Jim Kerr

We were blessed in many ways.

The Call should have been bigger than what they were.

I am not really that extravagant.

It's a mysterious thing, music. You're just never sure. You 'get' it, but does anyone else even get a chance to know it exists? And if they do, are they gonna feel about it like you feel? When they do, it feels great.

Music is an organic thing. It's always progressing.

It's still a mysterious thing, making music.

By 1980, we'd been round Europe three or four times, and our eyes were wide open.

I have the most beautiful memories of 'New Gold Dream.' It was made in a time between spring and summer, and everything we tried worked. There were no arguments. We were in love with what we were doing, playing it, listening to it.

You don't get many periods in your life when it all goes your way.

Every generation has its soundtrack.

You don't plan 'La la la's.' They just pop out. Bowie and Marc Bolan littered many of their songs with 'La la's.'

I really believe that if people put everything they have into something, they can really surprise themselves most of the time.

It was the mid-80s and we were on the verge of making it big all over the world, having just released Sparkle in the Rain. However, as with many U.K. bands, the U.S. was proving tough to crack.

When you're young, you believe in the most basic things. You believe that there are good people around you. And you don't just take things for granted, like the ocean or the sky, or even being able to dream, to have a vision, to have ambition. As you grow up, all that gets knocked out of you.

When your band is no longer just your band but is an industry within an industry it can be a lot on youngish shoulders.

I want to improve.

How can Bono, having graced concert stages for over two decades, draped in the white flag of peace and screaming 'No More War' at the top of his lungs contemplate praising and back slapping Tony Blair?

I got into incense the first time I visited Japan with Simple Minds in the 80s, now I stock up every time I go back. There's an otherworldliness about these little cedar wood sticks - which Samurai warriors used to cleanse the spirit - that just helps you 'escape.'

I'm a natural-born enthusiast.

As for my all-time sporting hero? There is one who towers above all. I first knew him when he was called Cassius Clay but it was when he changed his name to Muhammad Ali that I became mesmerised by him.