- With the album remasters completed, Virgin turned their attention to the repackaging of the band's
early years.
- The Best Of album had sold poorly, and given the interest in early
Simple Minds (particularly the remixing
of pre-Sparkle In The Rain material by contemporary artists),
Virgin decided that a definitive
new compilation was needed.
- The first attempt of an early compilation was
Celebration in 1982, although it was simply Arista clawing
back some money from Simple Minds whilst they still owned the back catalogue. Reissued by Virgin in the
1980s, it remained a handy introduction to the band, but was omitted from the remasters series. Therefore the stage was set for something
new.
- The tracks were hand-picked by the band.
- Jim also wrote the sleeve notes, although it's hardly more than a paragraph.
- Unlike Glittering Prize 81/92 or
The Best Of, this compilation featured album
versions (with the exception of
The American).
- The artwork included shots from an unused Sons And Fascination
photo session. Unfortunately the rest of the pictures were well known, and not representative of the period - two
shots of a
Sparkle In The Rain era Simple Minds and the picture of
Charlie on the back was from the
Good News From The Next World tour.
- The front cover picture was taken by Thomas K. Schumann at the Schwabinger Bräu, Munich on
the 31st August 1980.
- The release date coincided both with the start of the 2003 tour, and the second, aborted release of
Our Secrets Are The Same.
- In the end it sold more copies than The Best Of.
- Some copies of the standard CD were sent out as promos. These have promo stickers on the back:
- It was released by Caroline Records in the USA during October 2006. Two collectable,
and rare, US promos were distributed, one of which had a unique picture sleeve
with red text.
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