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Big Country music biography continued...

ability to make guitars sound like bagpipes and fiddles, the band was formed in 1981, originally comprised of Stuart Adamson (formerly of The Skids, vocals / guitar / keyboards), Bruce Watson (guitar / mandolin / sitar / vocals), Tony Butler (bass guitar / vocals) and Mark Brzezicki (drums / percussion / vocals). Signing to Polygram's Mercury imprint, the band issued its debut single, "Harvest Home," in the fall of 1982; a series of opening dates on the Jam's farewell tour increased Big Country's visibility exponentially, and the follow-up, "Fields of Fire," cracked the U.K. Top Ten. The album, The Crossing was released in 1983, as critics raved that "its passionate, idealistic approach and Celtic-inspired arrangements [were] far removed from the prevailing new wave mentality of the moment." The album not only went platinum in the UK, but went gold in America as well, its success spurred by the Top 20 pop hit "In a Big Country."
Big Country never quite achieved the same level of success again and endured label as well as lineup changes from the mid-1980s through the mid-90s. Adamson relocated to Nashville in 1997, prompting Big Country to go on extended hiatus. The group's first new studio effort in four years, Driving to Damascus, appeared in 1999, but Adamson, struggling with alcoholism, signaled his intentions to retire from touring in 2000. In December 2001 he was found dead in a hotel room in Hawaii after having been missing for several weeks. He was honored by his children Callum (20) and Kirsten (16), former band members and musician friends when they gathered to perform and remember him and his music at Barrowlands in Glasgow in May 2002. In 2007, to celebrate 25 years of Big Country, founding members Bruce Watson, Tony Butler (now lead vocalist for the first time), and Mark Brzezicki reunited to embark on a tour of the UK with dates in Scotland and England and a gig in Cologne (Germany), proving that their fans still remembered.