Real Life

First UK CD Cover

Second UK CD Cover

Australian limited edition

Tracks

Real Life	(4.53)
See The Lights	(4.22)
Let There Be Love	(4.57)
Woman	(4.40)
Stand By Love	(4.04)
Let The Children Speak	(4.17)
African Skies	(4.52)
Ghostrider	(3.22)
Banging On The Door	(1.16/4.24)
Travelling Man	(3.35)
Rivers Of Ice	(3.30)
When Two Worlds Collide	(4.01)

Country	Date	Vinyl	Cassette	CD	DAT
UK	April 1991	Virgin V 2660	Virgin TCV 2660	Virgin CDV 2660	Virgin DATV 2660

Credits

Guitars & Keyboards Charlie Burchill

Vocal Jim Kerr

Drums Mel Gaynor

Bass Malcolm Foster

Percussion Andy Duncan

Keyboards Peter John Vettese

Backing Vocals Carol Kenyon and Sonia Morgan-Jones

Orchestral Arrangements Will Malone

String Leader Gavin Wright

Bass and Keyboards Stephen Lipson

Violin Lisa Germano

Shaft Guitar on African Skies Alfred Bos

Producer Steven Lipson

Engineer and Midi Manager Heff Moraes

Mixing Assistant Giles Cowley

A&M Assistant Efren Herrera

Orchstral Engineer Gary Thomas

Technical Master Dougie Cowan

Equipment Tony Donald

Food Ying Ho Au-Yeung

Logistics Paul Kerr

A&R Coordinator Jane Ventom

All songs written by Kerr/Burchill except Woman and Travelling Man written by Kerr/Burchill/Lipson.

Rivers Of Ice music by Maclachlan, lyrics and arrangement Simple Minds

Thanks to Ken Berry, Arnold Stiefel, Randy Phillips, Lorne Saifer, Simon Draper, Jon Webster, Willie Richardson, Jane Ventom, Debbie Clancy, Ashley Frobes, Steve Lewis, Al Cafaro, David Anderley, Mark Mazzetti, Jimmy Iovine, Susie Tallman, Jordan Harris, Steve Ralbowski, George Thorn, Sandra Dods, Jimmy Devlin, Chrissie Hynde, Judy Lipson, Sylvia & Lou Reed, Andy Stinson, Peter Lopez, Luis Jardim, Juilian Mendelsohn, Andy Richards, CJ Mackintosh, Ian Flooks, Elly Smith, Catherine McRae

Recorded at Bonny Wee Studio 1&2, Wisseloord Studio 7, A&M Studio D, Maison Rogue Studio 1, Cava Studio 2, Townhouse Studio 1

Mixed at Olympic Studios 2&3

Made In Scotland

Design and Art Direction Stylorouge

Photography Simon Fowler

Additional Information

The LP, Cassette and CD all featured the lyrics housed on the inner sleeve, pullout and booklet respectively.

Real Life was the first Virgin album to be commerically released on DAT.

The Australian limited edition release (double cassette and CD : VOZCD2052B) appeared after Stand By Love was released. It featured the standard Real Life album plus an extra cassette/CD of live tracks pulled from the Stand By Love single :

King Is White And In The Crowd

Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

Let There Be Love

Banging On The Door

Stand By Love

Real Life was the first album recorded without Mick MacNeil. Charlie mentioned that they felt very insecure whilst recording it - they were even toying with dropping the Simple Minds name. However, after playing tracks to family and friends, no-one detected any change in the music, and they kept their name.

Looking back, Jim and Charlie think of Real Life as a great Simple Minds record - despite several of the tracks being fillers or new reworkings. (Let The Children Speak is a lyrical version of Theme For Great Cities whilst Travelling Man is a Waterfront clone.)

Bruce Findlay is less kind, stating that the album sounds like a bunch of Simple Minds demos.

Banging On The Door is indexed twice on the original CDs - the short intro and then the main song itself. This has lead several people to count the songs on the sleeve, look at the number of songs displayed by the CD player, and conclude that there's a mystery track. This weird indexing was fixed for the 2002 remaster series.

The original album artwork was the blue iconic sleeve with the band portrait on the back - the minimal design being driven by the need to squeeze it on at DAT. After the first issues, the DAT release was discontinued, and the sleeve was changed so the band portrait appeared on the front. This version was (incorrectly) chosen for the 2002 remaster series.