NEWS, RUMOURS AND GOSSIP FROM THE DAMASCUS NEWS DESK
Welcome to the news. The past two months have been highly eventful in the life of Big Country, and in this Bulletin we hope to update you with rumours and gossip in what has happened or is alleged to have happened and also a few things that should, might or may happen in the future. Stuart Adamson appeared on BBC2's Never Mind The Buzzcocks on Friday 1st October, and proved to be a hit! A solid performance was put in, where he didn't get the p*ss ripped out of him (as is common on this show), and Stuart came out with many quips, and was captured on camera a lot with wry grins reflecting the banter than was flying about the show. One of Stuart's team-mates was Gail Porter and she came in for a lot of flak from presenter Lamaar, to the extent that he told her that she would not be awarded any more points until she took her top off. She never did, and despite Stuart's star performance, where he got all the songs in the "Guess the Intro" round among others, the opposing team were awarded 4 points per correct answer in the final round (as opposed to the normal one). Both Gail Porter and Marianne Faithful (who was on the opposing team) were firing daggers at Lamaar by the end, and apparently scenes were cut from the recording (2 hours edited to 1/2 hour) where Ms Porter was in tears from Lamaar's jibes, and Mr Adamson comforted her with a re-assuring hug, to the extent Stuart is now Gail Porters new best friend. Marianne Faithful even told Lamaar a few times that "Stuart knows!" the answer to questions she was asked, unfortunately he was on the opposing side, and clearly didn't understand the rules, or didn't care!
Fragile Thing was on the Radio 2 play list for a total of 9 weeks (7 weeks A List, 2 weeks B List). See You has just been added to the Radio 2 C List, and it is hoped over the next week or two it shall rise to the A List (20-25 plays per week), while the Fragile Thing video was shown extensively on VH1. CD2 of See You/Perfect World has a very moving startling picture of Bruce and Stuart standing on rubble either side of a Kosovan orphan playing Bruce's mandolin, against a backdrop of war tom, destroyed buildings in Kosovo. Perfect World shall hopefully be seen on the following TV shows (either performance or video): London Today, GMTV, TFI (we are trying - all fans e-mail TFI and ask for BC), among others. Perfect World and/or See You has been added to Clyde, Forth and Radio2 play lists, and we hope Virgin Radio and many others shall pick it up as well. Call/e-mail your local radio stations and ask them to play the songs. Discussions are under way for a Japanese Tour in 2000, as well as a possible USA Tour with Simple Minds. All being well, BC should play a multitude of countries in the year 2000 all around the world. Discussions are also underway for a European Record Deal, which should see the album released throughout Europe next year. Similarly, the USA should see the new album released, possibly to coincide with the USA Tour (provisionally April/May 2000).
Big Country shall hopefully be appearing at the opening of a new HMV store in Birmingham on 28th October, and possibly doing other in-store signings the week commencing 25/10/99. BC have taken out Co-op Ads with the likes of HMV, Virgin, Our Price for the week of the Dble A-side Single release, and this shall see the band getting more prominence both newspaper-wise and in-store, thus ensuring a good chance of these chains being well stocked with the single. Stuart was to appear at NetAid introducing Stereophonics & Holly Johnson, but his appearance at NetAid was unfortunately restricted on Saturday 9th October to joining all the performers and other presenters on stage at Wembley just before the 10pm world-wide live link-up with the New York and Geneva shows for the "Moment Of Unity". Due to various sets over-running, some sets had to be cut, and in the case of Holly Johnson, removed completely. This also meant that the presenters introducing all the acts were dropped as well. Stuart did do an interview and it can be found by going to the NetAid Website http://www.netaid.org. It can be found in the "Concert Clips" Section, under Big Country and lasts for approx 3 minutes where Stuart talks about the Scotland For Kosovo benefit concert, the recent trip to Kosovo itself, the website, and also about DTD.
Stuart shall appear on the Popped In Crashed Out ITV Quiz Show, which shall be screened at 00.30am on Saturday 23rd October. Presented by Phil Alexander (Kerrang Editor), it also features Jacques Lucont (from the band Les Rhythmes Digitales). The winner of the show shall have their video shown, so make sure you tune in to see if Stuart wins! If you're quick, you'll be able to pick up a very limited edition of the CD (5000 have been pressed) with two extra tracks, 'Shattered Cross' and 'Too Many Ghosts'. These are from Stuart's other project, Blue Heeler. The band appeared at Key 103 Mardi Gras in Manchester on 29th August, and City Radio's "Liverpool Party At The Pier the following day, performing a couple of tracks at each event, both events being broadcast live on the radio. Stuart has been doing radio interviews this week (w/c 11/10/99) for future broadcasting. These include ScotFM, BBC Radio Scotland, Clyde2 and Central FM. Check with them for actual broadcast dates and times. Also Stuart did an interview with "The Source" which is syndicated around the country to various Radio Stations - check with your local Radio Stations as to whether they are broadcasting this interview. Stuart has also been doing interviews with the following: ITV Teletext; Bristol Observer; Newcastle Joumal; Wolverhampton Express and Star; News of Wolverhampton; Bristol Evening Post; Manchester Evening News; Rochdale Observer. We do not have publication dates of these interviews as yet.
STOP PRESS: VH1 shall be showing Perfect World video on the Paul King show.
