Derek Forbes

Derek Forbes (born 22 June 1956) is a Scottish musician. He is mostly associated with the Scottish band Simple Minds, having joined in time to record their early demos in 1978 and stayed with the band during their rise to mainstream success and their first six albums, until leaving shortly after their 1985 hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (subsequently rejoining in a reduced role from 1995 to 1998). He has also played with Big Country, Propaganda, Oblivion Dust, Spear of Destiny, Kirk Brandon's 10:51 and The Alarm, as well as leading his own projects.

A former member of the Scottish punk band Subs, Forbes replaced Tony Donald as bassist for Simple Minds in 1978, remaining in the band for seven years and six albums before being ousted in 1985. Despite this, he remained closely associated with Simple Minds and has described them as "the band I never left." He contributed overdubs to their post-Forbes live album Live in the City of Light and, having turned down a chance to rejoin the band in 1989, subsequently rejoined for a three-year period from 1995 to 1998 (before and during the recording of Néapolis). He and the band's erstwhile drummer Mel Gaynor also appeared at Scotland Rocks for Kosovo in 1999 performing Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", whilst a new version of Simple Minds also appeared on the bill (with Mark Kerr on drums and Eddie Duffy on bass). Forbes was also part of the abortive reunion of the original band in 2008. While still nominally being out of Simple Minds, he has assisted at selected rehearsals, writing and recording sessions, and played versions of the band's music with his own separate projects.

After Simple Minds, Forbes went on to play in a number of other bands, including Propaganda (Germany) and Oblivion Dust (Japan), Spear of Destiny, 10:51 and the Alarm. Forbes sang with David Bowie on the Iggy Pop album Soldier. He played bass on the Kirsty MacColl hit "A New England". Forbes has also performed onstage with Peter Gabriel.

Forbes also played in Fourgoodmen, a Scottish supergroup, between 2005 and 2007, and formed XSM, who were originally to consist of Forbes, MacNeil, and McGee from the original Simple Minds line up. XSM recorded an album's worth of tracks, but Mick MacNeil didn't want to perform live, so Forbes and McGee took the band out, along with Owen Paul (McGee), sibling of Brian McGee. The guitar and keyboard player roles were twofold, with Steven Curley (version 1) on guitar, followed by Ant Seaman guitar (version 2) and Gary O'Hagan on keyboards (version 1) and Andy Gall keyboards (version 2).

Forbes was voted 'Best Bass Player in the World' in 1982, and 'Best International Bass Player' in a music poll in Australia, the same year. Forbes was also voted 'Best Bass Player in UK'. In 2009, Forbes was voted 'Scotland's Greatest Ever Bassist' by the readers of Dear Scotland, and his life and work is the subject of a biography in both print and film by writer/director Ethan Dettenmaier.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.