In A Big Country

[Ivan May]

The Big Country was much different from every other jangle pop/new wave band at the time: They were adding a strong Scottish/Irish music influence to the Talking Heads/Pretenders template. Imagine hearing Sting cover "Whiskey In The Jar" and you'll understand what I mean.

The group was comprised of guitarist Stuart Adamson, who had previously spent time in the Scottish post punk band The Skids. The other members included drummer Mark Brzezicki, basist Tony Butler and lead guitarist Bruce Watson, who was born in Canada but spent his childhood in Scotland.

While Big Country were a one-hit wonder in the US (their only big hit was In A Big Country, which peaked at #17 in the US, and also peaked at #17 in the UK), the band took their primary influences (The Beatles, Thin Lizzy, Dan Fogelberg, Roxy Music, The Cars, Brian Eno, The Who and The Chieftains) and meshed it with the sounds of Celtic folk music. Their debut album, The Crossing, was released by Mercury Records in 1983 and was produced by Steve Lillywhite, who was also mentoring U2 at around the same time. The Crossing eventually earned a gold disc in both the US and Canada, and Big Country evrntualy eanred a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist (losing to, surprisingly, Cyndi Lauper!), as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Big Country's sound is also recognizable, with Mark Brzezicki's treated drums and the "bagpipe" sound (which is actually Bruce Watson and Stuart Adamson using Ebows to make their guitars sound like bagpipes.)

 

Big Country's first single was "Harvest Home", recorded and released in 1982. It was a modest success, although it did not reach the UK Singles Chart. Their next single was 1983's "Fields Of Fire (400 Miles)", which reached the UK's Top Ten and was rapidly followed by the album The Crossing. The album was a hit in the United States (reaching the Top 20 in the Billboard 200), powered by "In a Big Country", their only US Top 40 hit single. The song features heavily engineered guitar sounds, strongly reminiscent of bagpipes; Adamson and fellow guitarist Watson achieved this through the use of the MXR Pitch Transposer 129 Guitar Effect. Also contributing to the band's unique sound was their use of the e-bow, a device which allows a guitar to sound more like strings or synthesizer. The Crossing sold over a million copies in the UK and obtained gold record status (sales of over 500,000) in the US. The band performed at the Grammy Awards and on Saturday Night Live.

Their next single, a non album track called Wonderland, was a moderate hit in the UK, reaching no. 8, but stalled at number 86 in the US, eventually becoming their last hot 100 entry. 

Their second album Steeltown (1984) was a hit as soon as it was released, entering the UK Albums Chart at No. 1. The album featured three UK top 30 hit singles, and received considerable critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, but like Wonderland (and, in fact, all subsequent releases) it was a commercial disappointment in the US, peaking at No. 70 on the Billboard album chart.

On Christmas 1984, the four members participated in the Band Aid charity record "Do They Know It's Christmas?". They are among a small handful of acts to contribute a spoken message to the B-side of the single.

Throughout 1984 and 1985 the band toured the UK, Europe, and to a lesser extent the US both as headliners and in support of such bigger-name artists as Queen and Roger Daltrey. They also recorded prolifically, and provided the musical score to a Scottish independent film, Restless Natives (1985), which was released years later on the band's Restless Natives and Rarities (1998) collection. Big Country had backed Roger Daltrey on his 1985 solo album Under the Raging Moon, and Tony Butler played bass and provided backing vocals on Pete Townshend's 1980 hit single "Let My Love Open the Door" and the Pretenders' 1982 hit single "Back On The Chain Gang". Both Butler and Brzezicki performed on Townshend's 1985 solo album White City: A Novel. Brzezicki played drums for The Cult on their 1985 Love album and was featured in the video for the single, "She Sells Sanctuary".

1986's The Seer, the band's third album, was another big success in the UK, peaking at Number 2. It produced three further Top 30 singles, including the Irish number one hit "Look Away", which would also prove to be the band's biggest hit in the UK, peaking at No. 7. Kate Bush provided backing vocals on the album's title track, and the album received good reviews from the music press. In the US, The Seer sold a little bit better than Steeltown, reaching No. 59 on the Billboard chart. An additional single, The Teacher, reached #28 in the UK, and got heavy airplay on MTV.

In what some critics felt was an apparent attempt to regain their dwindling US following, Big Country used producer Peter Wolf, formerly of the J. Geils Band, for their next album, Peace in Our Time (1988), which was recorded in Los Angeles. It reached No. 9 in the UK Albums Chart, but sold poorly in the United States. The album launch took place in Moscow and was accompanied by a tour of the USSR, a political statement some felt seemed insincere. During the Peace in Our Time UK tour, the band were supported by Diesel Park West and Cry Before Dawn.

No Place Like Home (1991) nearly broke up the band. Drummer Mark Brzezicki, who had also worked with Procol Harum and Joan Armatrading during this time, returned to the studio as a session drummer after leaving the band. The album found Big Country trying to reinvent themselves and shift away from their 1980s image. It was not a commercial success and was not released in America, although two re-recorded tracks showed up on 1993's The Buffalo Skinners.

In 1991, the band was dropped by Mercury and its distributor Phonogram, the companies that had released all of their material since 1983. After that, Big Country became a minor act, popping up in the lower echelons of the charts in the UK and Europe with the release of every subsequent album. Only one of these, 1993's The Buffalo Skinners, received a major label release (via Chrysalis Records), and it seemed a return to form of sorts for the band, reaching the UK Top 25. The album obtained enthusiastic critical response, and although it produced two UK Top 30 singles in "Alone" and "Ships", its sales were meagre.

In June 1995, Big Country released their seventh studio album, Why the Long Face.

1999 saw the release of Big Country's eighth and final studio album with Adamson at the helm, Driving to Damascus (titled in its slightly different, augmented US release John Wayne's Dream). Adamson said publicly that he was pleased with the album but disappointed that it did not fare better on the charts, which led to depression. Later that year, he disappeared for a while before resurfacing, stating that he had needed some time off.

Adamson moved to Nashville in the mid-1990s, where he met country music singer/songwriter Marcus Hummon, and together they released an alternative country studio album as The Raphaels in 2001.

Adamson returned for the band's 'Final Fling' farewell tour, culminating in a sold-out concert at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom on 31 May 2000. They played what turned out to be their last gig in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October that year.

In November 2001, Adamson disappeared again. Numerous appeals were put on the Big Country website asking for Adamson to call home and speak to anyone in the band, the management company, or his ex-wife. The website also requested that any fans who might have been 'harbouring' the singer to contact the management company and alert them to his whereabouts. Mark Brzezicki and Tony Butler had indicated they were concerned but the reason Big Country had lasted so long was they stayed out of one another's personal lives, and both later noted they were unaware of the extent of Adamson's problems. He was found dead in a room at the Best Western Plaza Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii on 16 December 2001. Adamson was cremated, with his remains buried at the Dunfermiline Crematorium.

A memorial to Adamson was held at Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline in January 2002, followed by a tribute concert at Glasgow Barrowlands in May. It brought together the remaining members of both Big Country and Skids; Adamson's teenage children, Callum and Kirsten; as well as Steve Harley, Runrig, Simon Townshend, Midge Ure and Bill Nelson.

In 2007, to celebrate 25 years of Big Country, founding members Bruce Watson, Tony Butler (now lead vocalist for the first time), and Mark Brzezicki reunited to embark on a tour of the UK with dates in Scotland and England and a gig in Cologne (Germany). They also released a new album, Twenty Five Live, on the Track Records label. After the anniversary activity, the band returned to their hiatus.

The surviving original members toured again in late December 2010 and January 2011 with Mike Peters of the Alarm and Jamie Watson, Bruce's son, added to the line-up. This line-up began more regular touring as well as writing new material for potential release, in part with the involvement of record producer Steve Lillywhite. The efforts resulted in the creation of Big Country's first single in 11 years, entitled "Another Country".

In a September 2012 press release, Bruce Watson announced that Butler had retired from the group at the end of their last tour. He was replaced by former Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes, who was Adamson's original choice for bassist on the initial Big Country recordings, although Forbes was not asked due to shyness on Adamson's part. The group also parted ways with longtime manager Ian Grant at the same time as Butler's departure. With the involvement of Forbes, later in 2012 and into 2013, the group recorded a new album in the Welsh town of Wrexham. The new material featured lyrics composed by Peters over band-written music; Butler still held writing credits on most of the album, with Forbes having contributed on a number of tracks as well, although he played all the album's bass parts. Titled The Journey, the album was released through Cherry Red Records in April 2013, becoming the group's first studio record since 1999. Further performances followed throughout the year, including a month-long North American tour between July and August.

Mike Peters left the band in November 2013 at the end of their 19-date Land's End to John O'Groats UK Tour. The band attributed Peters' departure to his inability to commit fully to Big Country, much of his time being devoted to The Alarm and solo projects. Initially, the band intended to continue as a four-piece, sharing lead vocals and returning all the songs to their original keys; Peters had required the songs to be tuned lower to accommodate his deeper voice. However, when they resurfaced in December 2013, they were joined by English singer Simon Hough, who performed most of the lead vocals as well as harmonica and additional guitar. While the status of Hough's membership was not immediately clarified, in a March 2014 podcast, Bruce Watson confirmed that Hough was now the band's fifth member. He also indicated that the group was working on new material, which would involve Hough, for potential future release.

On 9 July 2015, the band announced that Derek Forbes would no longer be performing with Big Country, and that all forthcoming gigs would go on with a replacement, Scott Whitley. On 12 November 2021 the band announced that bassist Scott Whitley would be leaving the band to pursue other interests. His replacement is Gil Allan from Dunfermline.

 

I am a little sad about Stuart Adamson's death, because I really loved how he made his guitar sound like bagpipes using an unusual effects pedal. I bought the album The Crossing by Big Country last year at a thrift store, and I must say, it is a great album. Certainly worth checking out!

 

Maybe someone will bring Big Country out of obscurity by making a documentary about them. I'd love to see it.

[BMD]

A fine band. Their debut album is superb. And 'Wonderland', a non-album single, is one of my favourite songs of all time

[Caevan O’Shite]

2 hours ago, IMMusicRulz said:

I really loved how he made his guitar sound like bagpipes using an unusual effects pedal.

Get yourself an EBow (if you don't already have one), they're not terribly expensive, and you can use them on pretty much any instrument that has steel strings- even an unplugged acoustic. Or, an electric guitar outfitted with a Sustainer pickup- this way, you can play more than one string at a time, unlike the EBow...

And also get a harmonizer pedal like one of the Boss Harmonist pedals or the like.

Add reverb and echo and you'll really be makin' the pipes be a callin' across the echoing spaciousness of a big country...  

 

 

2 hours ago, BMD said:

...'Wonderland', a non-album single, is one of my favourite songs of all time

Good song! Well written, love the guitar playing- especially the leads and fills! The rhythm guitar and rhythm section work reminds me of INXS- but, which came first? Or, was it  case of similar influences for both?

Anyway, thanks for introducing that song to me, I'm not sure if I'd ever heard it before...  
    
 

[JohnH]

Article is wrong. Peter Wolf, singer of Jgeils is not the Austrian Peter Wolf, producer of "We built this City" fame. Two different people.

[CEB]

Obscurity?  They were huge in the 80s. 

[Jozef Behr Music Academy]

Good Song , i loved it..