Simple Minds - Alive And Kicking

What this video is

Released in September 1985 as the lead single from Simple Minds' seventh album Once Upon a Time, 'Alive and Kicking' arrived on the immediate wave of the band's American breakthrough via 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' from The Breakfast Club soundtrack. The song peaked at #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #7 in the UK. The choice of the Catskill Mountains as location — a site of 19th-century American Romantic…

Why it matters

A landmark document of mid-80s British new wave reaching its arena-rock commercial apex. The video's location-driven prestige production model influenced subsequent outdoor performance aesthetics in the genre. Directed by an Academy Award-winning filmmaker at the height of the music video art…

The director

Polish filmmaker and multimedia artist born January 27, 1949 in Łódź, Poland. Won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Tango — the first Oscar ever awarded to a Polish artist. After emigrating to the US, he became a leading MTV-era music…