Big Gun were a Scottish indie band founded in the mid 80's by five members. One of its members later became an author, Andrew O'Hagan (percussionist in the band), whose three novels have been nominated for the Booker Prize for Fiction. O'Hagan is also an Editor-at-Large of London Review of Books and Esquire Magazine and is currently the Visiting Professor of Writing at King's College London. During his time in the band, the group only released two singles before splitting up.
Links to Peel[]
In a Guardian newspaper interview with Andrew O'Hagan, published on 30th August 2020, he mentioned his biggest accolade had been hearing Big Gun being played first time on John Peel's show:
"The five of us were all gathered round the radio in Irvine with our quiffs when the record came on,” he recalls. “At the end Peel said, and I quote: ‘Melody arrives unheralded into the programme, that’s the Big Gun from Ayrshire. I must say I like that immoderately.’ The five of us were punching the air, and wondering what ‘immoderately’ meant." [1]
O'Hagan later in the article mentioned that the band went on a mini-tour that took in gigs in Carlisle and at a pub on London’s Seven Sisters Road, before splitting up. He went on to say 'the boys all worked in factories, we didn’t have any more tunes, and I went off to university at Strathclyde.'
Shows Played[]
- 1987
The Big Gun - Heard about love
- 27 January 1987: You'll Always Give Your Best (shared 7" flexi-disc with Basil Pieroni - You'll Always Give Your Best / Don't Ever Go Away Again) Hi-Fibre
- 02 June 1987: Heard About Love (7") Hi-Fibre
- 09 June 1987: Heard About Love (7") Hi-Fibre
- 24 June 1987: Heard About Love (7") Hi-Fibre
- 21 July 1987: Heard About Love (7") Hi-Fibre