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videos | honest town

director
Giorgio Testi


producer
John Bannister


production company
Pulse Films


genre
Performance


source
Honest Town (4:44)


comments
An unfinished underground theatre in Islington, London was an unlikely location to unveil the new seven-piece line-up of Simple Minds, but its brutalist clean lines, minimally lit, provided an uncharacteristic curved backdrop for the band's latest video performance.

Gone were the sweeping camera zooms and tilts of the Graffiti Soul videos. Honest Town featured slow, gentle pans and sweeping profile shots of each of the band members. It was another dark video, but unlike Home, everyone was well illuminated against the dark concrete backgrounds, rather than being plunged into silhouette. It was also prime material for album artwork, and several photographs taken at the shoot were featured in the Big Music artwork.

All the band members got a moody portrait shot towards the song’s close. This ensured that everyone really noticed Catherine AD – if you hadn’t caught glimpses of her previously. She was part of Paul Statham's Dark Flowers project and Jim asked her to join the band for the Big Music tour.

But it left one unanswered question: Was Jim's alternating shirt and T-shirt a continuity error or sly nod to the audience?

A behind-the-scenes video was filmed by Kit Cummings during the main shoot. It featured interviews with the band and director.




availability
Big Music Promo CD Big Music French Promo CDs Rejuvenaton 2001-2014 CD/DVD Box




collectors' information
The video is available on YouTube and was first made available on The Guardian's website on the 29th September 2014.

A behind-the-scenes commentary and making-of video was included as an extra on the Big Music Deluxe Edition. This was also premiered on The Telegraph's website on the 29th October.

Single track DVD promos (Caroline SMBM12) were also distributed by the record company. The DVDs had printed labels and were housed in custom sleeves:

Many thanks to Massimo for the scan.




Single track DVD promos were also distributed by Embassy Of Sound for the German market. These were just simple DVDs with custom labels in plastic sleeves:

Many thanks to Lionello for the scan.




Much more interesting was the Japanese promo DVD which was produced by Hostess Entertainment. This also included information and artwork about the album on the DVD label.

Many thanks to Lionello for the scan.




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Band

Jim

Charlie

Mel

Andy

Ged

Sarah and Catherine