Good Luck. First time those songs will have been played live. Let me know how it went and are they especially good to play live etc?! Jim Kerr (Simple Minds)

On 18th April 2009, Sample Minds made history with the first live performance of songs from Simple Minds highly anticipated new album Graffiti Soul – due for release 25/05/2009.

While it was deemed inappropriate to play the songs to an audience before Simple Minds, the band did have a run through at the soundcheck of both ‘Rockets’ and ‘Stars Will Lead the Way’.

Due to the geographical location of the band members, this was the first time anyone had played the songs together.

The band were particularly unsure about how ‘Rockets’ would transcribe as the recorded version has multiple guitar parts. Martin and Simon worked out their arrangements on the fly to create the wall of sound.

From the first note it was clear that ‘Rockets’ will be a live classic and lots of fun to play.

‘Stars Will Lead the Way’ is a song of multiple possibilities. Steve and Simon performed a nice duet version.

The new Graffiti Soul album is destined to become a classic with all songs working really well as live arrangements.

The next gig at Butlins 30-05-09 may well see a song or two in the set! (Hopefully Steve will have figured out the lyrics by then!)