- Arista never issued a single to promote the forthcoming Empires And Dance. Instead
they elected to hold on, and released I Travel to promote the UK leg of the
Empires And Dance tour instead.
It was issued on October 16th, the same day as their planned concert in Bradford.
- Preparation work began at the start of September with John Leckie
booking a studio at Abbey Road to create the edits and extended version of the title track.
- The single's master tape was assembled at Utopia Studios on the 9th September. Alongside the newly created
edit of I Travel was added
New Warm Skin, the bonus track recorded during the album sessions.
- Arista packaged the first 7,500 copies as a limited edition. A flexi-disc
featuring two unreleased tracks was shrink-wrapped with the standard single. This single-sided flexi featured
Kaleidoscope, the bonus song recorded during the
Real To Real Cacophony
sessions; and Film Theme Dub, a radical double-speed version of
Film Theme which had been created by
Leckie for a Simple Minds remix album.
- Some biographers suggested the 12" was pressed in France by Ariola as Arista weren't enthusiastic.
Other sources, such as Bruce Findlay, claimed that it was cheaper to press the
12" in France. This is given further credence as Leckie
was commissioned to produce a 12" mix, and had done so at the start of September, so Arista were considering
a 12" release from the start.
- It was intented for the 12" to feature Leckie's 12" mix on the A-side with
the two previously unreleased songs, Kaleidoscope and
Film Theme Dub on the flip. However, the master tape for the flexi-disc
disappeared (and is now considered lost) and the compilers of the 12" had to hand-pick the 'missing' songs. In doing
so, they made a mistake, and selected Film Theme instead. This has caused
confusion with various reissues ever since.
- Copies of the 12" were imported back into the UK and sold as standard UK pressings. A special
sticker "RE-ORDER UNDER ARIST 12372", was stuck over the Ariola catalogue number on the rear of the sleeve -
ensuring repeat orders would receive the import at domestic prices.
- The single's sleeve was based on the 'Air Force officer' photograph by Michael Ruetz which appeared on the
front of Empires And Dance. The back was an eerie superimposed picture of
Jim, taken by Richard Coward through a TV screen, which was also
used for the lyric sheet included with the album.
- Despite the limited edition gimick, and the appearance of Simple Minds' first 12", the single sold poorly
and failed to chart.
- However, the single did surprisingly well in America. In February 1981, to the pleasure of
Virgin Records (who'd signed the band that month),
I Travel entered the Billboard Disco Chart at 80, purely on import sales alone.
- Of all the exclusive tracks on the 7" and flexi-disc, Kaleidoscope initially
fared the best, being promoted to album status for the Arista compilation Celebration
in 1982. But it took over thirty years before the others appeared on any other releases.
- The single edit of I Travel remained exclusive to the single until it
appeared on Celebrate: The Greatest Hits + in 2013. And the other
two songs were included in the X5 Box Set of 2012.
- (The curse of the missing production master for the flexi-disc did strike again and
Film Theme was mistakenly included twice on
the X5 Box Set promos. This was corrected for the final release).
- The extended version of I Travel enjoyed a long and varied reissue history
being released twice again on single in the 1980s, before appearing on the Theme Volumes in
1990.
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