It sounds pretty unbelievable, but today it’s been exactly 7 years since the world premiere of the music video for Shut Up! back in 2005. The music video for the second single off their second album called “Still Not Getting Any…” was directed by Erik White in Los Angeles, California. The shooting took place on December 15th 2004. And of course, our beloved Patrick Langlois could not be missing in this video, so if you’re still not sure where exactly he is – he portrays the valet in front of the hotel, where Simple Plan crashed the ballroom and made a pretty huge mess before finding out it was not really the place to be at.

You can remind yourselves of the 6th Simple Plan music video right here. :)

Another year has gone by and we are already looking forward to what’s going to happen in the next one. But while we’re still all surrounded by 2011, let’s summarize all that’s happened this year in the world of Simple Plan, just like we do every year.

Here is the recap of 2011:

Just a couple of days after the start of the year we’ve learned one of the most basic information about the upcoming fourth Simple Plan record: that one of the new songs would have 2 versions: English and French. It was only a couple months later that we’ve found out this song was called Jet Lag. Still in January, the band started planning their tour for the whole year. The next month the first official snippet (of 27 seconds) was released: for the song You Suck At Love that the fans have only heard in full live version so far. And to celebrate his 90K followers on Twitter, Pierre has released the so-called “Twitter song”.

March has been full of news about the new album: first, the band revealed in a special video the official release date of the record: June 21st, then Alex Gaskarth was confirmed to be one of the collaborations on the album and Simple Plan also released a full version of their song Can’t Keep My Hands Off You, to which they also recorded an accompanying music video (even though the song itself wasn’t released as an official single). Apart from that, Sebastien released his second EP “Les Robots” online for free in March, Simple Plan were confirmed to be the co-writers of All Time Low’s song “Time Bomb” and once again Pierre and Chuck worked with Faber Drive on a few of their lyrics. In the same month the song “Wavin’ Flag” by Young Artists For Haiti (that Pierre has been a part of and that was released a year before that) has won the award for “Single of the Year” on 2011’s Juno Awards.

In April, Simple Plan recorded two more music videos: for Jet Lag and Astronaut. Jet Lag was released a few days after its recording and SimplePlan.cz was the first site to inform about the fact that Natasha Bedingfield and Marie-Mai were to sing on it. The music video first appeared on the so-called Jet Lag Airlines, which was an interactive segment on the official Simple Plan website which revealed the fans a certain surprise regarding the new record every other day. This way the fans got to know the official name of the record: Get Your Heart On! and also its tracklisting.

The closer we got to the release of the album, the more information was released. In May, all the collaborations on GYHO have been released: namely Alex Gaskarth, K’Naan, Natasha Bedingfield, Marie-Mai and Rivers Cuomo. Simple Plan organized a “secret” show in Montreal, Canada, which only a small amount of fans could attend and be able to hear all the songs from GYHO live for the first time ever, including the party medley that SP used on their shows for the rest of the year. The official Simple Plan website changed its look and the fans were able to see the band for the first time on their new photos and videos imitating many famous bands from Ramones to Wham! The band stopped in Japan and Singapore, where also a few of its members took part in the recording of a special version of the song Fix You, this time for benefit purpose.

At the beginning of June, Simple Plan performed in a few European countries, mostly on local festivals. On a few occasions, the boys took advantage of the fact that the record was still not out and they could surprise the fans with new songs, so they played not only the just released single, but also the never-heard-before songs like Last One Standing (in Poland), Astronaut (in Germany) or Freaking Me Out (in France). In the midst of June the guys appeared on the annual MMVAs in a pink limo, surprising all the media and guests by their fierce looks alá Plan! On June 21st Simple Plan finally released their 4th studio album called Get Your Heart On!, which has received unexpectedly good reviews: both from the fans and also from the critiques. The album has been declared more than once as “the best pop-rock album of 2011″. In June, Simple Plan joined other bands on Warped Tour in the USA, which they continued performing at also during July.

Pierre’s appearance as a judge in the competition called Canada Sings premiered in August, when Simple Plan also began their promo tour in Asia. Unfortunately, after the first show in South Korea, the band was forced to cancel the remaining shows and also a few concerts in Europe, due to Pierre being diagnosed with a case of swollen vocal chords. Luckily Pierre got well really soon and the band continued their tour in Europe from the end of August till the beginning of September, visiting many countries. While in the Czech Republic, SimplePlan.cz had the honor to interview three members of Simple Plan and give them a present that hundreds of Czech fans participated in.

After the end of this tour, the guys returned to their homeland, where, still in September, a new charitable campaign for Centraide was launched, revealing the members of Simple Plan in their naked glory and making millions of fans swoon. A few days after that the band released their second single (and third music video) from GYHO: Astronaut. The annual Simple Plan Foundation benefit event took place in September and was very special: Simple Plan were joined on stage by the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra (OSM).

From Canada, Simple Plan flew all the way to Australia, where the band played a few shows in October and November. From this tour the band composed another music video for their next single – Summer Paradise. After Australia, Simple Plan went back to North America, this time joined by The Cab, Marianas Trench and Forever The Sickest Kids on Simple Plan’s tour across the United States. SP spiced up this tour on Halloween, when they put on their tiny white shorts and tank tops – just like on MMVAs – as Plan!

In November, we were able to watch the whole documentary in the program called Born To Be, in which MuchMusic documented he whole history of Simple Plan. The band also started announcing their tours for the upcoming year. In the midst of the month, SP visited Brazil again, where the played two concerts, and Mexico after that. In this time, Simple Plan also came up with a limited edition of the “I Got A Heart On For You” t-shirts with all proceeds going to charitable causes.

And finally in December, first a video for the song Loser Of The Year appeared on the internet, confusing pretty much all the media that declared it “another SP music video”. Anyway, later it turned out not to be any official music video, but nevertheless it has received lots of positive reviews. Shortly after that the band released the official music video made of live footage from Australia – for the song Summer Paradise. Simple Plan also managed to attend a few Jingle Jams in the USA and the whole recording of SP’s performance with OSM has been released online. Towards the end of the year, more information about the upcoming documenatary called Je Suis Fan about the fans of music (including Simple Plan fans) leaked online, including a trailer. The last concert of this year will be Simple Plan’s New Year’s Eve show at Niagara Falls.

And what can we expect from 2012? So far, Simple Plan have huge tours in Asia and Europe scheduled for the first half of the year. And who knows… maybe they will visit your country too! Just don’t forget one thing: in order for them to know they are wanted in a certain country, they must be getting some feedback in a form of the counts of plays of theirs songs on the local radio stations. So go and request the singles from Get Your Heart On! and help Simple Plan come to your country too!

Sebastien posted a picture on Twitter today. A picture that one does not see very often: Simple Plan’s setlist from around 1999. That makes it one of the first setlists from the early days of Simple Plan, which was probably used during the time when Simple Plan were just a four-piece band (with David not escaping from Reset yet).

The most interesting thing about the setlist, though, is that it reveals two titles of songs that have never been mentioned anywhere before: Airport and Tana. Perhaps some of you may not recall First Date as well – if you’re the case, make sure to check out the live version of this song on YouTube. Neither Sebastien, nor any other band member has commented on these never-heard-before songs yet. So the question if they have ever been recorded still remains.

The year 2010 is almost successfully behind us, so it’s time to reming ourselves (just like last year), what has happened in the Simple Plan world.
Here is the recap of 2010:

The beginning of 2010 was full of action: in January, Chuck attended the charitable celebrity hockey game, in which he even managed to score one goal. Next, Simple Plan took part of the Canada For Haiti event, to support the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. A great surprise for the Simple Plan fans and a great honour as well was then definitely their performance on both the opening AND the huge closing ceremonial of 2010′s Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.

March was the month of benefit events: Pierre (along with other yound Canadian artists) lent his voice to the song Wavin’ Flag, which was a part of the Young Artists For Haiti project, again in order to financially help the citizens of Haiti. Sebastien also did some good when attending the “Busking For Change” event, where he was literally busking for change, along with other artists, in the underground stations. All that to raise money for the charitable oganisation War Child. The following month, Seb and Patrick Langlois announced leaving the Idobi radio station with thir show Man Of The Hour and moved to the therestrial waves of the Montreal Virgin Radio.

Next months were pretty much all about the upcoming Simple Plan album: in March, the guys announced they have officially finished the song-writing process and also confirmed the collaboration with Rivers Cuomo (from the band Weezer) on one of SP’s songs. Jeff and David surprisingly joined the rest of the band on Twitter in June, David changed his haircut again and the whole band finally returned to the land of the United States, where they did the Bamboozle Roadshow tour. This is where the guys showed their fans for the first time a new song from the upcoming SP record: “You Suck At Love”.

The pre-production of the 4th record started in July: Brian Howes was named the head producer and Simple Plan finally started recording on July 26th. Meanwhile, they also managed to drop by in China, where they were scheduled to play on a huge music festival – and even though the weather was not on Simple Plan’s side, the guys did not dissapoint their fans and played an acoustic set with a rainy sky above them. August was a pretty special month for SimplePlan.cz, as not only we got ourselves a new layout, but also SP.cz celebrated 3 years online.

It was a dream come true to many European Simple Plan fans in September: the guys finally returned to the old continent – to play shows in Austria (Two Days A Week Festival) and Italy (I-Day Festival). A huge surprise for all the fans came few days later, when suddenly a new Simple Plan demo – “Famous For Nothing” – hit the net. The song was one of the 60 songs the guys made for the new record, but was scratched from the final cut. Sebastien and Patrick didn’t last long on Montreal Virgin Radio with MOTH – after a long break, the guys announced in late October their return back to Idobi.

At the beginning of November, it was revealed that a certain special guest would be appearing on the new Simple Plan album. His identity is still unknown. About 20 fans helped Simple Plan record the song This Song Saved My Life in November and few days later, the guys officially left the studio. Like every year, SP hosted a benefit event of their Simple Plan Foundation – this time around, the visitors were treated with a little sneak peak of the the newly recorded tracks from the upcoming album. Next, the guys also did a little performance back at their high school – Beaubois College. On November 23rd, Sebastien and Katie Rox released their EP “Christmas Etc.”, which they accompanied with a bunch of entertaining webisodes. And finally, few days before the end of the year, we have witnessed another leak of a Simple Plan demo – Just Around The Corner.

And what can we expect from the year 2011? Well, most importantly – this time we will finally get our hands on the new Simple Plan album (as it’s already recorded, the “March/April” release date sounds pretty trustworthy). And even though it’s still a pretty long way till that, and there will be still loads of work to do: like coming up with the album title, shooting and choosing the album cover (perhaps this time will SP rely on fans’ advice – like with the 2nd round of the cover for the last album which first choice has received loads of negative comments), we still have loads to look forward to: Simple Plan promised the new album should remind us of the “good, old SP” and they should also get back to all the countries they have visited in the past, and also to those they have never been to before. See you at a Simple Plan show!

On SimplePlan.cz, you could have already read flashbacks on Simple Plan’s relationship with Hilary Duff or on the Punk Rock Holocaust movie. This time, let’s turn the time back 6 years ago when the film New York Minute was shot in New York… duh. Except the Olsen twins, Jared Padalecki (Gilmore Girls, Supernatural), Eugene Levi (American Pie) or Jack Osbourne (The Osbournes), Simple Plan also starred in this movie. As themselves. You can read more about the movie itself right here.

But how did the guys get the role in the first place? In an interview for the Chart magazine back in 2005 Chuck says: “The whole way we approached it was that we heard that they liked our band and they called and said, “Do you want to be i our movie?” And for us it was a chance to play live concert in a movie. We don’t really discriminate who we play in front of and it gave us a chance to do what we do – which is play live in front of a bunch of people.”

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have been a pretty massive global phenomenon back in 2004, so there’s no wonder the guys from SP wanted to get closer to them. “We tried to buy them lunch,” says Chuck. “But they weren’t having any of it….” David smiles: “Mary-Kate tried my bubble tea.”

Exclusive, you can now check out a HQ version of the photo of the Simple Plan members with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, which has been only seen in a really low quality so far:

And apart from that, make sure to check out the newly added photos from the backstage of New York Minute: and if you’re paying enough atention to them, I’m pretty sure you will find our boys in them:

Many many years ago, when he was still in Reset with Pierre, apart from drumming, Chuck started in the music industry with writing for a music magazine. In April 1996 he even got the opportunity to interview a member of one of his favourite bands – Bad Religion.

At that time he was only 16 years old – and I think even for his early age, he nailed the interview pretty well – he even managed to show Bad Religion one of his tracks (Go Away by Reset) and get an evaluation.

Today, Patrick Langlois posted the video of this never-seen-before interview (which also includes an interview with Chuck) on Twitter with a note that the first time he saw it, he knew he wanted to work for MusiquePlus (which he eventually made happen :)):