Simple Minds bass guitar legend Derek Forbes will release his autobiography A Very Simple Mind: On Tour, Published by McNidder & Grace on 9 November 2023.
Derek Forbes is known for those iconic spine-rattling bass riffs, which we recognise in most Simple Minds’ songs, and he wrote and co-wrote many of the band’s earliest classics. Derek is also well known internationally as a songwriter and bassist for Big Country and Propaganda. He has recorded with Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Kirsty MacColl. He won an Ivor Novello Award for ‘Outstanding Song Collection’ in 2016 for his songwriting for Simple Minds, voted best bass player in the World in 1982 and best bass player from Scotland in 2010. He still lives in Glasgow and is planning his next tour.
This is a story of the early days of Simple Minds, where a band of working-class lads from 1970s Glasgow took on the World. In this book, Derek shares stories from travels on the road, dabbles with mind-bending substances, unfortunate accidents in the trouser regions, and glamorous meetings with superstars. The band were friends; they laughed together, they laughed at each other, they had fights and arguments, they learned to work with luminaries of the music industry, but most of all, they always had fun.
It stopped being fun for Derek in 1985 when he turned up at the Simple Minds office in Edinburgh, and Bruce Findlay, the manager, told him he was sacked. In the days that followed, he felt ‘a screaming silence’ and completely alone, and his mates were nowhere to be seen. No, Charlie, no Jim, no Mick and no Mel. As time passed, things took a turn for the better for Derek when some of his heavyweight musician friends stepped in, and this was the start of a whole new chapter which not only included playing with some fantastic bands but also having his own LA Radio Show. Derek later rejoined Simple Minds in 1995 and toured again with the band.
Derek Forbes Book Signing Tour starts in November!
9th Nov book signing Goldsboro Books London
9th Nov Rough Trade West, London
11th Nov Louder Than Words Festival Manchester
12th Nov Wrecking Ball Hull
16th Nov Waterstones Glasgow
18th Nov HMV Glasgow
22nd Nov British Music Experience Liverpool
28th Nov Rough Trade Bristol
29th Nov Topping Books Bath
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