Quotes from Jim Kerr

The issues are always the same. Racism, war, poverty, the geography changes.

For us every gig is a responsibility. We don't want people seeing us then saying, 'They're not as good as The Proclaimers.'

If you speak to Iggy Pop, John Lydon or the Foo Fighters and ask them to name their favourite three gigs I know the Barrowlands will be there.

Glasgow is weird city that makes you a bit of a fighter and we have always tried to push ahead.

I was happy living in a high-rise council estate in Glasgow up until our sixth album.

I got into incense the first time I visited Japan with Simple Minds in the 80s, now I stock up every time I go back. There's an otherworldliness about these little cedar wood sticks - which Samurai warriors used to cleanse the spirit - that just helps you 'escape.'

John Hughes and his movie 'The Breakfast Club' gave us above all the thrilling opportunity that everyone who starts a band dreams of. The opportunity that is of aggregating the kind of success that enables an act to go through the door and into what is considered to be 'The Big League.'

Rockfield is a famous studio where we recorded early Simple Minds songs. It holds a bit of our own history and Queen recorded 'Bohemian Rhapsody' there.

I go to bed at 8 P.M. and get up at 4:30 A.M. Who the hell is gonna live with that?

My first-ever game was at the 1966 World Cup. The old man was a bricklayer's labourer, on a job in the north-east of England. One weekend the rest of the family went down to see him and he took me off to Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough for the Soviet Union versus North Korea.

I don't like to look back. But those occasions with zeros on the end are a good opportunity to reflect.

I'm a kid from housing estate in Glasgow.

In the case of 'Walk Between Worlds,' I'm happy to say that it was one of those records that when we were working on it, we would go home at the end of the day with smiles on our faces. We felt it was good work and every song we worked on, they seemed to connect.

Especially in Europe - the States also, where you've got that landmass - but in Europe cultures and landscapes change within a hundred kilometers, and there's worlds within worlds. Within those worlds, there's good things going on. Within those worlds, there's tragic things.

In my experience, heroes can come with many different profiles, including some whose stories become known worldwide and, indeed, become part of history.

I only want to play shows if I think we are going to sound good and I only want to release albums if I think we have something to say and we are doing it decently.

To have a broad range is one thing, but to still have the Simple Minds identity is quite remarkable.

I'm not ideal marrying fodder.

I get wound up by bad manners on public transport.

When I'm touring, everything is so structured and I'm surrounded by people all the time, so I love walking on my own in the open air in the countryside.

As for my all-time sporting hero? There is one who towers above all. I first knew him when he was called Cassius Clay but it was when he changed his name to Muhammad Ali that I became mesmerised by him.

The concert stage is where Simple Minds do their best work, it is where we forged our live reputation.

I'm intrigued by my own schizoid background which involves Scotland, Ireland and London.

At a young age, to think the exciting days are over, it's not easy.