The Crossing Into A Big Country
The Crossing
Both of these bands are in my top ten favourites of all time.
I brought 'The Crossing' by Big Country as soon as it came out in '83. I had previously remembered Stuart Adamson in The Skids most notably in two of their singles; 'Into The Valley' and the other song which Radio 1 used to play a lot when I was getting ready for school back in '79 'Working For The Yankee Dollar'. I thought they were awesome and when I realized Stuart Adamson had formed his own band and I eventually heard 'In A Big Country' the album purchase was a must.
I wasn't disappointed, the whole album blew me away, the guitars having a unique and distinctive sound by the use of FX Pedals and also the use of an e-bow to give it all that whole Celtic feel. It was also produced by Steve Lillywhite who had quite an impressive history of production for bands such as XTC, U2 and Simple Minds to name a few. His brother Adrian was also part of the line-up for punk band The Members who he also produced for. I can't think of any songs on the whole album of 'The Crossing' I didn't care for. It was one of those albums you could put on a keep it running without having to skip any tracks. I still have that album as well as many of their others as treasured possessions on vinyl tucked away at home.
The band were at the time of the album release:
- Stuart Adamson - Guitar/Vocals
- Bruce Watson - Guitar/Vocals
- Tony Butler - Bass/Vocals
- Mark Brzezicki - Drums
One of my all time favourites from the album is 'Chance'
This is the live version of the song. Let's face it the lyrics were gritty and realistic and not at all like the 'pop slush' that some bands came out with, truly sounds like it is sung from the heart. This song covered the realism of a girl getting hooked up too young, desperate to leave her parents, falling for the first guy to come along, having children and then the partner on his toes and leaving her. Quite stirring and touching stuff, sad but equally anthemic in it's chorus and a firm concert favourite for getting the crowd to sing along. The B Side of the 7" release was a fantastic cover of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles soul classic 'Tracks Of My Tears'...see, who said the band were all punk and rock. there was a whole bunch of soul and emotion in there too, perhaps as described in the article by loudersound.com, a hint of what was hidden behind the confident persona on stage.
Another of my firm favourites is 'Wonderland'. It was released as a Single/12" only and was sandwiched between the releases of albums 'The Crossing' and 'Steeltown'. They released it in 1984 and it hit #8 in the UK Charts, it was also another of those anthemic concert favourites to get the crowds going. There were so many from their first album alone including 'Fields Of Fire' and 'Harvest Home' to name a couple that always got the audience jumping about for more.
The Skids, No Bad Records
Adamson had started with a punk band; The Skids, they were formed in Dunfermline in '77 and were originally comprised of:
- Richard Jobson - Vocals
- Bill Simpson - Bass
- Stuart Adamson - Guitar
- Tom Kellichan - Drums
They released the 'Charles' E.P. around the beginning of 1978 on the Scottish Indie Label No Bad Records. The track listing is:
A. Charles
B1. Reasons
B2. Test Tube Babies
Scotland's Own Hendrix?
All lyrics and music were written by Adamson. Have a listen to the track 'Charles'. Lyrics and guitar are brilliant and really quite mature for a then 'teen' Adamson, describing with dark humour the advent of mechanisation and automation, workers becoming part of the machines they operated. The guitar part skittering out at the end like a technology malfunction (which kind of fits in neatly with the lyrical content). They were soon snapped up by the major label Virgin Records and the same song re-recorded for their first album 'Scared To Dance' in 1979. Have a listen to the title track and you can hear Stuart Adamson's awesome guitar skills, so much better than many of the 'bog standard' 3 chord guitar thrashers of the day, this was a guy who seriously knew how to play, according to peel.fandom.com John Peel was to describe 'Stuart Adamson as the Jimi Hendrix of Scotland' (high praise indeed!).
Concert Memories
You can certainly hear the same hallmark guitar sound in Big Country. I was lucky enough to catch them live on 'The Seer' Tour on 18th June 1986 where they were being supported by Balaam & The Angel. I remember that England were playing in The World Cup that same night and he stopped to concert to tell us, as he put it 'It grieves me to tell you this, but England have scored in the Football' before ripping into another number. My now wife also saw Big Country being supported The Cult about a year or so earlier, Mark Brzezicki helped out with The Cult (check out The Cult's album 'Love', you can hear his style immediately). Have to say The Cult were also another of my favourite band of the day as well.
Just for a feel of what Big Country were like 'live' at exactly that time, although not at Southend Cliffs Pavilion where I saw them have a look at this video 'Big Country Live at Reading Hexagon '86' the atmosphere and vibe was exactly the same, think they even kicked off with the same opening, and at the gig I was at I was in the front row bouncing around as they are in the video, however someone else who attended might have to correct me if I'm wrong about the set list that night, after all it was a long time ago.😉
They were also involved in providing the soundtrack to the 1985 film 'Restless Natives' You can catch it at the link.
Both songs 'Into The Valley' and 'The Saints Are Coming' are used in sports especially by Dunfermline Athletic F.C., Southampton F.C. and also Charlton Athletic. 'The Saints Are Coming' was also covered by U2 with Green Day for support for those affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2006, have a listen at the link, it's a pretty good cover to be honest.
Big Country are still going strong, the line-up has altered a bit over the years following Stuart's death, but they are still about and gigging in 2021 (Covid permitting I suspect). The band is now made up of original members Mark Brzezicki and Bruce Watson, but now they have Bruce's son Jamie Watson on Guitar, Gil Allan on Bass and Simon Hough on Vocals. Check out their website for concert dates and news at: bigcountry.co.uk.
*****
What an amazing guitarist and lyricist Stuart Adamson was, he is sorely missed and not forgotten, having a mural in memory of him at Dunfermline F.C. and a bench dedicated to him in Pittencrieff Park inscribed with some of his lyrics. He, like so many of the greats in music shone so brightly and faded too soon.
Video Thanks To
Photo Source Thanks
VisitScotland.com Pittencrieff Park via Pinterest
Info Sources
Thanks to loudersound.com, peelfandom.com, discogs.com, wikipedia.com and youtube.com especially for the comments from fans, it has helped piece some of the memories together for me.