Released April 1984 (1984-04) Genre Pop rock, new wave Label Virgin | Format 12", 7" Length 4:04 | |
B-side "A Brass Band in Africa" | ||
"Up on the Catwalk" was the third single to be released from Sparkle in the Rain, the sixth studio album by Simple Minds. It was released in March 1984 and climbed to number 27 in the UK Singles Chart. It stayed in the charts for 5 weeks, which was longer than the band's previous single, "Speed Your Love to Me".
Contents
Unlike the album's previous two singles, "Waterfront" and "Speed Your Love to Me", "Up on the Catwalk" was not included in the band's 1992 compilation album Glittering Prize 81/92. However, reviewer MacKenzie Wilson of Allmusic considered this single to be the strongest song on Sparkle in the Rain, complimenting its lyrics and 'glossy' verse which "thrives on celebrity and the falling grace that coincides that". The band's lead singer Jim Kerr has retrospectively called "Up on the Catwalk" an example of Simple Minds "at their spikiest and most dramatic".
Style
The song begins with an exclamation of "one, two, one, two, three, four" while the drummer, Mel Gaynor, bangs his drumsticks together, followed by "crashing drums" and keyboards by Mick MacNeil. As the song progresses it achieves the rock-oriented, "enormous sound" of the two preceding singles, thanks to extensive "reverb and echo" attributed to each instrument in the production. The keyboards play a more prominent and "thunderous" role in "Up On The Catwalk" than in "Speed Your Love To Me", particularly in the chorus after the refrain "I will be there".
Music video
The promotional video for "Up On The Catwalk" begins with photo montages of parts of various people's faces forming, before switching to a studio performance of the band on a catwalk in the centre of the room. This is surrounded by a peripheral catwalk on which several figures move across during the video. During the performance Jim Kerr in dense make-up sings and dances in the middle while photo montages once again come and go during the chorus refrain "I will be there". The combination of seemingly random photo compositions, and glamorous models alternating with superhero figures on the second catwalk, while Kerr rapidly sings names of well-known persons and places, create an overall "surreal" and "disturbing" video according to Dream Giver Redux.
7" single
1. "Up on the Catwalk" (edit) - 4:04
2. "A Brass Band in Africa" - 5:10
12" single
1. "Up on the Catwalk" (Extended Mix) - 7:34
2. "A Brass Band in Africa Chimes" - 9:22