 |
blindfolded
composers
Written by: Kerr / Burchill
publisher
℗ JKMC–Bucks Music Group Ltd / Hornall Brothers Music Ltd (2014 - 2017)
℗ BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd (2018 - )
background
Blindfolded was first mentioned as a demo composed by
Charlie in March 2011. It became the musical and lyrical signpost for the
Big Music album.
The band met up with Steve Hillage after the
5X5 Roundhouse gig. He mentioned that he had a studio just around the corner and
that it would be nice to work together again. They took him up on his offer and recorded several demos, including
an early version of Blindfolded, at his London studio. (This version eventually turend up on the
Deluxe version of the album.)
"Last day of rehearsals - new songs? Sarah,
Charlie,
Andy,
Mel and
Ged getting ready for the
gig on Friday in Montereau, France. Not only classics in the set
list - two brand new songs, Imagination and
Blindfolded, set for live debut. Simple Minds - looking
back - but always moving forward." - Jim, 4th June 2014
"We were all happy with the first gig of the tour last night in Montereau. (Well organised festival,
congrats.) Weather was amazingly good, audience helped us immensely - thank you. New songs felt
good also - Imagination can and will get much better.
Blindfolded had an almost perfect debut. Went
overnight direct to Netherlands in Holland. Met some fans who had travelled some distance
to see us here. Thank you - all of you! We will do our best tonight. Now we have started, we just
want to play." - Jim, 8th June 2014
The Steve Osborne mix was the first track on
Big Music and selected as the album's teaser track. An earlier
arrangement by Steve Hillage was included on the deluxe edition of the
album. (It was first called the "Original Mix" on the album artwork but its title was changed to "Reprise" on the final
proofs.)
It was the first "teaser" release from Big Music, gaining overall positive
reviews on Steve Lamaqc's Roundtable on the 4th September 2014. The full track and
its video were uploaded to YouTube the same day.
|
JK: "I think the first track many people will hear from the new album, in fact some
people have already heard the track called Blindfolded
because we've been playing that live, although there
might be more – many more commercial tracks – I think Blindfolded is the
track with the most magic, the most artistry, I think it's the most unique track."
CB: "I totally love the chorus riff – the chorus guitar riff. To me it's quite punky
and there's a bit of an edge to it. It's very contemporary even though it's very retro in a way. I like that.
And I just love the atmosphere of that track."
JK: "And in a sense it's a track that got things going because we decided three years
ago to get in touch with Steve Hillage who produced our earlier
albums and we hadn't seen Steve for decades
so we thought 'let's just get the ball rolling.' We weren't quite sure at that stage whether we were recording
or not but we thought 'let's go in with Steve.'"
JK: "What was amazing was when we worked with Steve
all those years ago – at the time
the whole of the UK seemed to be on fire. It was the time of Margaret Thatcher and there were riots in Toxteth
and Birmingham and London itself where we were working at the time on Sons And Fascination
was the scene of riots
and all of this stuff. And here we were, about three days into recording, decades later, and you had the riots in
Tottenham – just actually half a mile down the road from where we were in Notting Hill Gate. A lot of that scene
had caught on as well. So we were going out in the middle of the night, and there were police cars everywhere,
people running to and fro, and of course, our heads were full of music. It's was just like the world hasn't changed.
It's like all those years after we made Sons And Fascination
we were walking into the same scenes. Not only did
it seem that the world had not changed, catching up with Steve
after all these years, it didn't seem anything had
changed either. He certainly hadn't lost any of his enthusiasm and Charlie
and I's desire to continue being creative
was wholly still intact and, if you listen to Blindfolded then I
would hope that that comes through."
Band Interviews
Big Music Deluxe DVD
|
MH: Fantastic. And talking about throwing paint at the wall and getting to put the record together – we're
talking about writing the record at the moment, we'll get to the music really quickly – how did you pick the first track,
and of course the first track is Blindfolded. Can you explain why you picked
that one and tell me a bit about it? And then we'll play it.
JK: First of all when you do a record – let's focus here, it's a record of songs. And you need not
only what you think are great songs – good songs and great songs – but you need them in a shape or form, an atmosphere,
a presentation that you think "This is where we should be right now." And that can be very, very speculative. But when
we got to Blindfolded – and Charlie Burchill
my song writing partner chiefly – he came up with the sound of it. We all sort of felt "OK, this is point 'A'. This is where
we should be. This is the territory we should be in. If it was a movie then this is the opening scene – this tells you
what this movie is going to be about, it gives you a flavour of what's to come. We just felt that
Blindfolded, when that arrived, we thought "Right. This is where
Simple Minds should be right now. "And if you were to ask me "Where was it we felt
Simple Minds should be" then in an ideal world we felt Simple Minds should be classic
Simple Minds, it should resonate with the great trademarks of the past, the early Simple Minds,
but that's not enough in itself, it had to be more than that, it had to be contemporary, it had to be fresh. I mean some
could say those things are a contradiction in terms – you're asking for it to be contemporary but you're asking for it
to go back to the past – well, it is a kind of contradiction in terms but we like to think that the success of
Big Music is encapsulated in
Blindfolded, in particular, because it does both of those things.
MH: Fantastic. So this is Martin Hanlin, KX 93.5,
The Real McCoy Radio Show, with special guest Jim Kerr from
Simple Minds. And I'm going to play the track Blindfolded.
Martin Hanlin
The Real McCoy
KX 93.5
|
MH: So, last question then. Thank you very much for your time
Jim, always a pleasure, amazing insight, great record so why
Blindfolded (Reprise) to end it? What's the difference between
Blindfolded, what's the reason for this being the last track on the
Deluxe version of the Big Music.
JK: It just kind of bookends. There is something different about it. To say it's stripped
down and it's a bit more of a David Lynch version of it, it's a bit more leftfield, it's a bit more guy and a
guitar, the vocalist coming at you with these mysterious words. You open with one with this sentiment and you
end with this sentiment.
MH: So opening with Blindfolded and this interview
closing with Blindfolded.
JK: And that chorus: the sense of looking down. The sense of looking down so we all feel
better, the sense of looking down so we must know. The sense of getting to never read this letter, it
became Blindfolded long ago. It's cool.
Martin Hanlin
The Real McCoy
KX 93.5
|
The song was remixed Johnson Somerset who'd previously remixed War Babies
and Space. (It was the first of four Big Music
songs he'd remix). This remix first appeared on Johnson's YouTube channel
in June 2015.
Somerset's remix later appeared on the official site on the 14th April 2016 where it was
set to a remixed version of the video.
lyrics
|
Somewhere out there, darkened cellar, there a game called Mystery.
There is a man, he stands blindfolded, that's his world, you'll never see.
Somewhere out there... you'll never see.
Somewhere out there, a girl called Sugar, dreams of bringing her fortune in.
But every night she stands blindfolded, that's the way it's always been.
Somewhere out there... you'll never see.
It's somewhere out there... you'll never see.
The saints are singing now so we'll feel better.
The saints are looking down so we must know.
The saints won't ever get to read this letter,
Because the saints became blindfolded long ago.
Somewhere out there, in the desert, there's a game called Liberty.
There is a kid, who stands blindfolded, that his world, you'll never see.
Somewhere out there, a darkened cellar, there's game called Mystery.
There's a man who stands blindfolded, that's his world, you'll never see.
Somewhere out there... you'll never see.
The saints are singing now so we'll feel better.
The saints are looking down so we must know.
The saints won't ever get to read this letter,
Because the saints became blindfolded long ago.
The saints are singing now so we'll feel better.
The saints are looking down so we must know.
The saints won't ever get to read this letter,
Because the saints became blindfolded long ago.
It's somewhere out there, you'll never see.
It's somewhere out there, you'll never see.
Somewhere out there, you'll never see.
Somewhere out there, somewhere out there, you'll never see.
|
discography
Live Version (9th June 2014) (6:12)
Recorded: KulturPur Festival, Hilchenbach, Germany
Mixed By Bleecker Street
|
|
Live Version (11th July 2014) (6:15)
Recorded: Kunst!Rasen, Bonn, Germany
Mixed By Bleecker Street
|
|
Live Version (24th July 2014) (6:13)
Recorded: Teatro Antico, Taormina, Sicily
Mixed By Bleecker Street
|
|
Live Version (26th July 2014) (6:15)
Recorded: Banchina San Domenico, Molfetta, Italy
Mixed By Bleecker Street
|
|
Album Version (5:22)
Produced by Steve Osborne and Simple Minds
Additional Production by Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg
Mixed by Gavin Goldberg
Assisted by Lewis Chapman
Programming by Steve Osborne
Additional Engineering by Tom Dalgety
Backing Vocals by Clinton Outten AKA Roachie and Sarah Brown
|
|
Reprise (4:23)
Produced by Andy Wright, Gavin Goldberg and Simple Minds
Mixed by Gavin Goldberg
Assisted by Lewis Chapman
Additional Programming by Steve Hillage
|
|
Live Version (February-May 2015) (5:11)
Recorded: Big Music Tour 2015
Recorded By: Olivier Gerard
Mixed By: Olivier Gerard at Jet Studios
|
|
Johnson Somerset Remix (10:11)
Produced by Steve Osborne and Simple Minds
Additional Production by Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg
Mixed by Gavin Goldberg
Assisted by Lewis Chapman
Programming by Steve Osborne
Additional Engineering by Tom Dalgety
Backing Vocals by Clinton Outten AKA Roachie and Sarah Brown
Remixed by Johnson Somerset
|
|
Live Version (24th October 2018) (5:15)
Recorded: Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA
Recorded by: Olivier Gerard
Produced by: Andy Wright
Mixed by: Gavin Goldberg
Assisted by: Lewis Chapman
|
|
downloads
videography
Album Version (5:22)
Produced by Steve Osborne and Simple Minds
Additional Production by Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg
Mixed by Gavin Goldberg
Assisted by Lewis Chapman
Programming by Steve Osborne
Additional Engineering by Tom Dalgety
Backing Vocals by Clinton Outten AKA Roachie and Sarah Brown
|
|
Live Version (7th April 2015) (5:19)
Recorded: Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK
|
|
Johnson Somerset Remix (10:11)
Produced by Steve Osborne and Simple Minds
Additional Production by Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg
Mixed by Gavin Goldberg
Assisted by Lewis Chapman
Programming by Steve Osborne
Additional Engineering by Tom Dalgety
Backing Vocals by Clinton Outten AKA Roachie and Sarah Brown
Remixed by Johnson Somerset
|
|
live history
|
