13th December 1986
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Sounds 13th December 1986 |
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| Page 1 · Page 2 · Page 12 · Pages 18 & 19 · Page 26 · Pages 30 & 31 |
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Front Cover Features a large black & white picture of Stuart in shirt & long jacket, by Peter Anderson. Big Country"Everybody has the desire to leave his mark on the world... we want to be able to look back at all this with pride!" STUART ADAMSON INTERVIEW INSIDE Win Two Philips Compact Disc Players & 40 CDs Live: The Ex·The Pogues·Status Quo·Barrence Whitfiled A Certain Ratio LPs: We've Got A Fuzzbox·Slayer·Kool & The Gang DELTA |
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Contents page SCANNERS Review of The Seer - Live in New York. Page 12 FEATURES Big Country's stirring passion comes from their strong sense of history and Stuart Adamson wants to be remembered as "a good man". Mr Spencer acts as chronicler. Pages 18 & 19 LIVES Gig review of Big Country at Ingliston Royal Highland Showground. Page 26 NIGHT SHIFT Big Country gig dates. Pages 30 & 31 |
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Page 12 "SCANNERS" Big Country The Seer - Live in New York (Virgin Video) PERHAPS THE single most pretentious concept of the year. The overpaid and obviously overrated directors of this 60 min film have decreed the Big Country's New York Pier concert at the end of last year's US tour should be seen as a symbol of the hopes of the thousands upon thousands of immigrants who arrived in the new world many years before. And I thought it was only rock 'n' roll. Big Country's is a big brash noise with overtones of credibility and undertones of sensitivity. And their live performance is a thoroughly competent presentation of a succession of chopped and vigourous anthems. But there is an overbearing pomposity inherent in this video that makes it only too clear that even these much-touted new bosses of high-profile guitar fetishism are no better than the old bosses. ROGER HOLLAND |
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Pages 18 & 19 THE HISTORY MAN Stuart Adamson and BIG COUNTRY could have been 19th Century story-tellers, such is their belief in traditional values. MR SPENCER journeys to Ireland to see the old sods unearth new passion for thie rock 'n' roll. PETER ANDERSON digs the landscape. Walking into Leisureland in Galway, Ireland, is like discovering the world's about to end and finding a hall pack with people determined to have the best night of their lives, whilst there's still time. 
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Page 26 "LIVES" Big Country Ingliston Royal Highland Showground THIS HAS to be the definitive something or other. Here we are, stranded in a de luxe cattle barn in the middle of nowhere, a paradise of steel and concrete. But hey, c'mon in, it's good and wholesome entertainment... or is it? I have my doubts. I just don't think that this scale of gathering has very much do to with rock 'n' roll. If we're talking about scale, everything on show tonight is big: Big Country, big songs, big themes, big guitars, big money... But what happened to the sound? Far from pummelling the faithfull into willing submission, it had all the power of a beatbox adrift in a hurricane. Worst of all was the band's strange sense of theatre: a tacky gothic ruin passing for a stage set and some criminally unsubtle community singing. Then again, this is where Big Country really come into their own, their audience becoming little more than an echo of their own chant. Cold logic, but immaculate. But in spite of it all, I can't find it in myself to dislike Stuart Adamson, a true man of the people. While they're not big on black, Big Country are the Henry Fords of '80s rock, the ultimate refinement of a marketing concept. You can have any song you like as long as it sounds just like the one 15 minutes ago! GRAHAME BENT |
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Pages 30 & 31 "NIGHT SHIFT" Thursday 11 LONDON Wembley Arena, Big Country/The Big Dish Friday 12 LONDON Wembley Arena, Big Country/The Big Dish Sunday 14 Brighton Conference Centre, Big Country/The Big Dish |