JIM Kerr has paid a touching tribute to his late dad Jimmy who passed away just before he and Simple Minds embark on a 40th anniversary world tour and live album.
Sunday soundtrack radio host Ricky Ross admitted he didn’t expect Jim Kerr to come into his Sunday morning BBC show following the tragic news.
Rocky told Jim: “You’ve come in and I didn’t expect you to come in today. You’ve been looking after your dad the last two months and sadly he’s gone.”
Jim replied: “Don’t make me cry Ricky. People will be turning off. Let’s cut to the chase - my dad was a big fan of your show, a big fan of radio and a great great reader as well. You ticked a lot of boxes for him because you are a country show. That was his music. My dad would tell me you’ve got to check this and that. Only two weeks ago dad told me about the show you’d done then and Willie Haughey was on it.
“There’s no way dad would have accepted me not coming in here and it’s a pleasure to see you here. ”
Jim then said of his dad: “Dad was eighty three and I’m so lucky. He was just the greatest dad and I feel very fortunate to be born, that was my dad and he was also my best pal and a great great influence.
He was a brickies labourer all his life. He was a strong guy. Perhaps uncommon or maybe not when you think of a lot of the shipyard guards, he was very keen on educating himself.
”Although he could mix it with the rest of the labourers and go to the pub and football he had his head in a book from Monday to Friday. The only person Who can read as much is my other best pal Charlie Burchill.
Jom said his dad taught him how to dream: “My dad, there was a great curiosity in him to know about world beyond the end of his street. Unfortunately his generation you couldn’t just decided you were going to Nepal and they had to knuckle down and thanks to them we were allowed to dream bigger. My dad would point me out a window and say ‘over there is Africa’.
I think that is the most quality - to dream big or to imagine big. The idea of being a dreamer or have your heads in clouds was once a derogatory thing. But I realised it’s the most potent thing ever. It all begins with imagination. Sitting here all these years later I’m bewildered that the things we had came to pass.”
Jim also told of the moment his dad realised he would do well as a musician.
He laughed: “My dad also gave up drinking a long time ago but when we were starting the band he was in a period where he had to go to the meetings and he was trying to sort himself out. It was more a subtle thing. He wasn’t happy and we were up and down in vans and going here there and everywhere. I didn’t have much dialogue with him for around a two year period. Dad didn’t grasp it but finally we got to play in Glasgow in Tiffany’s and it was a big deal to sell it out. Mum and dad were coming but dad went to the pub first and mum got fed up waiting and went to the gig herself. Dad wasn’t drunk but he didn’t go home and still had his working gear on and mum would have been humiliated. We did the gig. What a night.
“ I saw him the next day - Saturday morningHe made breakfast the next morning and he was a wee bit sheepish and he said ‘you are going to make it. You are going to be a big big band’. He said ’I was watching this one guy last night and he was in the queue and dancing and he got his chips and you started this song The American and he threw them up in the air and ran down. Anybody that can get people to do that. That’s a talent.’
That was his version of the old grey whistle test.”
