Simple Minds, Icehouse to headline Red Hot Summer tour in February 2024

Scottish rockers Simple Minds will join Aussie legends Icehouse to headline a huge national tour in February.

Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr says the band is ‘ecstatic’ about returning to Australia. Picture: Supplied

Scottish superstars Simple Minds are very much alive and kicking, and more than 40 years after first meeting will re-team with iconic band Icehouse for an Aussie tour.

The bands will headline the Red Hot Summer tour, playing at Mornington Racecourse, Rochford Winery, Bribie Island in Queensland and Kings Park in Perth in February 2024.

Simple Minds (above) first toured Australia in 1981 at the invitation of Icehouse.

“We had the best time during that six-week period, and we’re ecstatic to be able to come back and to do it all over again with our mates, Icehouse,” Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr said.

“We love everything about this band and Australia. We are always welcomed with open arms and have such a special bond with our Aussie fans. We can’t wait to get back there and play in some of the best outdoor locations in your beautiful country.”

Simple Minds will tour Australia in February 2024. Picture: Supplied

Icehouse will tour Australia as part of the Red Hot Summer tour in February 2024. Picture: Supplied

Icehouse’s Iva Davies said the band’s first international tour saw them support Simple Minds in Scotland. It was the first tour they did as Icehouse after having to change the name of the band from Flowers.

“Our first international tour took us to England and up to Scotland and that was to be supporting Simple Minds,” Davies said.

“They were at a point in their career where they were just starting to get known in Europe and nobody in Australia knew anything about them.

“We then as a reciprocal deal invited them to come and support us in Australia because we had just had an enormous first album, and it was out of that tour that Triple J started playing a song of theirs called Love Song, which really introduced the whole of Australia to Simple Minds, and the rest is history.”

Tickets go on sale August 3.