AFTER an absence from the touring circuit that seems longer than the actual five years, 80s rock supergroup Simple Minds are back making waves.
The more cynical among us may point to flagging bank balances as the reason to get back on the road again but frontman Jim Kerr doesn't see it that way.
"The 90s for us was a period of success but then I lost the desire to keep playing and I didn't feel connected to the music. It wasn't vital to me any more.
"Everyone has a period when you feel like that I suppose but I sat it out instead of faking it by keeping on playing," he said speaking from London before flying out to Barcelona for the start of their extensive tour which will take in Europe and the US until Christmas.
Kerr usually shares his time between homes in Italy and Scotland but he was also in London to meet up with his family. He has an 18-year-old daughter with singer Chrissie Hynde and a son with actress Patsy Kensit. It's obvious his family is important to him but it hasn't always been top priority.
"How did I fit family life in with all our touring and recording sessions? Well I didn't.
"I've been divorced for a second time for years but I am still a dad and I see them every month," he said before admitting that having an 18-year-old daughter did make him feel old in one respect but it wasn't such a bad thing.
We are so good at communicating that we don't have that big generation gap like we had with our parents which could me make feel really old."
That communication even stretches as far as their shared taste in music. To Kerr Coldplay and Radiohead - his daughter's preference - are the "real deal".
