11th February 1989
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Record Mirror 11th February 1989 |
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| Page 1 · Page 3 · Pages 8 & 9 · Pages 27 · Page 47 |
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Front Cover Features Morrissey (main photo) - doubles up and becomes as glamorous and notorious as the Kray twins! Other features - Big Country - are they the most misunderstood band of all time?. Morrissey pics by Lawrence Watson |
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CONTENTS (Page 3) 8 - BIG COUNTRY Are they really the new Status Quo? 27 - rm REVIEW 45rpm Reviewed by Tony Beard 47 - THE TOP OF THE POPS CHART |
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Pages 8 & 9 Hard Times Big Country are one of the most misunderstood bands of all time. Are they Celtic visionaries with a social conscience or a Status Quo for the Eighties? Roger Morton meets up with the big man, Stuart Adamson, on the band's 'Peace In Our Time' tour MYTH There's a thick fog hanging in the air. Gusts of wind whip the sound of majestic, reeling melodies past your ears. The fog lifts a little and you find yourself high up on a mountainside, catching glimpses of rugged landscapes, nuclear power plants, flags flying over battlements, steel mills and dockyards. The music gets louder, and suddenly, amongst the heather, you see a stag, with three-foot antlers, standing on its hind legs. It's playing an electric guitar. Weird. You open your eyes, and it all makes sense. You're in a hotel room with Stuart Adamson, and the fog was just the fog of myths and preconceived ideas that surrounds Big Country. Phew. It's the morning after the Dublin gig of Big Country's 'Peace In Our Time' tour, and Stuart is mulling over how it is that his band's mix of Celtic pride, community compassion and contempt for celebrity could have resulted in a certain reputation for unadventurousness. "If we had flirted with devastatingly mystical and fashionable presentations of ourselves to the media, we wouldn't have been seen as unadventurous. We would have been seen as this spectacular, mystical, unbelievable thing. But I never wanted to do that. I think a musician should be just as much a part of society as a bricklayer, a doctor or a schoolteacher. "When I was trying to put this group together I was determined to find people that had the same attitude about music being a living, breathing part of society, not something distant from it... Then again, it might all be bollocks." PREJUDICE "It might all be bollocks." That's typical of Stuart Adamson. Deadly serious, and unquenchably enthusiastic about his band, but at the same time quite capable of laughing at the whole thing. Which is convenient, since from the very beginning back in 1983, when 'Fields Of Fire' landed in the charts, Big Country have polarised opinion. To the converted, Big Country are a moving passion-wagon of blazing guitars and noble concerns. To the cynic, they're a production line churning out laddish, Celtic rock anthems. A 'Status Quo for the Eighties' was once mentioned. Patiently, Stuart points out that it's all a matter of preconceptions. "Certainly I think to draw that Status Quo comparison is completely odious. I defy anybody to show me a band anywhere in the world that covers such a different amount of musical ground. I find it a bit sad that the way people view things is filled with so much preconception and very basic bigotry. "Because what we did on 'The Crossing' was very individual and very unique people immediately see that as being 100 percent of what you're going to be all the time. We've certainly suffered from it more than most." And to back the point up he lists half a dozen BC songs, all of which are in "completely different styles". "We're a long way from being the most avant-garde band that ever lived, but we have done things which are fairly innovative. I think if every musician tried to be as personalised and unique as we have been, then things might be a bit healthier... But no doubt I'll get another slagging off for having said that," and he laughs. COMPASSION Somewhere else amidst the fog of preformed judgements that surround the band is the idea that Stuart's belief in Big Country as a sharing, caring, people's band is, erm... a bit naive. The theory is that songs about factory close-downs and pride in your history tend to get squashed by the stadium rock Hogmanay revelry. The morning after the Dublin show, Stuart admits to being uncomfortable with the "tribal" aspect to BC gigs (something you could clearly see when the fervent audience broke into "'Ere we go/'Ere we go" football chants). But his faith in Big Country remains undiminished. For example, he found the band's recent trip to play in Russia "completely valuable" as a tiny East-West contact-making step. And being mistakenly held up as some sort of 'people's hero' is but a small price to pay for staying in line with your working family, Scottish council estate roots. "Because of the way I choose to live my life and choose to be in certain things you're definitely sometimes held up as being the shining example for mankind. And really, I'm not particularly fussy about that." 'People's Hero' is, after all, an awkward mantle to wear for a former member of the Skids, who were almost (well just a little bit) 'punks'. "I still am! Very much so. I think a lot of the attitudes I had towards music in the Skids are still with me. That you can go on stage and do things exactly as you want, without feeling you have to play roles or be part of a heavy image-building thing. I think that's always stayed with me, possibly to my detriment career-wise Maybe, it might be very easy to become 'the biggest thing in the world' if you get out the smart clothes and the 'other-worldly persona'. But I'm not interested in that." DIGNITY Married with two kids, Stuart Adamson fits quite nicely into the mould of a good-hearted-traditional-boy-who-just-happens-to-play-in-a-rock-band. You can almost see him in the tweeds, with his feet up in front of a blazing fire. And then you find out about his passion for motorbikes. Is this a whiff of rock 'n' roll decadence in the Big Country camp? Will Stuart be moving to LA to ride in Billy Idol's biker gang? "No, that's not what I like about it. I like the feeling of actually riding. I couldn't be bothered with going riding with a whole group of people Yeah, I know. It's one of those old macho 'rock 'n' roll' images. The bike's obviously a very phallic symbol which I'm drawn to because I'm a guitar player and this BIG ROCK GOD! It's so obvious . Mr Cliché comes to town! "I'm also HEAVILY into fly-fishing. Now there's another great rock 'n' roll symbol. I mean, Jimmy Page is right up there with the world's greatest fly-fishers!" Perhaps, when all the fog surrounding Big Country finally clears it'll turn out that Stuart Adamson is neither the good-hearted fool, nor the people's hero, nor some sort of tartan skinned, jig-happy, guitar playing stag come loopy nature-poet But actually, the sanest man in rock 'n' roll. How's this? "Probably, the biggest measure of what I am as a human being is the way that you are at home, as well as what you do as part of a group. And I think the two things carry through, certainly with me. "And my family, if I start jumping around on the telly with my bottom hanging out Well it's not very good for when I take the kids to school the next day." Quite. |
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Page 27 45 Reviewed by Tony Beard YES, YES SIMPLE MINDS 'Ballad Of The Streets' EP Virgin 'Ballad Of The Streets' EP Simple Minds always wanted to be blood brothers with U2, or even Marillion, anyone So long as they can beat their chests and get mighty pompous about it all. 'Ballad...' is still very overwrought, every last drop of feeling being squeezed out until it hurts. Simple Minds bleed for you! That said, 'Belfast Child', a re- working of a trad folk song is quite majestic - a monolithic synth-driven crawl that still effects a stir. Amazing. 'Mandela Day' remains as obvious as on the day itself, but the real gem is their version of Peter Gabriel's 'Biko', not a patch on the original but still very worthy. NO, DEFINITELY NO BIG COUNTRY 'Peace In Our Time' Phonogram Live in Russia it says, indeed 'Peace...' opened the sets that caused such a palaver over there. Thing is, even Frank Sidebottom would have received much the same welcome, so starved of Western pop are the Soviets. This is a grand record, all LARGE guitar solos, AWESOME power chords and a lyric that could set East-West relations back a few eons if ever the powers that be hear it. |
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Page 47 THE TOP OF THE POPS CHART - The National Top 100 Singles And LPs Compiled For rm And 'TOTP' By Gallup Week ending February 11, 1989 UK Singles 39, 39, 2 - Peace In Our Time, Big Country, Mercury 88, 83, - - Angel of Harlem, U2, Island (This week / last week / weeks in chart) UK Albums 33, 28, 17 - Rattle and Hum, U2, Island 43, 48, 38 - The First of a Million Kisses, Fairground Attraction, RCA 68, 73, 100 - The Joshua Tree, U2, Island (This week / last week / weeks in chart) |