Simple Minds as well, especially this one,

But I have the following four songs on my iPod and I never, ever tire of hearing them: The American, Love Song, I Travel, New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84).

Achtung Baby was one of those rare things: an album with no duff tracks. U2's problem is over-exposure, for good though they are, I need never play One, WOWY, P(ITNOL), WTSHNN ever again cos I will soon hear one of them on the radio.

Both, of course, haven't made a good record for nigh-on 2 decades. Unlike REM.

to find out - FIGHT ! (Actuslly Jim Kerr vs Bono would be pretty entertaining).
Simple Minds for me, loved New Gold Dream as well and shall dig it out later. Thanks Dave. BTW a mate was ents secretary at Exeter Uni a long while back and he had Simple Minds on, said they were superb and nice guys as well. This was before they made it though.

They did some bloody good tunes. Decent new wave/synth band and pre-Belfast Child a good run of albums really. I can still tap a toe to their stuff, U2 I find quite unlistenable.

I'd rather be deaf than hear a single note from either of them.

if the Martians landed

If it was in a car park, no-one would care.

Couldn't we persuade the Martians to try listening to some other stuff?

If not, I'd suggest launching a counter-attack led by Bruce Willis, Robert Duvall and Will Smith. That would sort those tasteless Martian bastards out.

for Johnny Cash and U2 - The Wanderer on Zooropa, they 'edge' it. But for me that is the only redeeming feature for both groups.

I can see where this one is going, so i'll get my two penneth worth in before the mud starts flying.

Both have done good and bad over the years, but on balance Simple Minds for the early years and U2 for the mid period stuff, as amply demonstrated below.

The answer is Then Jericho

Belfast child myself, nothing U2 have done (& I hold no affection for any of their works) is as appalling as the complete desecration of one of the most haunting folk songs of all time as carried out by Johnny & The Self Abusers. No amount of good works can redeem that butt clenchingly awful attempt at 'serious political commentarty'.

No!!!!!!!!

I had forgetten all about Then Jerico. Now you've reminded me that they existed and that they had a hit record. You bastard.

...what to make of Simple Minds? The only way I have ever been able to deal with it is to think of a band making 6 generally brilliant, ground-breaking albums then disbanding and being replaced by some pompous blokes prancing about in pyjamas. 6 good albums ain't a bad career, surely:

1 Life in a Day - Some good moments (Destiny, title track, Murder Story) but too much post Jonny and the Self-Abusers post-glam trash
2 Real to Real Cacophony - Utter genius, music today would be rubbish if this had never happened. Dense, claustrophobic electro with tunes!
3 Empires & Dance - Much sparser, dance sound, brilliant 'concept album' travelogue vibe
4 Sons & Fascination - the masterpiece for me, one of the great albums of the 80s, again extremely influential if you listen to it today
5 Sister Feelings Call - some brilliant moments esp 'Careful in Career' and 'Theme for Great Cities'
6 New Gold Dream - some shimmering genius again (Big Sleep, SomeoneSomewhere, Hunter & the Hunted) though suddenly those stadium rock tendencies starting to show, quick retire to the farm...

Everything after this is by imposters, surely???

"pompous, Celtic, stadium rock played with a swagger and some dubious 80's stylings "

That's Big Country, that is. Or The Alarm.
The correct answer is, of course, BC.

particularly back when they were doing scary robot goth disco

(And you may be interested to know that the early stuff is available very cheap from Amazon downloads:

Life In A Day - £3.99
Real To Real Cacophony - £4.99
Empires & Dance - £2.99
Sons & Fascination / Sister Feelings Call - £5.49
New Gold Dream - £2.99
Sparkle In The Rain - £2.99
Once Upon A Time - £3.89

If you've not heard New Gold Dream I'd suggest you give it a try, especially at a price that's less than a pint would cost you.)

I actually own a simple minds record, the one with sanctify on, and for a while I quite liked them. U2 I have never cared for, but if aliens did land Bono would, no doubt, be the first to go and press the flesh. We all know what would happen then.

Saw them a couple of years ago playing a town square sort of festival thing(go for the days you want, go home to your own bed)

They were super fun, a few drinks and a singalong didn't hurt anybody. I'd completely forgotten they did "Someone, Somewhere in summertime" also, which was a fantastic surprise.

Lemmeseeyerhands!!

I'd probably go for U2 as they just have more individual tracks I like, and less I skip over.

However, I feel the need to lob these two SM tracks up, just to prove it wasn't all pretentious angularity. Sometimes it was bloody good hooks and fantastic drums.

As with most bands I liked as a teenager, I went through a pretty obsessive Simple Minds phase, and attacked various record fairs looking for alternate tracks on 12" singles and, more excitingly, bootlegs.

Listening to them in their different eras, it became clear that they did what very few other bands have done, which is rework or rearrange older songs to fit in alongside their most recent stuff. When touring Empires & Dance, everything took on the stark, robotic qualities of that album. A year later, touring Sons & Fascination the songs got looser and (dare I say it) funkier.

The entire New Gold Dream show had a warmer, more lush feel as was appropriate to the album, and when Sparkle In The Rain came around everything got loud and clattery, and Jim Kerr shouted all the way through The American.

Finally, on the Once Upon A Time tour, everything gets slower and that bit more pompous sounding (and weirdly quasi religious). That's not necessarily a bad thing - I don't like that record but the versions of East at Easter and Book Of Brilliant Things are great - totally different from their album versions. In fact there's a live version of Celebrate (off Empires) that is kind of disastrous but fascinating - taking a clanking bleepy droney chant and making it into a massive, emotive stadium rock ANTHEM is the very definition of trying to smash square blocks through round holes.

I don't know how much they did this after this point as I kind of lost interest in the band*. But the bits I did hear they seemed to be actively rewriting their old stuff. Ghostdancing is a "rock" version of I Travel, Mandela Day is de-synthed Seeing Out The Angel, and I'm sure later albums had thinly veiled rewrites of Waterfront, The American and Theme For Great Cities. If you're gonna steal, stel from yourself, eh?

* even though I think Street Fighting Years had some good bits

To my ears, Simple Minds started off well and went downhill fast. It didn't help that they kept writing the same song over and over and over again. I'm afraid, for me, their canon is an example of the Law Of Diminishing Returns (And Chords).

U2, on the other hand, started off badly but got better and better as their ability started to match their ambition. And they tried to stretch themselves, do new things, experiment and generally develop.

Both bands have some real clunkers in the cupboard but for me, there's much more good U2 and the best U2 easily trumps the best Simple Minds.

Empires and Dance and Sons and Fascination are really great albums. Hard to believe that the band that recorded Love Song and This Fear Of Gods could be churning out Sanctify Yourself a few short years later. Early Simple Minds were fantastic and that's in large part due to the presence of Derek Forbes- a very interesting bass player. Once he left he seemed to take the most exciting, driving and unusual part of the band with him. Contrast Mr Forbes with Adam Clayton who is the most laziest and dullest bassist alive. So Simple Minds win.

Mind you, you should probably view my opinions with suspicion as I rate October- universally maligned by everyone including U2- at least on that record Clayton could be bothered to play something a little different than root notes.

The elder brothers of friends had New Gold Dream / Sparkle In The Rain, and I really liked them, but didn't consider it to be 'my' music. I think 'Alive and Kicking' is a good track. But for me, this is the one (the one they didn't write):

(Alright, I'm a man of certain age... and The Breakfast Club meant something back then... :-))

I think my U2 fandom is pretty well documented in WordWorld, and I always stick-up for Bono and the boys.

I love everything from The Joshua Tree, through to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. No Line On The Horizon is OK, but has failed to grab me in a big way. The top of the mountain for me is Achtung Baby / Zooropa, but that might be for personal reasons - mind you that's the only way to respond to music, isn't it?

Goosebumps.

Horrible, pompous, boring, ridiculously hyped

Sorry, but why would I want to listen to them,?

No idea about bass and drums being vaguely funky, no idea about a decent tune, no idea about interesting chords or harmonies, no idea about humour or irony or not taking themselves seriously.

I'm sure someone else (probably everyone) has said this but can I have neither. There is nothing by U2 that I actively dislike (although I Will Follow on Boy is a belter). And I must admit to liking one or two pieces by S Minds. That was during my 1980s "wear a jacket with the sleeves rolled up" phase.

Can we make it a triple header and add in the Eurythmics? The GLW's entire record collection consists of U2,S Minds and everything ever recorded by A Lennox. Is that grounds for divorce?

beats U2 hands down.

But neither can hold a candle to The Waterboys in their big music pomp circa Pagan Place and This Is The Sea.

(and you can read that any way you choose!)

Simple Minds for me have an unfair press from those on their high horse about 80's Pop/Rock. Anyone who sticks around for a while has phases which aren't everyone's cup of tea. Look to 2009's Graffiti Soul for a band making something as good as anything else kicking around in that genre. Still a top live act and touring regularly.

from the UK (well, kinda), both with their roots in post punk...they can't be all bad.
Simple Minds missed a trick by not copying U2's irony phase when they became so big. It got them out of a big mess. That said, Someone, Somewhere in Summertime is one of my all time favourite songs by anyone.
Prefer Big Country to both though, desperately sad Stuart couldn't have stayed around and reinvented himself and the band. There was so much warmth towards them.