AlterPolitics

Hailing from Dunfermline, Scotland, Big Country literally roared onto the world stage in 1983 with their debut album, The Crossing. The album sold over one million copies in the UK alone, and due to the success of its single ‘In a Big Country‘ the album quickly climbed into the US Billboard Top 20 and achieved Gold Record status.

Lead singer/songwriter Stuart Adamson (formerly of The Skids) brilliantly incorporated traditional Scottish music (including bagpipes) around his distinctive guitar-work, giving Big Country a truly unique sound for the times. His guitar sound became modeled by U2’s The Edge, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, and even Metallica’s James Hetfield. 

After The Crossing, Big Country would go on to release one EP and seven more albums over the course of twenty years, many of which garnered wide critical acclaim in the UK, and topped the UK charts. But in the US, none of these later efforts would come close to matching the success of their debut album. 

The band was eventually dropped by their record label Phonogram in 1991, but they remained a favorite opening band for iconic groups like The Who, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant & Jimmy Page. Mick Jagger called Big Country “one of the best opening bands we have had”. 

When not working on side projects, Big Country continued to release albums and tour together, though these later recording efforts failed to achieve anything close to the commercial success they enjoyed in the 80s. Adamson who had had a long battle with alcoholism, dating back to the 80s, suffered from acute depression, and by the end of the 90s he’d resorted to sudden disappearing acts without notice.

His second marriage began to crumble in 2001, and shortly after his wife commenced with divorce proceedings, Adamson disappeared again. On December 16, 2001, Adamson’s body was found in a hotel room in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he had hanged himself. He was 43 years old at the time of his death. He is survived by two children from his first marriage.

The way Big Country stormed into the US charts in the early 80s only to seemingly vanish by the decade’s end, might leave some younger Americans — largely unfamiliar with them — to believe Big Country was just another 80s ‘one-hit wonder’ group. This is most definitely not the case. The Crossing itself is one of the best albums of that era, full of fabulous songs. I cannot recommend it enough.  

Here is a video of Big Country in 1986 performing ‘Inwards’ (from The Crossing) at The Pier in New York City. Though, Adamson has to stop abruptly for a moment to quell some fan on fan violence, this video, in my opinion, succeeds in capturing the band’s live energy.

ENJOY:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnVcItVybI0[/youtube]

Some other fabulous songs worth checking out from The Crossing LP include Fields of Fire, and Adamson’s personal favorite The Storm.