16 February 1989
Even before Band Aid and Live Aid, U2 had popularised the notion in the ’80s that rock music could—should—be used to “say something”. However, what if the rock band had nothing to say, or at least nothing worthwhile? Didn’t matter. You had an audience, you had an ego, therefore anything you said was de facto worthwhile.
And so we have Simple Minds, who take a traditional Irish air, put their own lyrics on it, call the resulting overwrought ersatz folk-rock ballad ‘Belfast Child’, and present it as their take on the Troubles almost for no better reason than their previous album had songs about Solidarity in Poland (‘All The Things She Said’) and “the Lebanon” and “Mother Ethiopia” (‘Ghost Dancing’) so Northern Ireland was next on the shelves at Issues-R-Us. Yes, you can be personally saddened and outraged by acts of violence, terror and murder on real human beings in 1980s Northern Ireland, but it doesn’t follow that this emotional response automatically translates into a valuable or even interesting artistic response. It’s this surfeit of ego over self-awareness that gives us condescending clunkers like “some say troubles abound” and “war is raging on the Emerald Isle”, not to mention the pseudo-profundity of the title lyric about “when the Belfast Child sings again”.
Of course, it’s possible that I’ve got this completely wrong and ‘Belfast Child’ is in fact an exercise in channelling the Troubles-era expression “whatever you say, say nothing”.
