The venue was full to capacity tonight but the crowd were a little bit older than the average Rock City audience but just as enthusiastic about seeing the legends that are Simple Minds.

Some of the fans hadn’t seen their idols play for many years and for others it was their first time, but everyone was eagerly awaiting their entrance onto the stage and they were not to be disappointed.

We had heard rumours that Jim Kerr was looking old and maybe a little overweight but that was not the view that we got, he was looking great as he took to the stage in his tight jeans and with his shirt undone just a little, he was looking every inch the great rock master that we all remember from our teenage years.

Considering the length of this tour and the amount of shows they are playing (40+) we were very surprised to see that the set list contained 22 songs and they actually played for over 2 hours, people may have complained about the fact that the tickets cost £28.50 each but there was not one person in that room that wouldn’t agree that it was 110% value for money as they worked their way through songs spanning over 25 years worth of material. Many of the bands around today would not be able to keep up the pace or even have enough material to play 22 tracks or actually keep playing for this length of time.

Jim’s interaction with the crowd was wonderful as he stood on the front of the stage with his arms stretched out to the fans, he had a huge smile on his face nearly all night and was obviously enjoying the show as much as the crowd were. On several different occasions he just held the microphone out to the crowd and let them sing the songs back to him and, not surprisingly, the fans knew all the words and were singing along at the top of their voices.

I am not going to pretend that I knew all the songs they sang, but I will say that everything they did tonight was done to perfection with the vocals and instruments in perfect harmony. This was a fantastic show all round and I can honestly say that when they played certain songs that I do remember from my younger days such as ‘Waterfront’ and ‘Alive and Kicking’ (the final song of the night) they sounded exactly the same, Jim’s voice has not changed at all.

The atmosphere was unbelievable in the hall there was a real buzz in the air and I think everyone who was in the room that night would agree with me when I say – that was a killer show guys – keep up the great work.