Simple Minds...U2...Waterboys...NMA..."heroic rock bands"!?

[Guillaume]

Hi !

I'm new on this forum but I'm 1st NMA experience was in 1991 in Nimes (South of France) as guest of Simple Minds. I didn't know the band at the time.. unforgettable...

I was looking for the history of NMA's concerts in France and i found that NMA once opened for Simple Minds in the Arènes of Nîmes in July 1991:

https://www.setlist.fm/venue/arenes-de-nimes-nimes-france-53d637e9.html?page=35

Simple Minds was huge in the 80's so i wonder if Jim Kerr knew and liked NMA and so wanted them to open for his band in this summer french festival?

I quote myself from another thread..:

 

"Echo November" played last night on french "Pop Rock Station" show, on RTL2...Francis Zégut played these last years on his show old songs of NMA so i'm not surprised he played one track of the new album...they said NMA just released their new album and the band was born from the 'heroic rock band" wave from the 80's, like others bands like Waterboys, Simple Minds and U2.

Here you can listen the whole play list and "Echo November" at 28:30, which was played after Waterboys and U2 songs:

 http://www.rtl2.fr/actu/rtl2-pop-rock-station-du-31-aout-2016-7784545493

NMA on french radio RTL2, I can't believe it !! 

like in the good old days ..... !

They played "Vagabonds" in June!! Between Simple Minds and Waterboys songs! again!

I remember, when i was reading the music magazines of the 80's and 90's, often the (lazy?) critics when they were writing about NMA were making comparisons with bands like Midnight Oil, The Alarm, Billy Bragg, Waterboys and especially The Clash and U2..
all these bands were considered as "heroic rock" from the 80's, bands with politically engaged lyrics and anthems, humanist side, and NMA were often put in the same league by the press.

Do you think we can link NMA's writing/lyrics to these bands?
Do you know others bands "sounding" more or less like NMA, at least sharing their threads/ideas/subjects?

New Gold Dream, Simple Minds, from back before their bad U2-copying and movie soundtrack years... live version from The Tube here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OuZrNbpsSI

A much better band than most people remember them as being...

[Johnz]

I can see the similarities but I think that NMA are a bit more complex or controversial than the bands mentioned. Pre-Diesel and Dust Midnight Oil are probably the closest on that list.

To me, Killing Joke are the most similar to NMA. Obviously, they sound different, but there are many similarities in terms of energy, attitude and world view (and not giving a shit what anyone else thinks about them).

[Guillaume]

I can see the similarities but I think that NMA are a bit more complex or controversial than the bands mentioned. Pre-Diesel and Dust Midnight Oil are probably the closest on that list.

To me, Killing Joke are the most similar to NMA. Obviously, they sound different, but there are many similarities in terms of energy, attitude and world view (and not giving a shit what anyone else thinks about them).

Yes very often NMA is compared to Killing Joke, Justin himself is a big fan of Killing Joke, but even if i like some songs here and there KJ is a too noisy/loud/agressive sounding band for me! What i love in NMA is that they are always melodic, even in their angry tracks...and their acoustic tracks are always great.

Midnight Oil: i know nothing from their pre "Diesel and dust" era, so i guess i have to dig in their early works!

[Whirlwind]

Heroic rock bands? Is that anthemic choruses? Isn't that Bono leading the crowd with, "Sing: No more (no more!) No war (no war!)" during live versions of "Sunday Bloody Sunday"?

I don't really see anything anthemic in the songs of NMA and I don't ever recall seeing any video of Justin waving white flags in concert.