Big Country is a Scottish rock band formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981 comprising of Stuart Adamson (formerly of Skids, vocals/guitar/keyboards), Bruce Watson (guitar/mandolin/sitar/vocals), Tony Butler (bass guitar/vocals) and Mark Brzezicki (drums/percussion/vocals). Before the recruitment of Butler and Brzezicki an early incarnation of Big Country was a five-piece band, featuring Peter Wishart (later of Runrig and now an SNP MP) on keyboards, his brother Alan on bass, and Clive Parker, drummer from Spizz Energi. Parker had approached Adamson to join his new band after the demise of Skids. Singer Stuart Adamson committed suicide in 2001. 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). 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.
Links To Peel[]
Peel once described Stuart Adamson as the Jimi Hendrix of Scotland and was eager to hear Big Country's material after he left the Skids. The group performed a session for Peel's show in 1983. In 1988, he wrote about attending a Big Country album launch at the Soviet embassy.[1]
To celebrate the release of the 2013 box set of BBC sessions Big Country performed, Bruce Watson recalled the moment that the band's music was first played on Peel's show: [2]
- "For me, the ultimate was to get on John Peel, for me I got one of my songs played on John Peel, that's it, I done that."
Mark Brzezicki later recalled when his band first got played on Peel's show: [3]
- "I think I was driving and I knew it was coming on. I was frantically trying to tune in, and when you hear it, it's very surreal 'cause you're so used to hearing music that's not by you."
Sessions[]
Big Country - Porroh Man (Session '83)
The band's only session is available on Radio 1 Sessions (1994, CD, Dutch East India Trading) and At The BBC (2013, Box Set, Mercury)
1. Recorded: 1983-03-09. First Broadcast: 22 March 1983. Repeated: 06 April 1983, 04 May 1983, 27 December 1983
- Close Action / Inwards / 1000 Stars / Porrohman
Other Shows Played[]
Big Country - Harvest Home
- 1982
- Peel July August September 1982: Harvest Home (7") Phonogram
- 13 October 1982: Harvest Home (single) Phonogram
- 1983
- 08 February 1983: Fields Of Fire (12") Phonogram
- 09 February 1983: Fields Of Fire (7") Phonogram
- 16 February 1983 (BFBS): Fields Of Fire (12") Phonogram
- 03 March 1983: Fields Of Fire (7" promo) Mercury COUDJ 2
- 10 March 1983: Fields Of Fire (7" promo) Mercury COUDJ 2
- 05 June 1983 (BFBS): In A Big Country (Pure Mix) (12") Phonogram COUNT 312
- 31 July 1983 (BFBS): Harvest Home (album - The Crossing) Mercury MERS 27
- 03 August 1983: 1000 Stars (LP - The Crossing) Mercury
- 1984
- 05 January 1984: Wonderland (7") Phonogram COUNT 5
- Peel Late Sep Early Nov 1984: Prairie Rose
Top Of The Pops[]
- 08 June 1983 (TOTP): In A Big Country
- 01 September 1983 (TOTP): Chance