Tim Hughes chats to Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr about his solo side project, Lostboy.

AS LEAD singer of chart giants Simple Minds, Jim Kerr was a stadium-filling pop icon.

With five number one albums and a string of top 10 singles, the Glaswegians were mainstays of the ’80s; and Kerr was their undisputed leader – an archetypal rock star overseeing a frequently evolving line-up, while lapping up the high-life, complete with celebrity lovers and showbiz wives (Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders for six years and Patsy Kensit for four).

Now, after 17 studio albums, three live ones and seven compilations, the man still best known for epic hits Don’t You (Forget About Me), Alive and Kicking, and Belfast Child is embarking on his first solo project. Yet, at the age of 51, he is hiding behind a new moniker – Lostboy.

“I’m really enjoying it,” he says, at the start of a tour which on Tuesday comes to Oxford’s O2 Academy.

“I am leading a parallel existence as the Simple Minds story continues, but at the moment I’m busy promoting this solo project. And I’m more surprised than anyone that it has become a reality.

“I’ve been involved with Simple Minds for 33 years, and I’d never felt a need to venture out before. But now I’ve got a new blank page.”

Jim is talking from his mum’s home in Glasgow.

He doesn’t live there of course. That honour goes to the Italian island of Sicily, where he runs a hotel. Though, like all ex-pats, he is proud of his links with his old stamping ground, and gets back whenever he can.

While now styling himself ‘Lostboy AKA Jim Kerr’ I suggest most of those turning up for gigs will be hardboiled Simple Minds fans, keen to hear the hits, rather than his new solo material.

“That’s the good and bad thing,” he admits. “I do have the advantage of being able to attract a certain number of people to shows because of my reputation. But the fans have been really supportive.

“I don’t take that for granted though, as they don’t like being messed around with. And I’ve observed that the real hardcore fans like my new songs as much as the ones I’ve played millions of times live.”

He insists it would be “pointless” to turn the show into a Simple Minds ‘lite’ gig. “Playing too many of those songs would overshadow everthing,” he elaborates.

And he is enjoying it.

“My only frustration with Simple Minds is that, like most chart bands, we put out an album every two or three years and toured extensively. But that also makes for a lot of downtime. The problem is that I have a lot more music in me than eight songs every few years.

“I really enjoy the process of recording and I’m overflowing with ideas. But it’s not always like that – so when it is you’ve got to run with it.”

So why did he wait until now?

“Because there’s a gap now, and there’s also the time to do this now, which there wasn’t before…and the record label allowed it!

“Plus, on a personal level, my kids have now grown up. It’s just the way things are.”

And he’s finding the back-to-basics aspect of it all a bit nostalgic. “It reminds me of when I was 18,” he goes on. “I’m thinking about music first thing in the morning and last thing at night.”

“I’ve gone back to the future!”

As far as side-projects go, it’s no off-the-wall flight of fancy, or exercise in genre bending.

He agrees. “Yeah, it’s not like going out and recording a record of crooning or launching an African project or something based on a bunch of cartoons. It’s really not a million miles from the genesis of Simple Minds. But it will always be its own thing.”

And he is at pains to point out Lostboy doesn’t mean the end of Simple Minds.

“Simple Minds is very much continuing and I am enjoying life within it.

But, for me, this is my own voyage of discovery.”

* Lostboy AKA Jim Kerr plays the O2 Academy Oxford on Tuesday. Tickets are £15 from ticketweb.co.uk