Big Country Info Big Country Info

 

The BBC, the mighty BBC.

For years, I dreamt of being in a successful band that appeared on Top of The Pops, but the real prize was to be introduced by Bob Harris on The Old Grey Whistle Test. It was a programme that was part of the fabric of my life during my teens. Some of the most prolific artists of our time appeared on that programme. The possibility of performing on it seemed a long time coming in the scheme of things. By the time we got to appear, Bob Harris had long since gone. The then new breed rock journalists, David Hepworth and Mark Ellen hosted the programme. One genuine recollection I have was that I didn't think we came over very well. There was no real atmosphere in the studio; we found it difficult to really fire ourselves up, and I didn't think the hosts were that interested in us.

I am still really happy that we are one of an illustrious list of artists to feature on that iconic programme.
Not so well known is the other iconic BBC venue, the Maida Vale Studios. My memories are now vague but we spent a lot of time in those studios. It seemed like an integral part of the whirlwind of success that we experienced in those early years, something we did but did not really take in; principally because we very rarely got to hear them. Go in, setup, sound-check, run through, take, then off to the next promo event or gig.
The Beeb also took their big recording trucks to gigs for live broadcasts and live recordings. I was always impressed at the scale of the effort that this entailed. This I realised, was what our licence fee funded ???? Because of the nature of these events, and in the studio, one never really got to meet the people behind the cameras, mixing desk, mobile trucks and those in the backroom who helped create this stuff for our promotion and your consumption. To them, we thank you.

This archive of recordings is a history of the promotional activities that the band did, and did with vigour. The BBC seemed to like us then (even radio 1 played us now and again; thanks radio 2, you still do).
Something about the BBCs' greatness I forgot to mention; it employed me once, I've got my pass somewhere.

I would like to thank the following people for their inspiration and support during this fab period; Mrs June Butler (my mum RIP), Alex, Joey, Jake and Jackie Butler, Ian Grant (and family), John Giddings, Chris Briggs, Sir Steve Lillywhite, Robin Millar, Pat Moran (RIP) & Joe Seabrook (RIP)

Tony Butler

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David Jensen/John Peel Sessions. This is the first time I have heard these recordings since they were broadcast in 82/83. I was surprised at the version of `Heart and Soul' and how fast the tempo was. Also how low Stuart's voice was back in those days. As he got older his singing voice actually got higher albeit with a slight American twang.

On `Close Action' Mark's kit is crystal clear with none of the huge Steve Lilywhite trademark ambience that was huge in the 80's but I am sure those tom fills are definitely overdubbed lol.
God! there are so many guitar tracks on `Harvest Home' by Stuart and myself, from seriously heavy metal distortion to harmonised steel drum tones. I love Tony and Mark's Bo Didley / I Want Candy motif in the middle section.

'Angle Park' was the first song Stuart and I wrote together. The bass line at the top of the song came from a tune that my previous band used to play and it sounds like I may have been influenced by Peter Hook from Joy Division at the time. The fact that both of us made a conscious decision not to play blues bends whilst playing harmony guitar parts gave birth to our trademark sound. The name 'Angle Park' came from the last house on Townhill road in Dunfermline and we just liked the name of it. Stuart imagined it to be an old `Lunatic Asylum' hence the lyrics `In Angle Park the fountains crack'

`Inwards' was always a live favourite and the arrangement never changed from when we first wrote it until the last time we played it live. The line And the scouts in the stairwell will meet again' is my favourite Stuart Adamson lyric. Once again loads of mad harmonised / delayed guitar overdubs. I would never record guitars like that nowadays.

`1000 Stars' was always our opening number live in those days. The song is basically a re write of an instrumental called `Flag Of Nations' that Stuart and I recorded with John Leckie at Abbey Road Studio. Recorded entirely with 2 synthesizers in an overnight session, both Stuart and I could have become the next `Soft Cell' if Tony and Mark hadn't joined the band in a couple of months.

The name 'Porroh Man' came from a Pan book of short horror stories and By Christ the tuning on those guitars are a bloody horror story. Were we using Braille tuners I ask myself? The over use of chorus on the guitars was fashionable for the day I suppose and again you can here the Bo Didley influence in the second part of the song. Not the best recorded version in my opinion but these songs were the first time we committed them to tape, almost like a free demo. (Thanks BBC).

Listening back now I can imagine Steve Lilywhite being given the tapes by the company and then listening to them for reference before kicking us severely up the arse at Rak and the The Manor studios.
These songs were only played on a few short tours and had never been put under the microscope of studio conditions. The fact that we had to go to the BBC, set up and go gave us a good grounding into working out arrangements against the clock whilst hearing all the instruments in a controlled environment. Some of the guitar parts were too much and clashed with the vocals on occasions but we were a developing band with our own identity and sound. The dryness of those old studios were very unforgiving at times but what a way to develop your craft for `no pence'. David Jenson, Peter Powell and John Peel attended all our BBC sessions and I would like to thank them all for helping kick-start our careers in music.

I remember my manager Ian Grant asking John Peel over a cup of tea what he thought of `Harvest Home' to which the great man dryly replied `A Chart bound sound'

It wasn't

I would like to thank Stuart and Sandra Adamson. Donald Currie. Clive Ford, Sandy Muir and the Skids as well as Sandra Mc Alister.

B. Watson.

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Mark would like to thank, my mum Kathleen Brzezicki, Tina at Zildjian Cymbals, Pearl Drums, Vick Firth Sticks & Remo Drum heads.

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“ We'd like to do something now, which is all about being proud of who you are and what you're about.
Stuart Adamson introducing The Seer, BBC In Concert

The Estate of Stuart Adamson wishes to thank Stuart's fellow band members and all concerned with this project
www.stuartadamson.co.uk

 

In a way, it all began with the BBC. As a fiercely intelligent schoolkid growing up in the Fife mining village of Crossgates, Stuart Adamson's love affair with the guitar took wings after he tuned in to the ten-part BBC2 tuition series Hold Down A Chord. Sitting cross-legged in front of the flickering screen, cradling his uncle Drew's acoustic guitar, he watched presenter John Pearse reveal the bewitching secrets of finger-picking, scales and vibrato. Brow furrowed in concentration, tentatively moving his fingers across the frets, the young Adamson joined a generation of guitarists inspired by Pearse and his programme. And while the presenter's folk-inflected blues may have seemed an unlikely inspiration for the blistering punk rock of Stuart's first professional outfit The Skids — with whom he made his inaugural visit to a BBC studio in May 1978 — the traces of that early exposure to roots music blossomed throughout Big Country's expansive canon. What Pearse kick-started was a journey that would lead to Stuart Adamson's well-earned reputation as one of the electric guitar's all-time great virtuosos, influencing artists' as diverse as U2's The Edge, Blur's Graham Coxon and James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers.

The journey that Pearse himself helped to inspire — "I owe it all to him," Adamson once, only half-jokingly, confessed to Smash Hits — brought Big Country to the doors of the BBC on many occasions. From their first explosive session for David `Kid' Jensen in August 1982 to an electrifying set at London's Hammersmith Odeon for Radio 1's In Concert series in January 1989, this two-disc set brings together some of Big Country's most memorable Beeb performances — many of them previously unreleased. It charts the band's progress from starry-eyed dreamers mining a seam of rock'n'roll as distinctive and original as, say, New York's Television or (another Adamson passion) Led Zeppelin, to assured hitmakers with a reputation as one of the UK's most thrilling live acts.

Much of the music contained here serves as a timely reminder of just how strikingly original Big Country's contribution to rock's rich tapestry has been. The opening bars of Heart & Soul, which introduced
them to Radio 1 listeners — at a time when the UK charts were dominated by the likes of Shakin' Stevens, The Goombay Dance Band and Bucks Fizz — were a pulse-quickening amalgam of duelling guitars, drilling bass and hyperactive drums that served notice of a major talent just warming up. Throughout the hit singles and million-selling albums that followed, Big Country never lost that thirst for innovation or the desire to hew something fresh and new from rock.

Along the way, of course, the voices of lovers fired mountainsides, rain came down on factory towns and great adventures were recounted. Adamson's vision of Big Country as "the land of productivity and discovery... a great coming together of cultures" proved to be prophetic. Live At The BBC documents the constantly evolving sound of a band eager to explore and inspire in equal parts. "We never wanted to stand still," insists Bruce Watson, who co-founded the band with Adamson in April 1981 after the latter quit The Skids during the making of their final album Joy. "Music for me — and for Stuart too — was always about going forward, expanding your horizons, doing something more than you did the day before. It's part of our DNA as a band. We're always searching for that sound you've never heard before and that perfect song:'

Big Country's first trip to the BBC's Maida Vale studios was to record the session for Jensen's Radio 1 evening show which opens this collection. When they pulled up outside the sprawling Edwardian complex in west London on that late summer afternoon in 1982, bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki had been in the band for just a few months. Yet the results of their few hours in the studio with session producer John Williams — a one-time record promoter for acts such as The Who, Bob Marley and Slade — underlined the fact they were already firing on all cylinders.

"When you're doing these kinds of sessions you don't have the luxury of time on your side," explains Watson. "The painstaking approach to recording that we might have taken on, say, the album sessions we'd been doing with (Pink Floyd/Roxy Music producer) Chris Thomas a few weeks earlier was out of the question. It was very much a case of us setting up and playing live. In that sense, they're very honest recordings. What you hear is a pretty faithful representation of what we actually sounded like at the time:'

Williams, who was then also carving out a reputation for himself as a music industry player by managing chart-bound synth-pop duo Blancmange, clearly appreciated Brzezicki's virtuoso abilities. He pushed the drums high in the mix to create a solid framework for the twin-guitar assault that was a central part of Adamson and Watson's original vision for Big Country. The songs themselves — Harvest Home, Heart & Soul and Angle Park — comprised some of their earliest work together, forged from ideas Adamson had developed during the final days of his tenure with The Skids or compositions that Watson had originally intended for his own pre-Big Country outfit Eurosect. "Stuart and Bruce had worked really hard together in developing the early characteristics of the band," recalls Butler, citing the months in 1981 that Adamson and Watson spent developing the embryonic Big Country with writing and DIY recording sessions in the rented basement of a community centre just yards from the flat in Townhill, near Dunfermline, where the newlywed frontman had settled the previous year. Those sessions had resulted in some exceptional songs. The delivery mechanism took a little while longer. After borrowing Jam drummer Rick Buckler and Be Bop Deluxe/Public Image studio whizz John Leckie for an early demo, Adamson and Watson tried out a short-lived five-piece line-up, which made its debut at Dunfermline's Glen Pavilion on February 4 1982 and imploded weeks later after a prospective eight-date tour with Alice Cooper ended just two nights in. Butler and Brzezicki, then much in demand as session musicians under the name Rhythm For Hire, signed up in April 1982 after being booked for a memorable demo session at Phonogram's London studio. "They did three numbers with us," Adamson later told People magazine's Roger Wolmuth, "without rehearsal and they ended up sounding like masters. I knew then we had the right line-up for the group."

His instincts proved correct. "From the ' very start," insists Butler, "we had a unique chemistry. That's one of the reasons I think that Kid Jensen session still sounds so good. We only had a handful of gigs under our belts by the time we got to Maida Vale but we were genuinely excited to be playing together:'

Harvest Home, the song that opens this compilation — and, incidentally, the first song Adamson, Watson, Brzezicki and Butler ever played together — became Big Country's first single in September 1982. When follow-up Fields Of Fire hit the UK Top 10 following its release in February 1983, Big Country became frequent visitors to the BBC.

"It all began happening very fast for us," recalls Watson. "It had been building slowly and then suddenly, Fields Of Fire was being played on the radio and things didn't slow down again for a very long time:'

They returned to Maida Vale in March 1983, this time to record a session for John Peel. The Radio 1 legend already had history with Stuart Adamson. For a long time, Peel had been an outspoken champion of The Skids, repeatedly playing their self-released debut and inviting them to do sessions on no less than five occasions between 1978 and 1980. Given his passion for Adamson's playing — he'd once dubbed him "Britain's answer to Jimi Hendrix" — what's surprising is that it took him so long to secure Big Country for his programme. For Bruce Watson, who as a teenager had sat night after night tuned into Peel, finger poised over the record button of a radio cassette, ready to capture choice performances by, say, Viv Stanshall, The Stranglers or even The Skids themselves, the invite was a dream come true. "Peel had been enormously important to me during the whole punk thing," he explains. "For those of us who didn't live in London at the time or who were just too young to get down to The Roxy or The 100 Club every other night, his shows were essential. That was how we heard The Damned or The Banshees or even Eater for the first time. So actually getting to do a session for John Peel was a very big deal for me. At that point, if someone had come up to me and said, `Son, that's it, you've had your shot, now go back home' then I'd have been quite happy. I'd got a single in the Top Ten and I'd recorded a Peel session. How much better could it get?"

A highlight of Big Country's one-and-only session for Peel is the stunning version of the heart-stopping Inwards included here. To anyone with a passing awareness of the darker shadows that fired Adamson's creative brilliance, it's a strikingly personal song full of astonishing images — such as the beautifully-wrought `All the engines too loud, all the pavements hiss" — that hint at something deeper, more existentially profound than most contemporary pop. "Stuart doesn't get the credit he deserves as a lyricist," Watson observes. "Inwards is a good example, I love the `scouts in the stairwell' line, for instance, but there are
many more. For me, I go back to songs he wrote with The Skids before they had a record deal — songs like Johnny Wants or Nationwide or Reasons — and I have to keep reminding myself they were written when he was just 18. Skids fans love Charles — it's such a great song. But listen to that lyric, about the depersonalisation of work, about the way that, if you lose touch with the things that are important like family or love or hope, you lose your humanity and you just become part of the machine. He just kept on getting better too. Whenever Big Country play, we meet people who tell us how much our songs mean to them, how much of a difference they've made. That was part of Stuart's genius as a lyric writer. To me, he's up there with Dylan and Springsteen."

Adamson and Watson were frequently spotted on the train from Edinburgh to London as trips to the BBC — particularly the Top Of The Pops studio — became a regular feature of life in the band.

By May 1983, with the release of signature hit In A Big Country — written, according to producer Steve Lillywhite, immediately after the recording sessions for Fields Of Fire because the band were so inspired by the sound he'd helped them find — they were back in the charts again, This time they tasted success on the other side of the Atlantic too as In A Big Country soared to No3 in the USA's Billboard chart.

Back home that summer, Big Country were one of the hottest tickets on the live circuit. Though they weren't quite yet big enough to fulfil Mark and Tony's dream of playing the Hammersmith Odeon, they did sell out the slightly smaller Hammersmith Palais in June 1983.

The show was recorded for Radio 1's legendary In Concert series, which had transmitted extraordinary shows by such long-term Big Country favourites as Be Bop Deluxe and Roxy Music. "At this point, so early in our career, there was a lot riding on these kinds of performances," recalls Brzezicki. "Stuart would say, `We're being recorded tonight so make sure you do this and you don't do that' and we'd naturally get a bit more keyed up. But, the truth is, as soon as you get out there and you get through the first eight bars you're gone — you've got no idea you're being recorded because you're totally in the zone, you're playing a show and it's you and the band and the audience. Everything else just goes straight out of your head. In a way, I even feel that's how it ought to be. It's just a more honest experience for everyone."

One of the standout songs from Big Country's Hammersmith Palais performance — and one that was in the set at their very first Glen Pavilion show — remains the haunting performance of Balcony included here. Still one of the band's most experimental moments, it provides a good insight into the fertile leftof-centre musical imagination that drew Adamson to Watson in the first place. With a passion for those who opted for pop's less well-travelled roads — his teenage favourites included Doctors Of Madness and Deaf School as well as The Damned and The Sex Pistols — Watson's previous outfits The Delinquents and Eurosect demonstrated an already blossoming talent for minting unique melodies. That came to fruition in Big Country with classics such as Angle Park, included in their one-and-only Peel session, and the track that gave 1983's million-selling debut album The Crossing its name.

At times, the atmosphere at the shows on the band's Crossing The Country tour that summer came close to Beatlemania-style hysteria. David Lloyd, frontman of Arista signings Uropa Lula — who opened for Big Country at Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre in June 1983 before supporting them on 12 dates across the UK from Swansea to Leicester — remembers: "The band were all very friendly and, on the last night of the tour, they invited us on onstage with them for the encores. I had to pull our keyboard player out of the crowd after she'd held her hands out for too long:

This collection also includes three tracks from the band's incendiary set at that year's Reading Festival. Big Country had been added to the bill — which also included Steel Pulse, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Thin Lizzy — as special guests of The Stranglers, long-time admirers of Adamson since his days with The Skids. The helping hand they extended also stretched to assisting with the pyrotechnic set-up. "That was the show where The Stranglers blew us up," grins Watson. "They thought we should have something extra special during Fields Of Fire and their crew helped us set up for it. The roadies warned us that, at the end of the song we had to step at least eight feet back from the microphones. Unfortunately they miscalculated the amount of explosive they needed. We did move back eight feet, in fact we ran for cover behind the amps, but the pyros were so ferocious we all got burned. It was like a napalm attack. We spent The Stranglers' set sitting in the first aid tent with our faces and hands covered in Vaseline:'

The hectic touring schedule kept up into 1984, first across America, then Japan. With barely enough time to catch a breath, they began writing and rehearsing for their second album Steeltown. But one of their superstar fans had other ideas. When the support act for his Summer Of 84 concert at London's Wembley Stadium pulled out at the last minute, Elton John knew exactly who he wanted as a replacement — Big Country. "He's so associated with the piano that a lot of people might be surprised he'd be such a passionate fan of a guitar-led band like ours," says Brzezicki. "But he's got a fantastic interest in new music and he went out of his way to sing our praises:' "He was really generous to us," adds Watson. "When he discovered we might not be able to play at Wembley because our equipment was on its way to the studio in Sweden where we were due to record, he offered to buy replacements for us: On the afternoon of the gig, which was being simultaneously broadcast on Radio 1 — source of the hat-trick of tracks included here — Elton dropped in to their dressing room to crack jokes and wish them well. "He was great," recalls Watson, "though we only saw his first three songs: Terminally homesick, Adamson and Watson took a fast car to the airport. By the time Elton finished his set, they were toasting the day's events in a Dunfermline nightclub.

The dizzying pace that the band had set for themselves continued. After six weeks in Stockholm, recording Steeltown at Abba's Polar Studios, they were back on the road traversing the UK (twice), Scandinavia and Germany. Less than a year later, their third album, The Seer (released in July 1986) was introduced to fans on an eye-popping 85-date tour that took them from Holland to America, back across Europe and, finally, to London's Wembley Arena for two triumphant end-of-year shows. Their reputation as an extraordinary live act continued to grow, but the work ethic that fuelled it was equally impressive.

"If there's one thing that runs through all of Big Country's work," Adamson told Smash Hits that year, "it's that it's all done with the same amount of commitment and excitement and genuine feeling. People identify with that:

He was clearly delighted with the Robin Millar-produced sessions for The Seer, which also featured Kate Bush on the title track. "I was ecstatic," the frontman later confirmed. "Every aspect of it, musically, lyrically and live, has been a joy to work on. There's a lot of space and a lot of atmosphere in the album and it's brought out a lot of subtleties in the group that were always there but never quite came through before:'
Several tracks from The Seer, including the single Look Away, which became their fourth UK Top 10 hit in April 1986, went on to become fixtures in the Big Country live set. But, in August 1988, the band returned with an updated sound - courtesy of former Frank Zappa keyboardist and Commodores/Starship/Wang              Chung producer Peter Wolf - and another hit single. King Of Emotion was the lead-off track for Big Country's fourth album Peace In Our Time and joined the dots between a string of the group's musical passions. The album had been recorded in Los Angeles where U2 were also recording Rattle & Hum and the two bands spent many happy hours hanging out together though Adamson later admitted he found the process of securing the record's widescreen sheen more challenging than he'd have liked. "I wouldn't like to give someone that amount of control over my work again," he later confessed to Melody Maker.

The release of Peace In Our Time also coincided with one of Big Country's more unusual gigs - and certainly one of the Radio l's most unique Evening Sessions. In September 1988, as the precursor to a string of gigs in the Soviet Union, the band became the first British rock band to perform inside London's Russian Embassy The specially-invited audience saw them play highlights from the new album, while Radio 1 managed to secure a first by conducting an outside broadcast on what was, technically, foreign soil without ever leaving London. "It was an interesting experience," insists Watson. "The audience was made up of press, foreign office officials and diplomats but the building wasn't designed for a rock concert. Every time Mark hit the drums especially hard, bits of plaster would fall off the ceiling:'

And yet the tracks included here - the album's title track, Look Away, Thousand Yard Stare and River Of Hope - sound like a band at ease with their surroundings ... even if they were demolishing them.
When Big Country kicked off the 77-date Peace In Our Time tour in January 1989 - including no less than three consecutive nights at the hallowed Hammersmith Odeon as well as dates in Holland, Germany and Italy - the touring machine was oiled and raring to go. This time out, the band's line-up was augmented by the backing singers Suzie O'List and Gill O'Donovan as well as keyboards player Josh Phillips. The results were captured on the Radio 1 In Concert broadcast from Hammersmith Odeon, included here.

"The keyboard thing came from having Peter Wolf produce the album," recalls Butler. "He was this wunderkind keyboard prodigy from Austria, who had a very respectable musical and production background. Not an obvious choice to produce us. I guess we all thought that we had to try and move the sound on so, in many respects we embraced the keyboard element particularly the Synclavier, which gave us a lot of different textures."

Adamson's death in 2001 robbed the world of a rare, often underrated, talent. But the songs in this collection testify to a precious gift for connecting, across the airwaves, with audiences around the world. Whether it's turned up loud on the Oasis tourbus - as long-term Big Country fan Noel Gallagher used to require - or turned down low in a working man's bedsit, this is music that reaches into the heart and touches the soul.

"I've never seen it as a great quest," Adamson once confessed. "It doesn't matter to me if I'm playing to one person or a thousand people - it's still just a matter of sharing some songs ..."

Tim Barr

 

Writers Credits
Angle Park - Adamson, Watson
Balcony - Adamson, Watson
Broken Heart - Adamson
Chance - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Close Action - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Come Back To Me - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
East Of Eden - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Fields of Fire - Adamson, Watson
Harvest Home - Adamson
Heart & Soul - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Heart Of The World - Adamson
In A Big Country- Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Inwards - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
I Walk The Hill - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Just A Shadow - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
King Of Emotion - Adamson
Look Away - Adamson
Lost Patrol- Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Peace In Our Time - Adamson
Porrohman - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Rememberance Day - Adamson, Butler, Watson
Restless Natives - Adamson
River Of Hope - Adamson
Thousand Yard Stare - Adamson, Watson
A Thousand Stars - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
The Seer - Adamson, Watson
The Storm - Adamson, Watson
The Teacher - Adamson
Tracks Of My Tears - Warren Moore, Smokey Robinson & Marvin Tarplin
The Travellers - Adamson
Where The Rose Is Sown - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson
Wonderland - Adamson, Brzezicki, Butler, Watson

372 842-5

Big Country are:
Stuart Adamson
Tony Butler
Mark Brzezicki
Bruce Watson

Compiled by Dermot James
Product Managed for Universal Music by Joe Black at Hey Joe !
Management - Ian Grant (1981 - 2012)
Design by RA
Sleeve Notes by Tim Barr
Photography by Paul Cox
Mastered by Jared Hawkes at Universal Mastering, London
DVD Authoring by Dave Meehan at Nyquest Limited
Hey Joe would like to thank : Sue Armstrong, Justin Brown, Ed Carruthers,
John Chadwick, Johnny Chandler, Dave Clarke, Jamie Davidson, Chris Gibbs,
Ian Grant, Simon Gurney, Richard Hinkley, Pete Matthews, Stuart Ongley,
Emine Rifat, Emma Shalless, Colin Smith, Joanna Strachan,
Allen Ward and Charlotte Wilson.
www.bigcountry.co.uk

The BBC wordmark and the BBC logo are trade marks al the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under license BBC logo © BBC 1996

Disc One
01. Harvest Home* David Jensen Session, 1982
02. Heart & Soul* David Jensen Session, 1982
03. Close Action* David Jensen Session, 1982
04. Angle Park* David Jensen Session, 1982
05. Inwards** John Peel Session, 1983
06. A Thousand Stars** John Peel Session, 1983
07. Close Action** John Peel Session, 1983
08. Porrohman** John Peel Session, 1983
09. Balcony** Live at Hammersmith Palais, 1983
10. Lost Patrol** Live at Hammersmith Palais, 1983
11. The Storm** Live at Hammersmith Palais, 1983
12. In A Big Country** Live at Hammersmith Palais, 1983
13.Angle Park** Live at Hammersmith Palais, 1983
14. Fields of Fire** Live at Hammersmith Palais, 1983

All songs Published By: EMI 10 Music Ltd.
* Ⓟ 1982 BBC, under exclusive licence to Mercury Records Limited
** Ⓟ 1983 BBC, under exclusive licence to Mercury Records Limited


Disc Two
01. Harvest Home * Live at Reading Festival, 1983
02. Close Action * Live at Reading Festival, 1983
03. The Storm * Live at Reading Festival, 1983
04. Fields of Fire * Live at Reading Festival, 1983
05. Lost Patrol** Live at Wembley Stadium, 1984
06. In A Big Country** Live at Wembley Stadium, 1984
07. Porrohman** Live at Wembley Stadium, 1984
08. Inwards** Live at Wembley Stadium, 1984
09. Peace In Our Time*** Live from Soviet Embassy, 1988
10. Look Away*** Live from Soviet Embassy, 1988
11. Broken Heart*** Live from Soviet Embassy, 1988
12. Thousand Yard Stare*** Live from Soviet Embassy, 1988
13. King Of Emotion*** Live from Soviet Embassy, 1988
14. River Of Hope*** Live from Soviet Embassy, 1988

All songs Published By: EMI 10 Music Ltd.
* Ⓟ 1983 BBC, under exclusive licence to Mercury Records Limited
**Ⓟ1984 BBC, under exclusive licence to Mercury Records Limited
***Ⓟ1988 BBC, under exclusive licence to Mercury Records Limited

Disc Three
01. Peace In Our Time Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
02. Look Away Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
03. Wonderland Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
04. Broken Heart Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
05. Just A Shadow Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
06. Thousand Yard Stare Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
07. The Seer Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
08. Come Back To Me Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
09. The Travellers Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
10. King Of Emotion Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
11. East Of Eden Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
12. Restless Natives Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
13. Tracks Of My Tears Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989
14. Fields Of Fire Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1989

All songs Published By: EMI 10 Music Ltd. except tracks 8 & 11 By: Big Country Music Ltd.
Ⓟ1989 BBC, under exclusive licence to Mercury Records Limited

Disc Four (DVD)
01. Fields of Fire Live on Top Of The Pops, 1983
02. In A Big Country Live on Top Of The Pops, 1983
03. Chance Live on Top Of The Pops, 1983
04. East of Eden Live on Top Of The Pops, 1984
05. Look Away Live on Top Of The Pops, 1986
06. King Of Emotion Live on Top Of The Pops, 1988
07. Fields of Fire Live on Oxford Road Show, 1983
08. Close Action Live on Old Grey Whistle Test, 1983
09. A Thousand Stars Live on Old Grey Whistle Test, 1983
10. Just A Shadow Live on Oxford Road Show, 1985
11. Interview Live at the Garden Party, 1990
12. Heart Of The World Live at the Garden Party, 1990
13. Porrohman Live at Pop Carnival, 1983
14. The Storm Live at Pop Carnival, 1983
15. In A Big Country Live at Pop Carnival, 1983
16. Chance Live at Pop Carnival, 1983
17. Angle Park Live at Pop Carnival, 1983
18. Fields of Fire Live at Pop Carnival, 1983
19. Just A Shadow Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
20. The Storm Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
21. Chance Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
22. Where The Rose Is Sown Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
23. Come Back To Me Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
24. A Thousand Stars Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
25. Harvest Home Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
26. Interview Live at The Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
27. Wonderland Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
28. Where The Rose Is Sown Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
29. Rememberance Day Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
30. I Walk The Hill Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
31. Look Away Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
32. Chance Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
33. The Teacher Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
34. In A Big Country Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
35. Inwards Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
36. Harvest Home Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
37. Fields Of Fire Live at the Reading Hexagon,1986
38. Fields Of Fire Live on Top Of The Pops, 1983 (2nd Appearance)
39. In A Big Country Live on Top Of The Pops, 1983 (2nd Appearance)

All songs Published By: EMI 10 Music Ltd. except tracks 12 & 22 & 11 By: Big County Music Ltd.
© 2012 BBC, under exclusive licence to Mercury Records Limited
This Compilation Ⓟ 2012 Mercury Records Limited © 2012 Mercury Records Limited

This compilation: Ⓟ 2013 BBC © 2013 Mercury Records Ltd
All rights of the manufacturer and the owner of the recorded work reserved.
Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of the work prohibited.
A Universal Music Group release. BIEM/SDRM.
U M C Made in EU. Set No,: 372 842-5

{PHOTO TITLES}
Oxford Road Show, 1983
Old Grey Whistle Test, 1983
Pop Carnival: Sefton Park, 1983
The Garden Party, 1990
Whistle Test Extra: Reading Hexagon
Whistle Test Extra: Reading Hexagon
TOTP: Fields Of Fire, 1983
TOTP: In A Big Country, 1983
TOTP: East Of Eden, 1984
TOTP: Look Away, 1986
Whistle Test: Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
Whistle Test: Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
Whistle Test: Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
Whistle Test: Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
Whistle Test: Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
Whistle Test: Edinburgh Playhouse, 1984
Big Country “storm” embassy

 
 

{DVD MENU}

BIG COUNTRY
AT THE BBC

SEFTON PARK
02/07/1983

Porrohman
The Storm
In A Big Country
Chance
Angle Park
Fields of Fire

{OPENING CREDITS}

POP
CARNIVAL

{CLOSING CREDITS}

BIG COUNTRY
from
Sefton Park, Liverpool

Location Liaison
DEREK MURRAY

VT Editor
MYKOLA PAWLUK

Senior Cameraman
DON GROOM

Sound
TONY WORTHINGTON

Stage Lighting
PETER BARNES

Additional Lighting
for Television
RON MINTY

Production Assistant
CHARMAINE MacCORMACK

Executive Producer
MICHAEL APPLETON

Director
DAVID G. CROFT

Producer
JOHN BURROWES
©BBC MCMLXXXIII

© 2013 BBC Worldwide
The BBC word mark and the BBC logo are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under license.
BBC logo © BBC 1996

© 2013 Universal Music Group International (GB)

___________________________________________________

 

{DVD MENU}

Whistle Test
Big Country
Live from Edinburgh Playhouse
Presented by Billy Sloan

Just A Shadow
The Storm
Chance
Where The Rose Is Sown
Come Back To Me
A Thousand Stars
Harvest Home

{OPENING CREDITS}

WHISTLE
TEST

BILLY SLOAN

{CLOSING CREDITS}

© 2013 BBC Worldwide
The BBC word mark and the BBC logo are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under license.
BBC logo © BBC 1996

© 2013 Universal Music Group International (GB)

___________________________________________________

 
 

{DVD MENU}

pick-up.

IN CONCERT - WHISTLE TEST

featuring
BIG COUNTRY 22/07/1986
Reading Hexagon

OB Scanner North 1

Cues and Music Copyright

Duration: 56 mins

MUSIC:

Wonderland
Where The Rose Is Sown
Rememberance Day
I Walk The Hill
Look Away
Chance
The Teacher
In A Big Country
Inwards
Harvest Home
Fields of Fire

{OPENING CREDITS}

EXTRA
WHISTLE
TEST
EXTRA

BIG COUNTRY

{CLOSING CREDITS}

WHISTLE TEST EXTRA
FEATURED
BIG COUNTRY

FROM THE HEXAGON, READING

CONCERT PROMOTION
SOLO MANAGEMENT

STAGE LIGHTING
PETER BARNES

STAGE MANAGERS
PETER MARCH
NEIL HUNTER

CAMERA SUPERVISOR
ALISTAR MITCHELL

VIDEOTAPE EDITOR
DENIS WYATT

ENGINEERING MANAGER
MAURICE GARMAN

TELEVISION LIGHTING
GEOFF RATHBONE

SOUND SUPERVISOR
JOHN CAULFIELD

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
KAREN ROSIE

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
MICHAEL APPLETON

DIRECTOR
MAY MILLER

PRODUCER
JOHN BURROWES
© BBC MCMLXXXVI

 

© 2013 BBC Worldwide
The BBC word mark and the BBC logo are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under license.
BBC logo © BBC 1996

© 2013 Universal Music Group International (GB)