It was formally recorded for their first demo tape. This was touted around a couple of punk-affiliated record labels and Chiswick took up the option, selecting this track as the A-side of their debut single, released in late 1977.

Despite the low key nature of its release Saints And Sinners appeared on a Scandinavian compilation album Catch A Wave (NICE 1, double 10" album in gatefold sleeve, also released in 1977.)

The following year, Simple Minds pushed it into service during the band's 1978 tour. It was already seen as a nostalgic throw-back to the previous years' punk and was now an all-important filler as they steadily grew their own repertoire. It was dropped as the set gradually filled with new songs.

It actually recevied Radio 1 airplay in 1989, when a documentary about the band opened with the entire track.

After the success of Simple Minds interest in their first released material grew. The song made it to CD as part of the The Indie Scene compilation (Connoisseur Collection IBM CD77, released 1990) and became one of the few Simple Minds studio songs to be bootlegged. (First Rare Recordings, Pre Simple Minds and Johnny And The Self Abusers).

It was briefly considered as the opening song on the career spanning Celebrate: Greatest Hits + - progressing far enough to end up on press releases - but was dropped. Jim saw it as part of the history of Johnny And The Self Abusers and not of Simple Minds.

The lyrics have never been published.

Single Version (1:50) Producer: Johnny And The Self Abusers