Simple Minds this week announced plans to release a new album called Walk Between Worlds in February — the band’s first collection of new songs since 2014’s Big Music — and premiere the material at special three-part concerts in the U.K. and Europe following the record’s release. Full details here.

Simple Minds fans living in North America have been a patient lot, as the band hasn’t toured here in more than a decade. But there is renewed hope today, thanks to a message that reveals the group plans to record music this summer and “hopefully” will tour the U.S. and Canada this fall.

Jim Kerr reports that Simple Minds recently hit the studio to record tracks — including a ‘New Gold Dream’-era castoff — that are earmarked for both ‘an extensive compilation’ due out in early 2011 and what eventually will become the band’s 16th studio album.

This week’s new CD releases include the new solo album from Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr, ‘Lostboy! AKA’; an eight-disc box set from The Church’s Steve Kilbey; and reissues from The Charlatans (‘Some Friendly’) and Modern English (‘Stop Start’).

With Simple Minds still active after 30 years, frontman Jim Kerr will release his first-ever solo album this May under the name Lostboy! AKA, and is set to debut his new material — and dig into Simple Minds’ back catalog — with a trio of intimate U.K. club dates this spring before embarking on a full tour.

This week saw the release of Simple Minds’ first new record in four years and 16th studio album overall — a collection that could have […]