“It was strange to go back to that old house on the hill that overlooks the studio” says the singer. “When we first went there, being young city boys, we’d never experienced proper countryside darkness. It was pitch black and you didn’t want to forget something and have to walk back up there on your own.”I also remember that we’d had a stern warning form the record company about Real To Real. They thought it was too experimental, but we were determined to do it our way. Strangely, some of the fear I felt then came back to me when I was recording the lead vocals for Graffiti Soul. I was standing in exactly the same place as I did when I recorded the vocal for “Premonition” back in 1979.”

The fear was fleeting, and the sessions for Graffiti Soul went swimmingly. Witness the Spartan grandeur of “Light Travels” (”It’s great! Just turn up the acoustic guitar!” counseled pop production legend Trevor Horn), or the expansive power of “Kiss and Fly”, a song that proves Kerr’s rich baritone has lost none of its oomph.

“We’d capture these great band performances, and then Charlie would tweak things to get these amazing sounds”, say Simple Minds’ singer. “He likes to put things through the mincer, put them through his ‘Eno box’, as I call it.

“Ultimately, you have to drag the songs away from Charlie. Bono used to say he was like a wee Irish fiddler, always fiddling away with something. Even in the early days when he only had one guitar and two effects pedals, Charlie would bring jigsaws to sound checks - The Sistine Chapel or whatever - so that he could amuse his self while engineers were trying to get the right snare sound. Nowadays, studio gear has replaced the jigsaws, and we reap the benefit of that.”

Graffiti Soul and Simple Minds’ ongoing success as a live act serve to underline that the group is anything but a spent force. More than that, the band that broke America with their 1985 chart-topper “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and the attendant Once Upon A Time album is as hungry and committed as ever.

‘If you really love music, you’ll come back to it with a passion irrespective of life’s twists and turns”, says Kerr. “That’s why I hope people get to hear Graffiti Soul - I think it’s got legs. If we can celebrate our 30th Anniversary and still get people excited about the new stuff - that would be wonderful.”