Big Country Celebrate 25 Years
Big Country formed 25 years ago in 1982 and next year will be the 25th anniversary of their first chart successes with singles like "Fields of Fire," "In A Big Country," and "Chance," which all came from their multiplatinum album The Crossing. The Crossing, which sold over 3 million copies, earned them 2 Grammy nominations.
Their subsequent four albums, Steeltown (which debuted at #1 in 1984), The Seer (1986), Peace In Our Time (1988), and No Place Like Home (1991), were all certified gold releases.
The band continued to release successful albums until they decided to take a break in 2000 and embarked on The Final Fling tour of UK and Germany. These dates were to be their last. Tragically, lead singer Stuart Adamson passed away in 2001.
To celebrate their 25th anniversary, remaining members Tony Butler, Mark Brzezicki and Bruce Watson are uniting. "We thought it would be cool to get together again, and go out and play some intimate shows, and play some of the back catalogue and give the fans what they have been crying out for."
Says Butler, "For many years I did not think, to try and even think, that Big Country could exist without Stuart Adamson. We were a unique band. But that was then. The years have moved on and the desire to play music with my old friends has become too much to resist. The Big Country we all remember will forever have a place in our hearts, but Big Country will continue with a renewed spirit and passion, a new adventure. We just want to have fun."
Brzezicki added, "It felt the right time to continue the journey with Big Country not only out of respect to our wonderful past, but with renewed optimism for the future. We could never replace Stuart, so we haven't, but have now evolved and proudly carry on the natural progression that he would have expected and been proud of."
Initially, two gigs in Scotland have been booked with more planned for later in the year.
Material: bigcountry.co.uk & myspace.com/bigcountryscotland
