Simple Minds - Chelsea Girl

[brettsambrook]

Brilliant track.

[tinymacmurph]

I love this so much, thanks for posting, my fave Simple Minds track. First heard this on the Anne Nightingale show, oh happy days.

[71yid]

Got this album years ago on cassette which I think still plays. They used to be known as Johnny and the self abusers. This obviously fuses Roxy music and Sex pistols which were big influences on Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill at the time. Life in a day is definately worth seeking out before the band went into the mainstream with stadium rock!

[norrisonthespot]

I have always assumed that this was written with Patsy Kensit in mind (?)

But I could be wrong.

[genglemt]

sounds a bit like The Sparks...

[keith904A]

@genglemt Vaguely. but the band who really sound like Sparks are The Associates.

[fitzpatrickgf]

Did Jim Kerr and Elvis Costello date the same girl in Chelsea? Jim must have won her over because Costello Doesn't Want To Go To Chelsea.

[davedenisetigg]

Look at the size of those tom toms!!

Great bass player!!

I saw Simple Minds with Skids & Magazine yonks ago at Manchester apollo for £3.50 !!

[futuristlimited]

i am tripping on how Jim looks here. Wow. loved these guys from the beginning...still do!

[Luvna45]

Loved this song!!!! Indeed the whole album (which I still have somewhere) was and is Awesome and still stands the test of time- sign of a great song....thanks for posting!~

[BonoMeArse]

One of their best songs imo...saw them sooo many times in Dublin..saw them in the Phoenix park luckly they were on before U2..so we didnt have to stay and watch bono and co.......LOL....!!!!

[steviethai]

nice stuff, thought they went downhill after new gold dream , seen them at tiffanys in glasgow 81/82 brilliant

[tianuria]

First heard this when the much missed John Peel played it on his show. Fantastic song, thank you for posting, brings back so many memories!

[pathogensmusick]

Simple Minds just got better & better. The best band of the 80's with-out question.

Sons & Fascination / Sister Feelings Call was & is an album from another time.

[ConfusingClarity]

Brilliant tune! I was much too young to enjoy this song when it came out, and didn't really get into Simple Minds until "Once Upon a Time" and "Street Fighting Years" era. But then, I went back in their catalog and discovered this. Nowadays, I prefer their earlier stuff up to and including "Sparkle in the Rain", as it is far more vibrant, passionate and energetic than their later releases.

[y16amp]

Hmm...Simple Minds - Chelsea Girl and Ride - Chelsea Girl, which is best?

[ConfusingClarity]

@y16amp

Tough one :-) Maybe we add Loz Colbert's drumming to this song, lol.

[agoose72]

I heard this years ago. Thanks to you tube for the memories. Could be a title for remastering by dexbam though...

[smurfkuken]

Love it. !I still have the original 7" single somewhere up in the attic, actually. Me and my childhood/ teenage friend used to sing to this before we went out when we were about 16-17 years old. .

[ellielilac2]

Ive got this on 12inch thought it was great still do

[ohfergawdsake]

Top tackle this...... this & 'life in a day' are still thier best ....S.B.

[ohfergawdsake]

Top tackle this...... thi & 'life in a day' are still thier best ....S.B.

[abagail4me]

Totally classic track from the post punk era Too bad they sold out with the "Breakfast Club" shit and when Kerr started hanging out with Bono.But alas all great things aren't meant to last.

[theredraven]

@abagail4me Ummmmmmm you do know that they're still pretty damn good post 1985 right? All that stuff about them going rubbish is just that. Rubbish.

[TheSteviefalkirk]

One of the first Simple Minds songs i ever heard..

[yakacm]

their first 2 singles were cracking, I am sure I saw them supporting Magazine at Liverpool Empire, when I was like 12 or something stoopid, my big bro came and picked me up, I'm sure I went on my tod also, me mam must have been mad.

[latchyko]

@yakacm aye they did support magazine i saw them at leicester de montford hall about 78~79

great gig

[jsara70]

I´m stilling a BIG FAN from THE BEST BAND IN THE WORLD. 

[bobman64]

Sometimes I am glad to be mid forties, it means I grew up listening to this stuff!! Scunthorpe Baths Hall, upstairs at the 'Enry, Simps, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Dead Kennedys, Talking Heads, oh yeah, its good to be an old git!!!!!!!!!!!

[lusshuss]

@bobman64 , me too, where did all the good bands go??

[Angelosfan]

When this came out it blew my mind. I wore out the tape and had to buy it again! Love the simple minds back in the day.

[signpo890]

I remember hearing a clip of this on the radio one news beat..went out and bought it complete with picture sleeve. The rest is history. Thanks for posting cheers.

[abagail4me]

ANTHEM! And yes of course the sound quality is poor- the year was 1979 and a young teenage band release one of their first records whilst trying to evolve an original sound of their own.Forbes was the best bass player they ever had.Thanks.

[alcoholofamer]

classic!

[WillCrazie]

love the "shoes" derek :)

[Kenckaplus]

Very good song, but the quality is poor.

[milbury55]

Glasgow was a gloriously magickal place to be during this time, great band, great song!

[alive555]

anyone here from hoochie choochie ? if so send me and em !

[cobwebcol]

oh to be young again lol

[carl66688]

remember studying for my o levels listening to this.a gift from my sister

[baldy1]

fantastic track,hail,hail----dicky bhoy--me punk days

[jinajik]

Amazing song. Great song. Jim's hair - Blackadder ? Lol BTW their best song from this era - or perhaps their best song ever, is Kaleidoscope, the closing track of this album. Epic!

[neverbeen2]

nothing like the later stuff .reminds me a bit of reckless eric :)

[jamierourketen]

WEE THIN JIM!

[magentaskies41]

love this song, adore this band. Thanks for posting !

[leebedy71]

This song never grows old! If released today it would still be fresh as it was when released in 1979????

[Nige1065]

God i am 43 and this takes me back to the 80s brill song before babies and real life shit roll on the 80s

[msshortbread1]

thanks for this.i have the original single but never seen the video.oh i feel old!

[spurs1nil]

omg--i loved this song when simple minds played o2 dublin,

lol jim said charlie was in short trousers when they last sang it-and he wasnt lying.

great song live guys

ur the greatest.-please come back to the emerald isle soon......

[zedcrowther]

@spurs1nil That was One Of the great simple minds gigs of all time



[MrBigbertie]

@spurs1nil thats where youre wrong they played in glasgow last year. i know cos i was there

[chasman19651888]

ha ha ,great song ,im 45 first time ive seen that video

[MISSPWAUGH]

fuck cacophony THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

[issyauld]

saw them last week and they did this song in the encore majic my favourate

[rhiannonQ3]

hey just went to their concert yesterday

11/12/09

absolutley fab

[emile235]

apparently Jim admits they ripped the riff of from a Lou Reed song. Check out CB's Brian May Thin Lizzy esque solo awesome

[luvlife77]

Life In A Day is my favourite minds album, shame such a great collection of songs are now ignored :/

Any way i was brought up listening to them finally got to see them for the 30 year aniversary and seeing them again in December.

[moonshiny74]

I agree with you. That album is absolute perfection. When I was little, and my brothers and I decided to stop playing "Love Song" 24/7 (that's still my favourite Minds song lol), we fell in love with Life in a Day...and started playing that 24/7, years after its release.

[ConallM1]

I was lucky enough to be brought up in Glasgow in that era and seen the minds five or six times then. Best Club band I ever seen

[charliechutney]

Jim looks just like Paul Muni from Scarface (1932) here. Uncanny.

[moonshiny74]

I sort of see it. But I was thinking he looks exactly like Gary Numan here.

[thestarsign]

Oh jesus how young and sweet is Jim here. What a honey. And that unique voice, god I loved him back in the day.

I will ALWAYS love their music!

[keith904A]

People forget just how good they were before they went stadium rock. Anything after about 1984 is just excruciating and unlistenable. There is an album called "Early Gold" which I would recommend to anyone who likes tracks like this.

[markblyn]

Lot's of bands I saw in 80-81 who became popular and really bad included 'OMD' - fabulous in 80-82, turned to shit, Gary Numan (post Pleasure Principle), Cabaret Voltaire (post-Crackdown), Ultravox (post Vienna), David Bowie (post Let’s Dance). Still, nothing stays the same does it, but you really feel cheesed off when you see bands go for the money instead of the music and ‘Simple Minds’ definitely did that in my opinion. Hey, I’d probably do the same, who am I kidding!

[markblyn]

They veered away from the Electronica sound that put them at the forefront of electronic stuff along with the Human League. Other 'oh dear' moments The Clash - Combat Rock = Clash turning to shit and becoming horribly americanized. Thank god they soon disbanded after that mess

[markblyn]

Respond to this video... @keith904A

Couldn't agree with you more Keith. I too got 'Early Gold' a great little compilation of their essential early tracks. The 1st time I heard 'Promised you a miracle' I was like "oh dear, I don't like this much" and sure enough they hit it big and turned to crap.

[TheNouveauxdecadence]

@keith904A

Absolutely, after 1984 SImple Minds were so absolutely vile. Everything before 1984 is just IMMMMMACULATE 10000%

[toptonychick]

I've posted the earliest live recording of this song. It has some different lyrics etc.

[leebedy71]

did you hear SM play CG on the 30th Anni tour? Excellent revamped version with Mel on additional vocals. Highlight for me

[mozzomoreno]

fantastic fool video!!

[gleamingspire]

One of the best Simple MInds songs ever before they became stadium rockers!

[tonskiwood]

growing up in Glasgow, you could not be aware of the Minds. My time was in 1985 with the release of 'Once upon a time'. Great album, but do you know, their earlier stuff blows the commercial stuff right out of the water! I absolutely love their early stuff. Sublime.....

[1stlouis]

this was when they were just a class act,i gave up in the middle of the 90s when it was just political crap,.ie south africa .........but hey this is just brilliant

[filmworksusa]

This is the song that got Arista's attention - but by the time they'd recorded it they were already heavily influenced by Howard Devoto and Magazine. Life in a Day was a album of songs they'd already moved on from. Murder Story is still my favorite from those days.

[abagail4me]

Man I can understand that you recognize the Magazine and Roxy influences that prevailed throughout this album...they'd never sound the same again though.Their next album "Reel to Reel" was the best tho IMHO.

[yohppoy]

in this period the band seems to want to emulate roxy music. the guitars, the sax, the piano and the vocals, everything. Life in a Day is not a bad album, but the true first album by simple minds is Real to Real Cacophony.

[dancejig]

Saw em at Rock City in 81 best song of the night.

[hairycub69]

Simple Minds' second single released in July 1979. It did not make the UK charts

)o: - I guess we were too much into Tubeway Army, The Police, Boomtown Rats and Chic at the time...but over the years - The Killers, Franz Ferdinard etc got the sound (o:

[Prongs0123]

does anyone know how to play this keyboard-part?

'cause it doesn't look that hard to do..

love this song by the way :)

(jim's face is a bit..well..you know)

[1927club]

Michael NcNeil knows how to play it

[OSCALETRAINGUY]

Great stuff...thanks for postng this early

film....A+

[r34morris]

to many people forget this geat music.

[johnnyblunder]

Love the haircut Jim.

[pomomatthew]

It's uncanny how they sounded like Sparks and then became so very different only like a year or two later.

[r34morris]

great tune. they played on saturday night in belfast. the best live show ive seen

[luvlife77]

Amazing how great his voice still sounds

underated icon of my life

i love this bands music and feel

down to earth and spell binding

[WalshNo5]

Amazing early track by them.. also if you listen carefully during the first episode of Auf Weidersehen Pet, when Oz, Neville and Dennis come off the ferry into Belgium, Oz fiddles around with the car radio and this can be heard !! Fantastic !!

[duranasty]

rage seemed to play better tunes than mtv more in touch with great music no matter who.thats how it should be.

[chiantichrist]

Please excuse national pride but A B C's (aust) Rage is the greatest music program on this earth. just music for six hours straight Friday an Saturday night for over twenty years.

[leebedy71]

Bring back for 30th An tour

[Dillboy]

Maaan I almost shed a tear watching that.Chelsea Girl was the first SM song I ever heard,and this is first time I ever saw this video. REEEMARCABLE!

Love Simple Minds

[8gordini]

Brilliant song. They made in their early days fine music. Unfortunately they could not keep acting on this level.

[jamierourketen]

my band supported him in the marsbar in glasgow!

[Dillboy]

Mars Bar there's a jolt down memoir lane, Derek used to drink at the Doune Castle,my Local.

[professorweegie]

hey! my band supported them in the mars bar to!way back in 77! we were called the go go frogs,and this lot were still called "johnny and the self abusers"! aaaaah,sweet memories.........

[DieSchwartzmann]

Ridiculous. And yet, you see new videos exactly like this.

[jamierourketen]

wee skinny jim! not so skinny now!

[my2magoos]

Wow, crazy to think! Jim's barely 20 in this video and he's almost 50 now. It would be shocking if he were still this thin.

[beaumont1920]

Love the bit where you just see their headshots trying to look all hard and cool! Looks like they've just looked into the future and seen their videos to Belfast Child and Mandela Day. Yeah, I'd be pretty mad too. WHAT HAPPENED!

[Hafferson]

Yes ..the old wedge heels, inspired by the New York Dolls. In fact, I had actually calmed down on the dressing up by this stage, so out went the full Leopard skin suit and my Grannies Lurex top.

[Renatomuvucao]

Que vídeo antigo do Simple Minds... início da carreira da banda!!!!

[Katrinawitch]

Cool song; I'd never heard this one before. I like their early sound. It's funny to see Jim just standing there singing, when only a couple of years later he'd have such amazing stage presence! Plus, bad bowl cut.

[WalshNo5]

My fave frontman ever... he acted like that IMO because music was his drug and his enthusiasm so shone through !!

[therealsoulproduct]

Awesome tune. I liked SM's early New Wave/Post-Punk stuff anyways.

[bobmorrice]

was all shite after this

[senorcodered]

Yaaaay - this takes me back to my childhood, back when Simple Minds wrote decent tunes...

[bsjevivian]

Chelsea Girl whats its all about? Great clip Bad Hair....

[WillCrazie]

But great strappy high heels on Derek :)

[halfgaf]

Wow, I can't believe there are 300 other people in the world who remember this. I hope they were all rabid Simple Minds fans like I was. Fun!

[djscotty1111]

@halfgaf ;)))

[ginocasio]

Wow what a nice wee surprise.