- Hard on the heels of the Rejuvenation LP box-set came the CD/DVD set, released three
months later. This included seven CDs and one DVD in a large 12"x12" book.
- The track listing was compiled by Charlie, working from my master list of all the audio
and video released during the period.
- It included Neon Lights,
Cry,
Black And White 050505,
Graffiti Soul,
Searching For The Lost Boys and
Big Music along with select bonus tracks and remixes from each era.
- "Originally released in October 2001, Neon Lights is a collection of cover
versions put together as a warm up for what would be the next album Cry.
Jim said at the time: 'Neon Lights is
the first time Simple Minds have put together a collection of
non-original material. We thought it was appropriate at a period of looking back that we go to the very foundations of Simple Minds,
which of course is the music and the bands who influenced us."
- The bonus material for Neon Lights included the two non-album B-sides
(Being Boiled and Love Will Tear Us Apart),
the White Spaces Main Mix of The Man Who Sold The World (which turned up
on Live And Rare) and the
Vince Clarke Remix of Homosapien (which was released during the
Cry period.)
- Cry was released by Simple Minds in April 2002 and was
recorded in Sicily and Glasgow.
Talking at the time, Jim said, 'I like the idea of very focused melodies,
tight arrangements, commercial stuff. I said to Charlie 'This is the only kind of
music I want to make just now. Let's try and go on the edge and do some real pop stuff.'"
- The bonus material for Cry included all the associated B-sides released during the
period (Lead The Blind,
For What It's Worth,
The Garden and
New Sunrise). Additionally Where Is The Max?, an
was an instrumental version of One Step Closer, was also included
(this was released by Planet Funk on their debut album and it's the first time it appeared on a Simple Minds release).
- "Work started on this follow-up to Cry in 2002 and was heavily influenced by
the band's live work from that period.
'Having delivered Black And White 050505, an album that we believe is
classic Simple Minds , albeit with a whole new energy. We can honestly say that we are delighted with the results and
look forward with a totally revitalised outlook to this next phase of our on going creativity.'"
- Again, the bonus material included the B-sides (Bird On A Wire and
Mighty Joe Moon); and Too Much Television
which originally appeared as a free Internet download.
- "Graffiti Soul was released in May 2009 and continued
Simple Minds return to the top, charting at #10.
'We would create ideas and work on those ideas for hours. That's the way we worked upon Graffiti Soul's
tracks; we worked upon ideas and just let them evolve over long periods of time.'"
- Both Graffiti Soul and the bonus
Searching For The Lost Boys appeared in the box-set as separate discs.
Searching For The Lost Boys included
Children Of The Revolution which was only originally available as a download
from Amazon Germany.
- "The final album in the box is the highly acclaimed Big Music, released
by Simple Minds in October 2014 and reaching #12 in the UK Charts."
- The track listing for the standard Big Music album was changed with the two
versions of Blindfolded bookending the track listing. The original bonus disc was expanded
with another version of (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) (this time recorded with
The Stranglers) and
four Johnson Somerset remixes of the singles (which had only been available as a downloads or
an extremely expensive promo CD).
- Jim wrote the introduction whilst on
tour in America. This is why he signed off in New York City.
- The booket also included short essays from Jim about each album, which were written in January 2019.
- The box-set's artwork was based on the logo for Big Music and elements of
an unreleased design for a proposed single.
- The DVD gathered together all the video material from the period. This included the promo videos, EPKs and specials produced for
the official site.
- The video for Dancing Barefoot finally got an official release after being omitted
from the Seen The Lights DVD compilation of 2003. Many other videos, such as
Rockets, recevied a commercial release for the first time.
- The full-length video for Stars Will Lead The Way was also found. Previously, only
a brief segment of the video had been made available.
- The Neon Lights EPK wasn't released for the promotion
Neon Lights in 2001. It remained in the band's archives until being unearthed for this
compilation.
- No EPK was found for Cry.
- Both Black And White EPKs were included. The first shorter
video (called the EPK) featured an editied version of the interview with video inserts, whilst the second video
(called the Interview) was the full interview with simple title cards. The second video was obviously intended as a Generic Interview
whilst the first video was a self contained feature.
- The other EPKs had been released before on other releases.
- The individual CDs were sold separately in April 2019 as deluxe editions.
They featured the same tracks, but included longer sleeve notes by Jim
and were housed in tri-fold digipaks with expanded packaging, pictures and graphics.
- Two sets of promos were distributed.
A eight set CD/DVD collection gathered together everything on plain sleeved
discs; whilst a separate seven CD collection was printed with the colourful box artwork. The former set is the
rarer.
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