When SIMPLE MINDS released the documentary ‘Everything Is Possible’ in 2023, it was an enjoyable 90 minutes that offered the historical perspective of front man Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill.
But it was notable for downplaying the roles of three former members Brian McGee (drums), Mick MacNeil (keyboards) and Derek Forbes (bass) who had been involved in the first four SIMPLE MINDS albums ‘Life In A Day’, ‘Reel To Real Cacophony’, ‘Empires & Dance’ and ‘Sons & Fascination / Sister Feelings Call’.
However the joint Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill memoir ‘Our Secrets Are The Same’ published in 2025 went further and laid claim to the pair writing most of the songs and that some band members were lucky to even get a cut of the publishing at all! But as Brian McGee declares: “whoever’s in the room writes the song, whoever starts from the beginning to the end of the song, records it, plays it, is part of the team, should be credited equally!”. Certainly in the way SIMPLE MINDS worked back then, music would be jammed and then structured as instrumentals before Kerr added words and vocals.
With a desire to speak their truth, reflect on the good times and give fans a special view on the conflicts at play, ‘There Are Two Truths’ is an independent documentary series exploring contested narratives. The first episode re-examines the history, conflicts and creative legacy of SIMPLE MINDS by those who were there.
As well as Brian McGee, Mick MacNeil and Derek Forbes, presenter and SIMPLE MINDS fan Ben Barclay also speaks to SIMPLE MINDS’ first manager Bruce Finlay, lawyer Robert White, former drummers Mike Olgletree and Mel Gaynor, original second guitarist Duncan Barnwell and The Blitz Club DJ Rusty Egan. He is not afraid to ask difficult questions about the decision making process within the band, particularly those associated with Jim Kerr who comes over as astute but having an agenda from the start.
Subtitled ‘Our Shares Are Not the Same’, the hour long exploration of authorship, credit and fairness does not pull any punches. From the moment that SIMPLE MINDS signed to Arista Records and released their debut album ‘Life In A Day’, there was contention. Songs were credited as being written by “Kerr / Burchill” but as Mick McNeil says: “It would be naïve to deny that the keyboard parts didn’t make that a pop song, it wasn’t the guitar… the contribution to the commercial aspect of ‘Chelsea Girl’ and even the track ‘Life In A Day’, I think they’re massively influenced by the keyboard parts that scream out commerciality…”! As Forbes adds rhetorically: “Did Charlie put in that keyboard part on ‘Chelsea Girl’? I mean that’s f*cking boll*cks innit?”
Lyric writing is often publically misinterpreted as “songwriting” with credit bias towards words. But as Elvis Costello recently said to MOJO about ‘Shipbuilding’ which he co-wrote with producer Clive Langer: “I get more credit for that song than I deserve because if it wasn’t for Clive’s melody, I wouldn’t have had anything to hang the story on.”
For the second album ‘Reel To Real Cacophony’ and beyond, the arrangement was changed to the songwriting credits being split equally between all five members of the band… or was it? The documentary reveals through past contractual paperwork that Jim Kerr was bagging 50% of the publishing as lyricist, even on the record’s three instrumentals! This was similar to the stunt that Ralf Hütter pulled on the KRAFTWERK tracks ‘Spacelab’ and ‘Metropolis’ from ‘The Man Machine’ by repeating the one word titles as vocals and claiming they were lyrics, thus diminishing Karl Bartos’ share! So that meant Burchill, MacNeil, Forbes and McGee were only getting 12.5%! However, as the albums including the follow-up sold poorly, the issue fell under the radar while the band signed to Virgin Records to achieve a breakthrough with the ‘Sons & Fascination / Sister Feelings Call’ double opus.
But McGee would leave in 1981, and then Forbes would be fired from SIMPLE MINDS with his contributions to 1985’s massive selling ‘Once Upon A Time’ being written out of the eventual publishing. MacNeil would leave in 1989 and over the following years, it was discovered that the retrospective share agreement percentages of Forbes and McGee were reduced even further form the original 12.5% while MacNeil’s went up to 20%. On that pre-1982 section of the back catalogue, Kerr and Burchill have evened up and are now on 30% each.
This documentary is made with a much lower budget so has nothing like the production values and locations seen in ‘Everything Is Possible’. But it is the content that matters although the AI generated moving images, particularly of past decades, may not be to everyone’s taste. Certainly ‘There Are Two Truths’ is eye opening and prompts more questions rather than making conclusions. While the angle is naturally based towards MacNeil, Forbes and McGee who have since reunited as THE MINDS, their points are backed by documentation and perspective. As Barclay closes his commentary, he remarks “Make of that as you will” and ultimately it is up to individual SIMPLE MINDS fans to decide what has gone on.
Just about every act be it KRAFTWERK, JAPAN, VISAGE, SPANDAU BALLET, THE SMITHS and many others have fallen foul on the issue of publishing. But it’s no coincidence that acts like U2, DURAN DURAN and COLDLAY have maintained harmony by agreeing to split everything equally from the start before they hit the big time. As the journalist and author Hunter S Thompson was once quoted as saying: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
With a future episode on ‘Arrivals & Departures’ on the way, ‘There Are Two Truths’ will not only appeal to long standing SIMPLE MINDS but anyone remotely interested in the often-unseen dynamics and perils of being in a band.
‘There Are Two Truths’ is available to view on YouTube
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Text by Chi Ming Lai
19th June 2026
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