Simple Minds won’t forget about Phoenix on celebratory 2025 tour
Jan 27, 2025, 8:00 PM
PHOENIX – If you love ‘80s new wave anthems, don’t you forget about getting tickets to see Simple Minds in Phoenix this spring.
The Scottish rock band is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the smash hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” this year with its largest North American tour in decades.
Fellow new wavers Soft Cell (“Tainted Love”) and Modern English (“I Melt With You”) are coming along on the 2025 “Alive & Kicking Tour.”
The road trip will stop at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre on May 25. Presales start Tuesday, and tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday.
According to setlist.fm, it will be Simple Minds’ first Arizona appearance since a 2002 concert at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix.
“Been a while, but absence makes the heart grow fonder,” singer Jim Kerr said in a press release Monday. “Simple Minds are ecstatic at the prospect of touring so extensively in the U.S. and Canada this coming spring.”
How Simple Minds reached top of the charts four decades ago
Simple Minds recorded “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” — with its iconic intro of “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” — for the classic 1985 movie “The Breakfast Club.” It became the band’s only No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The group released two other top 20 singles in the ‘80s with “Alive & Kicking” and “Sanctify Yourself.”
While the band continued producing music over the years, it never returned to the heights it reached in the ‘80s.
“I’m grateful for the career we’ve had, but I’m mad enough to think we can still hit new levels. This is what we do – write, record and play live,” Kerr said.