Big Country

[Sundeporino]

Big Country

I'd choose both The Skids and The Armoury Show over Big Country any day but BC were "better" than Bowie when I saw his "Serious fuckin Moonlight" tour at Joker Park.
Approx half a mile down the road and five years earlier Id seen "The Alarm" when they were a "mod" band singing about "Bank Holiday Weekends" and the like. They were awful then as well.

[Third rate Leszno]

Big Country

Reading this thread hasn't made me want to go and watch Mike Peters fronting the band, but it has made me want to dig out my old BC cassettes and maybe get some downloaded onto my iPod.

Steeltown was definitely the high point for me. Think I saw them 5 times in all, including Shepton Mallet agricultural showground on a freezing winters night, having driven down from South Wales in my Lada with some mates.

[bovril]

Big Country

went to the Manchester show at the weekend.

very good. peters does a fine job actually.

[historyman]

Big Country

Harry Truscott wrote:

Stuart Adamson remains the only pop star I have ever taken to dressing like* and then walked in to a barbers with a photo of him and said "Can you do me hair like that?"

* plaid shirt with sleeves razored off, red mesh vest underneath, blue neckerchief & sweatband on my wrist (actually an old Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow one turned inside out but it was red, gold and green so looked very "cool"). Actually, thinking about it, did he really dress like that at all ?

The Cool Look of '83

BC were my first favourite band and I loved them to bits. The Crossing and Steeltown are still two of my favourite albums and they feature regularly on my playlists, along with selected songs from their later albums.

They dropped very quickly from being a cool band to somewhere alongside Status Quo in cult status. A pity really since some of Stuart Adamson's later work is underrated - check out 1993's 'The Buffalo Skinners', for example.

Who defines what's cool anyway?

That story upthread regarding Live Aid is true, by the way, except that it was Bob Geldoff, not Midge Ure, who thought that BC had broken up. They would have done a better and less pompous job than some of the acts there, that's for sure.

My BC top ten:

Angle Park
Just A Shadow
Lost Patrol
Fields of Fire
Close Action
East of Eden
Heart And Soul
Steeltown
When The Drum Beats
Seven Waves

[historyman]

Big Country

This coming Friday - December 16th - is the 10th anniversary of Stuart's untimely passing.

I've been thinking about this a little bit over the past few days, far more than I did at the time. In December 2001 I was in the middle of making plans to get married and move to Donegal, so although I was sad at the news I just didn't have the time to reflect at length on how much his music meant to me whilst growing up.

Anyhow, I'll be playing a few Skids and Big Country tracks this Friday.

[willie1foot]

Big Country

Thanks for the reminder, historyman. They were one of my favourite bands during my early 20s. Shame Stuart Adamson had to go the way he did.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Big Country

Ten years, fucking hell time flies. It feels like a few years that's all. Loved the music growing up and seeing them play in Wolverhampton around 1995 was one of the best gigs I went to round that time.

[Squarewheelbike]

Big Country

Might be wrong, but didn't Bruce Watson spend some time in Dead Men Walking with Mike Peters?