Derek Forbes

Derek Forbes (born 22 June 1956) is a Scottish bassist, vocalist, and sometime guitarist, best known for his work with the Scottish band Simple Minds, which he joined in 1978. He recorded with them from their early demos until shortly after their 1985 hit, "Don't You (Forget About Me)". He was dismissed from the band, apparently through petty jealousy—as told by Jim Kerr, who stated that it was a regrettable mistake—prior to the release of the global success of Once Upon a Time. Forbes has claimed that he wrote on 60% of the album, yet remained uncredited. Assuming he would quickly be asked to re-join the band, no legal action was taken.He reunited with the band for a three-year period from 1995 to 1998, before and during the recording of Néapolis. He and Mel Gaynor found out a few days before the Kosovo show at Glasgow's SECC, that they both weren't included; this was much to the confusion of the fans, as they had been told that both Forbes and Gaynor were not available to play, but were onstage directly before Simple Minds went on. Forbes has stated that he has never left the band, and also that he wasn't happy with the final mix of the album. Forbes and Gaynor appeared at the Scotland Rocks for Kosovo in 1999 performing Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", whilst Simple Minds also appeared on the bill with Mark Kerr on drums and Eddie Duffy on bass. Forbes has sung with David Bowie, on the Iggy Pop album 'Soldier'. He played bass on the Kirsty MacColl hit 'A New England'. Forbes has performed onstage with Peter Gabriel 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. He also played in Fourgoodmen, a Scottish supergroup, between 2005-2007 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 play 'Live', so Forbes and McGee t