The five demos were recorded in the familar surroundings of Ca Va Studios in Glasgow with engineer Brian Young at hand.

I've yet to see the tape box for ¼" reel recorded at Ca Va, but the track listing is given as: The American, Life In Oils, Careful In Career, Sweat In Bullet and Love Song. The cassette copy (illustrated) features the songs in a different order and reveals the original working titles: Sweat In Bullet was originally called Twenty One whilst Careful In Career started off life as Checkout.

The official story, especially when knowing the recording history of the album tape-by-tape, doesn't make sense. It states that the band recorded these demos, shopped around various record companies including Virgin and EMI, got a deal with Branson's label, went on brief mini-tour of the USA and Canada, and then recorded Sons And Fascination with Steve Hillage.

However the dates on the tape boxes tell a different story. The Ca Va demos were recorded on the 14th February 1981 and then formal recording with Steve Hillage started a week later at The Manor. An early version of The American and the final cut of League Of Nations were committed to tape before the band went on tour.

So, I believe Simple Minds had just signed to Virgin, and these demos were prep work for the forthcoming recording sessions with Steve Hillage later that month. They were not a set of showcase demos for touting around various record companies.

Unlike many of the band's demos, these recordings did leak out, and were heavily bootlegged in the 1980s. They were official released on the rarities compilation Silver Box in 2004.

Demo (4:03) Producer: Simple Minds Engineer: Brian Young Mastered by: Simon Heyworth