony Donald. While Derek Forbes wanted to go back to playing guitar more, the decision for him to play bass was made for him when another one of his guitars was stolen from him, his 1972 Sunburst Deluxe Gibson Les Paul.
One day at a venue called the Mars Bar, their future manager Bruce Findlay saw them and was so impressed he compared seeing them for the first time to when Brian Epstein discovered The Beatles. Early on they were opening for bands like Squeeze, Ultravox, Generation X, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
From there, Derek talks about the recording of their studio albums and their tours around the world. When they toured Australia promoting Sons and Fascination, they toured with Australian bands Icehouse and the Divinyls and met other bands like Midnight Oil and INXS.
As you can expect, there’s a whole section on their breakthrough album New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84). While they were recording that album, they saw Jeff Lynne in the hallway and then Linda McCartney walked in and asked if the band wanted to meet Paul, who was working on Tug of War at the time.
When “Waterfront” from Sparkle in the Rain came out, Simple Minds debuted it at Barrowland in Glasgow, reopening the venue and giving it new life. Derek Forbes was awarded a plaque for helping reopen the venue. Sparkle in the Rain was the last Simple Minds album Derek Forbes played on before being sacked in 1984.
From chapter 6 onwards, he talks about his life after Simple Minds. He retreated to his farm in Scotland and spent time with friends before moving onto his next venture, joining German synthpop band Propaganda, a band his best friend from school, Ian Reekie, recommended to him and raved about. His former Simple Minds bandmate Brian McGee also joined the band. This section also talks a bit more about his personal life, such as him getting married to his Australian wife Wendy Kemp in 1988. His Simple Minds bandmates attended the wedding. Later that year, he became a father when Wendy gave birth to Kai on 1 November. Not long after Kai was born, Derek was asked to rejoin Simple Minds, but because he didn’t like the material they were working on and he didn’t want to leave his wife with Kai alone at home, he turned down the offer. However, he had other great opportunities like recording an album for his favourite team, the Glasgow Rangers, and having David Gilmour play a guitar solo on a Propaganda song “Only One Word”.
In 1994, his second son Dylan was born. He rejoined Simple Minds in 1995 and stayed with them for three years. In the book he talks about touring with Simple Minds during this time. The last time he played with them it was at a Roman amphitheatre in Lyon, France on 21 July 1998. He was hoping that Simple Minds would reunite, but nothing materialised. Paramount asked Simple Minds if they would do a documentary, but Derek, Brian McGee, and Mick MacNeil weren’t interested.
From there, he moved onto radio and hosted a show with a clever title, May The Forbes Be With You. The main part of the book ends here, but wait there’s more!
The book concludes with an interesting outtakes section with some short stories of life on the road and funny stories about the crew. He talks about what the band would listen to while on the tour bus, what guitars he’d use, what other bands he was in that he doesn’t talk about in the book (like Big Country and The Alarm), and some words about Derek from colleagues and bandmates.
Overall, I think he’s a great storyteller, and there’s lots of amusing stories throughout the book, and quite a few injuries. It’s a well organised book that goes through their story chronologically besides the first chapter. There’s lots of details about life on the road and the various gigs over the years and the process of recording all those albums. I don’t know how I’d remember all that if I were in that position so it’s really cool to read it. I liked reading about the inspirations behind the songs.
Another favourite story of mine is how they recorded backing vocals with David Bowie for Iggy Pop’s song “Play It Safe” off his album Soldier when they were recording at Rockfield at the same time when Simple Minds were recording Real to Real Cacophony (often incorrectly called Reel to Real Cacophony).
There’s another story I liked with a lesson about how you can’t judge people based on appearance. When Simple Minds played the Whisky A Go Go in LA and they found the dressing room was not up to standard because there were no snacks or refreshments and they were to play two shows that day, they called the venue owner, Mario Maglieri – called The Godfather of the Los Angeles music scene. He showed up in his fancy, perfectly tailored suit made of the finest materials and despite the mob boss look, he was super accommodating and gave the band more than enough food to keep them going between sets.
As always, I love how small the world of classic rock is and there’s a lot of name dropping, crossed paths, and legends supporting legends here. You definitely get a feel for how hectic the life of a rock star is in this book, but you also see how rewarding it is. A great read for Simple Minds fans.
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