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CREDITS(PIOT On Screen Credits | ROH On Screen Credits)(DVD Extras: Anecdotes: Grant | Edwards | Giddings | Nelson | Fletcher | Fan Roll Call) Stuart Adamson - Guitar, Vocals Video aspect ratio 4:3 ©Universal Music bigcountry.co.uk Peace In Our Time (Stuart Adamson) All Songs Published by EMI Music Ltd ___________________________________________________ |
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PEACE IN OUR TIME ON SCREEN CREDITSjump to:(Credits | ROH On Screen Credits) (DVD Extras: Anecdotes: Grant | Edwards | Giddings | Nelson | Fletcher | Fan Roll Call) {OPENING CREDITS} A PICTURE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION A STORM THORGERSON FILM PEACE IN OUR TIME BIG PALACE OF SPORTS, MOSCOW {CLOSING CREDITS} BIG COUNTRY STUART ADAMSON MARK BRZEZICKI TONY BUTLER BRUCE WATSON LYNDA FLETCHER BARRY MEAD Grant / Edwards recorded by mixed by DAVID WERNHAM ROBBIE JOHNSON RON MANIGLEY PETE KEANE NIGEL LUBY BOB LOPEZ GRAHAM LEES PETER BARNES LOUISE STICKLAND camera operators camera assistants clapper loaders grips gaffer sound recordists assistants to the director production manager editor on line editor director of photography producers executive producers director thanks to Rowland Hill © 1989 Polygram ___________________________________________________ |
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RIVER OF HOPE ON SCREEN CREDITSjump to:(Credits | PIOT On Screen Credits) (DVD Extras: Anecdotes: Grant | Edwards | Giddings | Nelson | Fletcher | Fan Roll Call) {OPENING CREDITS} RIVER OF HOPE BIG COUNTRY {CLOSING CREDITS} BIG COUNTRY STUART ADAMSON MARK BRZEZICKI TONY BUTLER BRUCE WATSON GRANT EDWARDS MANAGEMENT thanks to THE BIG COUNTRY CREW FOUNDATION FOR
SOCIAL INVENTION FILM CREW Camera Operators Camera Assistants Clapper Loaders Grips Gaffer Sound Recordists Assistants to the Director Production Manager Editor Director of Photography Executive Producers Producers Director © 1989 POLYGRAM MUSIC VIDEO LTD/ ___________________________________________________ |
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DVD EXTRAS ON SCREEN NOTESjump to:(Credits | PIOT On Screen Credits | ROH On Screen Credits) (DVD Extras: Anecdotes: Grant | Edwards | Giddings | Nelson | Fletcher | Fan Roll Call) {ANECDOTES} How did the largest Western media exercise in Moscow since the 1980 Olympics and the visit of Ronald Reagan come about? There were two seeds that spawned the idea. Alan Edwards and I knew we needed a strong press presence for the release of Big Country's fourth studio album and although being in PR ourselves we knew it wouldn't be appropriate for us to be handling the PR ourselves so, we went to Alan's former boss, Keith Altham. He had edited the NME in the 60s and represented Jimi Hendrix and The Who and indeed travelled with Jimi to Monterrey and suggested Jimi set fire to his guitar. So, this man was a serious player and one we took notice of. His words to us once he had his feet under his desk were "your band are a little tepid at press level, you need to come up with something". Angles, hooks and stories were becoming more important than the music. The second seed was Mark Brzezicki saying to me when we were driving down the Ventura Freeway on the way to the studio where PIOT was being recorded, "I would love to play in the East again, being half Polish". In 1978 I had organised a slightly smaller album launch in Iceland for The Stranglers. Maybe do similar i mused to myself. Gorbachev had been meeting Reagan and new words were being presented to us on the radio and in newspapers. Glasnost (openness and transparency) and perestroika (rebuilding). We had been in East Berlin the year before so I had an idea and suggested to Stuart that he be an ambassador for East/West culture exchanges in the way Sting was for the rain forest and Bono for Amnesty International, what with his socialist leanings. He was enthusiastic. The idea now conceived had to be planned. We made it known to the record company and agent we had this idea. No-one was negative bar the odd one or two at Mercury and then in America. We had a great team in those days and particularly with the likes of Lynda Fletcher and Barry Mead, no task was impossible. Contact was made with a Finnish promoter who in turn connected us with Stas Namin. The story is immense. Nothing quite like this had been attempted before. Not by a bunch of western rock n rollers nor a private individual in the former Soviet Union. The story cannot be told here in full but the documentary tells it's own tale. Below are some memories of a few individuals who were very much part of making it work. John has it slightly wrong in that the Moscow Embassy launch did not come about until much later than the original idea to go to Moscow. The jaunt didn't cost anything like the rumours subsequently bandied around and nor did the band leave their equipment in Moscow which was also suggested in some reports. Warners Brothers did pull out having said they would contribute financially so there was a loss made. The band gained massive coverage all around the world except in America. There are stories behind the stories and maybe one day they will all be told. Storm who produced the documentary was fascinated by how everyone was drinking most of the time and this comes over in the documentary. I saved my drinking for the reception (a saga in itself) as I had to be with my senses all the time and the plane ride home as you will see for yourself, due to my condition on arrival. The accent on drinking is somewhat ironic. I wonder what Stuart would have made of it? One things for sure, they don't do album launches like that anymore. A plane load of media flown half way round the globe to a then mysterious and misunderstood capital for a week of cultural activities, including a gig by Big Country all to promote their new album - Peace In Our Time! A modern marketing man's worst nightmare! From the get go the trip was like no other, Russia was still emerging from the communist era and though the iron curtain was fluttering a bit the whole communist project was still in place where we disembarked in Moscow en masse. The hotel was a giant monolith of a place right next to Red Square. There were something like 7,000 rooms and entry to your room was via a fierce looking woman who sat at a desk by the lift. The room lived up to cold war expectations. More like a cell than anything else, and dowdy as you can imagine. I remember switching on the ancient TV, which spluttered into life, only to find out that there was one channel, black and white and it was showing live combine harvester racing from the Ukraine! I kid you not! The food in the hotel was inedible, and we were the privileged westerners. There were watery soups with bones sticking out of it and apples that looked as if they'd been harvested in the era of Uncle Joe. Shifty looking leather coated men faded in and out of the background recalling a scene from a Le Carre novel. A lot of the preparatory work had been done by lan Grant, the man who's vision this extraordinarily ambitious undertaking was. All we really had to do was turn up at things and generally hang out. First there was a formal reception at the British Embassy at which much Vodka was consumed. The next day was shopping spree in Moscow's equivalent of Harrods. Rows and rows of near empty stalls. We saw a crowd outside one window only to discover they were all looking at a toaster or some new fangled invention. I bought some fur hats and a bootleg Led Zeppelin album. Back at the hotel we bumped into the band fresh from an optional Afghan vets gig in Gorky Park. This sort of concert might be happening in Washington or London now! The main Big Country concert was bizarre in many respects. For starters it was scheduled for late afternoon as opposed the evening, and also the crowd seem to comprise mainly of soldiers as opposed to tartan shirted hordes. Eventually the band took the stage, kicking off with the rabble rousing 'In A Big Country', only for the sound to literally die within a minute or so. The band were aghast and the crowd thought it might be all over and started to drift away probably thinking what a rip off western rock music was! Backstage the mood was glum and Stuart sat head in hands wondering what to do. It transpired that there were often power cuts at this time of day due to the massive pressure placed on the electric grid when a few million Moscovites got home and put on the kettle! After a forty five minute delay the gig got underway and a fine one it was as usual. Big Country were never anything less than superb live. Back in the UK a few days later it all seemed totally surreal. It was! JOHN GIDDINGS I was privileged to be the agent for Big Country, and when lan Grant suggested we launch 'Peace In Our Time' @ the Russian embassy and follow it up with a gig in Moscow it seemed an obvious idea... Little did we know! I am convinced that the gig only happened through our own naivety, and more cynical people would have given up a long time beforehand. We knew nothing, made it up, and it all happened. Probably one of the funniest weekends of my life from the moment we set off at Stansted with an aircraft full of journalists until the time we touched down three days later, slightly the worse for wear. The group were great of course, but the cultural shock was breathtaking, kids asking to buy our jeans in the street who had never heard the Beatles. It is living proof that we were young once, and enjoyed it to the full. What else can I say - stay alive! MARTIN NELSON The £2.5K story: The day before we were all due to leave on Plummet Airlines, the tour manager Barry Mead rang me to say that I must bring out £2,500 in cash for extra hotel rooms. I persuaded Hein van der Ree (MD of Phonogram) to sign the chit and got the petty cash. Eventually arriving in Moscow, we were held up for hours whilst the Supreme Soviet arrived and took precedence over our party of 247. During that time we were all given immigration forms to fill in, which included a demand to list any cash. With a 50/50 choice of declaring it or not, I erred on the side of caution and declared the £2.5K. Fortunately this was not questioned and we reached the hotel to find no food and check in slips written in Cyrillic script, so I forgot about the cash. After the most difficult weekend of my life, everyone was very relieved to be back on the buses to leave for the airport. Just about to go when Barry jumps on and demands the cash. I told him I had declared it at the airport, and did not want to face a trip to Siberia by leaving without a receipt to prove where the money had gone. Barry could not give me any paperwork for the cash, so we went to ask the translator to write out a message for immigration in Cyrillic to explain what had happened to the cash. She refused, broke down in tears and ran from the bus! That is when I started to get really nervous. We got back to the airport to find that our flight was delayed indefinitely, as thieves had stolen all the safety equipment on board, so the Moscow Airport officials refused to refuel it. All the food and drink had also disappeared, but the wonderful Iceland Air crew had been queueing all weekend to buy something for us to eat on the way back. Finally the problem is resolved, and the flight is called. As we are queueing to go back through Customs, I am s******g myself knowing that I have no explanation for the loss of £2.5K. We are suddenly held up, so passport control could allow a couple of hundred OAPs through in front of us. Fortunately all the press had been tanking up with duty free jeroboams of vodka during the delay. Led by an NME representative they started a minor riot, shouting jeering and pushing. Just one example of the excitement of the weekend, and I never did find out what he really needed that money for! LYNDA FLETCHER "Probably the most bitter-sweet memory I have!! It's true what they say about what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger'!! I look back at the amazing achievement actually pulling it off was ... I remember those dear friends who are no longer with us (God bless you, Stuart, Dave and Joe) ... I remember living off cigarettes, coffee and tins of tuna (and losing 2 dress sizes!) ... The Benny Hill like sketch of lan (Grant) chasing the promoter, Stas Namin round the hotel room after he moved the goal posts one too many times ... The most bitter memory? Stas Namin putting his tongue in my ear (eeeewe!) and the sweetest ... The tears of joy of the most hardened crew members when we left Russian air space!! BARRY MEAD I learnt an important lesson......if it does not feel right - don't do it....even if it means letting your colleagues down...just walk away! Loyalty is worthless in that situation. I was trained as an electronics engineer and while in the event planning stage we had an unannounced visit at the office from 2 guys from BT who needed to install something..... British Intelligence were monitoring our calls.....I asked them for their ID and what they were actually installing..... they got very shaky and just stalled and left. We were being monitored! (No lan, I was not paranoid). In Moscow our female interpreter was a Russian State Security officer - I challenged her and she did not deny it... I told her I felt more comfortable with her in place as they were getting an accurate picture of the innocence of our project. The British Embassy in Moscow were very unhelpful when I visited. That was another indication to me that peace would not be in our time. Everyone in Moscow at the Rossia hotel had to be "convinced" to do their job properly with bottles of Scotch Whisky & packets of 200 Marlboro cigarettes. Sudden demands for more cash to pay for press rooms were made. We were working in an alien legal environment, trying to work with people on a hand shake with no recourse to the law for protection. Fear and intimidation were the only way that things got done in that country. On the morning of the main press show, the Rossia Hotel was sealed with armed KGB security guards. Gorbachev had sacked the Foreign Minister Andre Gromeko that morning (who had worked for Stalin) and always wondered if we had paid to bring the press to Moscow to witness a possible coup! Stuart's effects rack did not have a stabilized power supply and we had to use a Variac to manually keep the voltage at 240 to prevent the rack having a breakdown. On the pre press shows everything went like clockwork, the voltage was a little unstable but a roadie monitored it for the whole performance. On the Saturday Press Day, the mains voltage went so low that the Variac could not deal with it and we could not start the show. As I was pacing around backstage, I saw one of the local guys we were dealing with emerge from the main switchboard/power room with the ice ring maintenance man & a US lawyer who just happened to be around.......when I challenged them they said the drop in mains supply voltage was due to them turning a couple of power stations off on Saturday as nobody worked!! Lesson learnt not even the electricity can be relied on to work so bring your own generators which everyone now does. The Russians did not believe that we had not made some money and we were roughly handled when we finally managed to get out of there. On the plane home, I glanced across the aisle and sitting there was Professor John Kenneth Galbraith who was the architect of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe with US money..... I had read his books and introduced myself. When I told him what we had been involved in he asked "did you make a profit" when I replied that it was difficult to measure as it was a marketing exercise, he replied "they won"....(he had been in Moscow advising the government on restructuring their economy). Robb Carter - Scotland
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