'WHEN you refer to today's music people mean manufactured pop. That isn't real music. I grew up in a generation where you had to invent yourself. There have always been managers and agents to hone you but there had to be someone with a certain something to begin with.
 "Just look at Lennon & McCartney or the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd. In our generation it was Boy George, The Cure, The Smiths - all sorts of kids were inventing themselves." Bands and performers forged through reality TV shows such as Pop Stars and Pop Idol get no sympathy from Kerr when they hit hard times. "They should pick up a guitar because there is no easy way to be successful. "It took years of learning and roughing it on the road, sleeping in vans. But it sorted out those who were into it and who were just posing. "You were learning your trade and that means that now when you walk on stage in Barcelona or Liverpool no matter what kind of day you've had you are switched on," he said, confessing to watching blues singers and wondering how they stuck it for so long. "They were born to do it. We've been fortunate because we've been looked after. However, it is what we do and I can look on it with new pride." If human rights influenced the passion of Simple Minds to write music along the lines of Biko and Mandela Day then touring has sustained their spirit. Until the fire went out for Jim. However, film soundtracks and radio stations began to feature their records and once again Jim Kerr found himself playing to people's tastes. "Everything comes round in circles and now there is an audience who are interested in us again. We toured for the first time in five years last year and I wasn't sure how I was going to enjoy it. But a lot of people turned up and had a good time - and so did I," laughed Jim who revealed the band are putting together a new album which is scheduled for release next year. It is somewhat topical that a band that can trace its roots back to Glasgow, a one-time city of culture, is about to play in Liverpool, now the winner of the Capital of Culture 2008. The link isn't lost on Kerr. "Being City of Culture was a great springboard for Glasgow and it hasn't looked back since. If Liverpool gets half the reaction that Glasgow got it will be a great, great thing." But Kerr believes there is more linking the band with Liverpool than that, including drummer Mel Gaynor who has lived locally for a few years. He laments the band's 20-year absence from performing in the city - "We've played in Liverpool many times including Erics and the Royal Court. Sadly we didn't come here for years because it didn't have the venues so it was always Manchester - which was a shame because we had a lot of friends in Liverpool and we never felt like strangers." * Simple Minds play the Summer Pops, Tuesday, July 22 | 
