- After the success of Sons And Fascination
Arista (who still controlled the band's back catalogue) decided to issue a compilation album featuring a selection of tracks from the first three albums.
- Celebration included tracks from Life In A Day,
Real To Real Cacophony,
Empires And Dance and the rather illusive B-side
Kaleidoscope.
- (Whether Kaleidoscope was the one unreleased track eluded to by the
Trace Elements advertisement is unknown. Kaleidoscope had been issued as part of the first
I Travel release so it was hardly unreleased.)
- Some copies of Celebration had stickers cheekily proclaiming The Very Best Of Simple Minds.
- The photograph on the back of the sleeve was taken by Richard Coward at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens in 1980.
- I Travel was reissued to promote the album, and became highly collectible, as the B-side featured exclusive
live material.
- When Virgin acquired the back catalogue later that year, they quietly reissued the album themselves. The
Arista pressings remain rarer.
- The CD issue mistakenly featured Kant-Kino.
- Despite its genesis, Celebration served as a very handy introduction to the early years of
Simple Minds. It was not included as part of Virgin's reissue series, and it now looks like the
album's been deleted for good, being replaced by Virgin's early year compilation
Early Gold.
- Recently the discovery of old trade adverts and an obscure colour proof sleeve suggest the album was going to be
called Trace Elements in Europe.
- Virgin aquired the rights to the album when they purchased Simple Minds' back catalogue in
1982. Celebration was reissued on the label's full-price range as a
LP (Virgin V 2248) and a MC (Virgin TCV 2248). These
were reprints of the Arista originals, the only main difference being the substituting
the label design for Virgin's.
A further pressing was produced in April 1989 anticipating the success of Street Fighting Years
this time on Virgin's budget OVED range.
- The album wasn't included in Virgin's remasters of 2002, as
compilation albums weren't part of the range.
- It was eventually replaced in the early 2000s by Early Gold
which become the definitive compilation album of the band's early albums.
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