A Very Simple Mind

‘…beneath the distinctive interplay between guitar and keyboards there was a powerful engine with a deep, punchy bass line driving the music forward. Enter Derek Forbes!’ Peter Walsh, award-winning record producer. ‘I couldn’t get Derek’s riffs out of my head. ‘In Trance as Mission’, ‘Sweat in Bullet’, ‘Love Song’, ‘The American’ … bass lines! And again the next year, ‘Glittering Prize’, ‘Promised You a Miracle’, ‘Big Sleep’ and the mother lode: ‘New Gold Dream’. Who plays like that and gets away with it? And the next year, ‘Waterfront’, ‘Up on the Catwalk’, ‘Speed Your Love to Me’. Those songs based on the mighty and hypnotic bass lines of Derek Forbes are still some of my favorite music ever made. He’s the bassist in my dream band.’ Jon Carin, musician, producer, songwriter. ‘At the root, the bass work of Derek Forbes, one of the great British musicians. A man who plays with the dexterity and invention of someone who, ideally, would like to have more strings – and perhaps a couple of more fingers – at his disposal, but who also values the art of simplicity, repetition, mood, motion. Any German band of the 1970s would have been fortunate to have had Forbes. Praise scarcely comes any higher.’ Graeme Thomson, author, Themes for Great Cities ‘