For someone who’s played all over the world, you wouldn’t think rocking up at a modest Dundee venue would faze Derek Forbes.
But it’s not so long ago that the former Simple Minds bassist would’ve baulked at the prospect of talking about himself in front of an audience, as his latest tour demands.
Forbes, who’s out on the road promoting his autobiography A Very Simple Mind, suffered from a dread of public speaking for most of his life, but has finally conquered the phobia.
I ask him if it’s a tough shift combining a full band set with a Q&A session and his response is immediate.
“It’s like falling off a log – it’s very, very easy, I couldn’t believe it,” he says.
“I thought I had glossophobia before I started, but now you just light the touch paper and I’ll go off at a tangent. I never really liked public speaking but now it’s so easy.
“It doesn’t matter how many people are there, I don’t get nervous at all – I only get nervous playing with the band.
“If someone in the audience asks a question and I don’t want to answer it I’ll not answer it, so it’s easy.”
Why was Derek Forbes sacked from Simple Minds?
Forbes joined Simple Minds in time to play on their earliest demos in 1978 and was a fixture for the next seven years, contributing to the Jim Kerr-fronted Glasgow legends’ first six albums, including such influential electro classics as Empires And Dance and New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84).
It all went wrong in 1985 when he was sacked shortly after the track Don’t You (Forget About Me) became a global hit, allegedly for failing to turn up at rehearsals.
Nevertheless, Derek says his tour has seen “a lot of laughter”, with his book an account of his upbringing and on through the early days of Simple Minds – whose music he has revisited in recent years with his band The Dark.
On which song did Jim ‘write the title only’?
Looking back, he says he still feels a close affinity towards all the Minds albums he played on.
“My favourite time would be Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call because that’s when we really got a bit experimental,” he declares.
“It was great working with Steve Hillage because being a fantastic musician and a genius producer he just inspired us.
“He really got the creativity out of us and tried different things.
“It was just constant – I think myself and (drummer) Brian McGhee played the track Theme For Great Cities about nine times in a row. And it was quite gruelling because it’s long.
“Jim wrote the title and that was the extent of his input – but it really worked in the end.”
Stint with Fife legends Big Country
Post-Simple Minds, Forbes, 68, had spells in such acclaimed outfits as Propaganda, Spear Of Destiny and The Alarm, before joining another Scots colossus, Big Country, playing his part in the Fife rockers’ 2013 comeback album The Journey.
“I played keyboards on that,” he remembers.
“I think it was the first time they’d been used on Big Country – I may be wrong – and I also played some lead guitar as well as doing bass and vocals, so it ended up Jamie (Watson) and I were doing most of the beefing up of the tracks because Bruce (Watson) was working in Rosyth at that time.
“It was a great album, and they’re great players as well. Bruce has got his own style and his son Jamie has learned from him, while big Mark Brzezicki is one of the best drummers ever.”
After a couple of earlier cameos, Rangers supporter Derek – his closest friends include Dundee-born ex-Gers Davie Dodds and Derek Johnstone – rejoined Simple Minds in 1995, staying on for their 1998 album Néapolis before being dropped again.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that he says he doesn’t see much of Kerr or his songwriting partner Charlie Burchill – a situation he’s philosophical about.
“I haven’t spoken to them for a while, but we’ve got a history together anyway,” he sighs.
“It was great while it lasted, and then the second time round things had changed.”
Derek Forbes is at Beat Generator, Dundee, on December 13 2024.
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