VIA PRESS RELEASE | Today, UMe announces details of a forthcoming 40th anniversary cut-down format of the 2016 original Super Deluxe celebration of Simple Minds’ multi-platinum album Once Upon A Time, out on October 17th.
Originally released in October 1985, Once Upon A Time became Simple Minds’ most successful album to date, shifting two million copies in two months, hitting the top spot in the UK, and making the top ten in America. It spawned four top-twenty singles and launched a fifteen-month-long world tour. And with Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain providing a production dream team, and Anton Corbijn contributing to its instantly recognizable artwork, Once Upon A Time has all the attributes of a classic 1980s LP.
Coming hot on the heels of the global smash single “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” (which recently joined the Billions Club on Spotify), Once Upon a Time was to prove the album that propelled Simple Minds to stratospheric heights of artistic and commercial success. The album contains the classic hit singles “Alive and Kicking,” “All the Things She Said,” “Sanctify Yourself,” and “Ghost Dancing.”
In support of the album, Simple Minds undertook their longest and biggest tour yet, beginning in the USA in October 1985 and visiting mainland Europe, the UK, the USA again, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. This included a series of massive outdoor summer concerts at Ibrox, Milton Keynes Bowl, and Torhout-Werchter. Their first three top-10 singles from the album were signposts detailing the progression of the tour, and the fourth, “Ghost Dancing,” was released as the tour wound up, all profits being donated to Amnesty International.
As Simple Minds took a well-earned rest after years of relentless writing, recording, and touring, Virgin Records released the lavishly packaged Live In The City Of Light (included in the box set, over two discs), a massive live souvenir of Once Upon A Time recorded over several nights at Le Zenith in Paris. This earned them their third successive UK number one.
This incredible 5CD box set consists of the original album, bonus discs with a wealth of supplementary tracks, including the original and extended versions of “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” single edits, 12” mixes, B-sides, rare tracks, and the 2-disc Live in The City of Light concert, as well a 36-page booklet with rare photos, interviews with Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill and a track-by-track guide.
