Capital City - Simple Minds - Empires and Dance

One of the great joys from the vinyl raid in Kingsbridge was rediscovering this gem by Simple Minds.

The bassline nags, the synths swirl and churn, this is Kraftwerk and NEU via Glasgow tenements. I had forgotten what an interesting arty band Simple Minds used to be before they became a hollow U2 chasing cartoon of themselves.

Loads More Vinyl From Kingsbridge in Devon

I have been buying vinyl at the same rate I always have. I can't walk past a charity shop, junk shop or market stall without stopping to browse through the records.
Visiting my in laws in Kingsbridge in South Devon has been great for vinyl shopping and I will attempt to get some brief reviews of stuff I bought on my last two trips on the blog by the end of next week.

The purchases have included some Simple Minds, some on Asylum Records that I bought as its Tom Wait's old label, some Frank Sinatra and some odd sounding latin stuff from the 1970's.

Nick Heyward - Kite

Nick Heyward – Kite (Epic 1993)

So here’s the first of my reviews of records that I found abandoned in charity shops, dime stores or car boot sales.


I wasn’t buying this blind or rather deaf. I owed this snapshot of perfect pop on cassette single when it first came out. Somewhere along the line it went missing and when I unearthed it in a pile of 7inch singles it brought a smile to my face.

The song is constructed around a gloriously infectious acoustic hook. This is a cooling summer breeze of hidden brass and dolorous strings. Nick Heyward always had the knack of penning watertight tunes and on this track he was on top form. Nick Heyward’s story is an interesting one. He split his band Haircut 100 at the peak of their popularity. This was the usual lead singer bigger than the band ego fit. No Nick wanted to escape the clean cut image and commercial straight jacket that success had unwittingly fostered. After some initial success with a more introspective sound Heyward disappeared into the musical hinterland. Kite was a surprise return to the charts as his most successful record in America. It stood out like a shining diamond amongst the grudge sludge in the US in 1993. This was cystal clear, sweet and charming the polar opposite of the dark heavy macho posturing of much of grunge scene. This was lemonade to their methadone, poptastic Beatles to their stained Black Sabbath.

After a single play on a Saturday afternoon I was still humming it on the following Wednesday evening. Now that what I call a memorable melody. Three minutes and five seconds of top notch pop.