Big Country are celebrating the 35th anniversary of the release of their multi-million selling ‘Steeltown’ album, which was their second long player. It was released on 19th October 1984 and made it all the way to the very top of the UK Album Charts after its release. As a result they will be celebrating this achievement with a live appearance at the ever popular Concorde 2 in Brighton on Friday 18th October. Purchase your tickets HERE and HERE.
Scottish rock band Big Country formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981 with the sadly departed Stuart Adamson at the helm, having left the Skids in order to form his vision. The height of Big Country’s popularity was in the early to mid 1980’s, although they have retained a cult following all these years later. The band’s music incorporated Scottish folk and martial music styles, and the band engineered their guitar-driven sound to evoke the sound of bagpipes, fiddles and other traditional folk instruments.
‘Steeltown’ was recorded at ABBA’s Polar Studios in Stockholm with production from Steve Lillywhite. Founder member Bruce Watson remembers the time very well, amid the nationwide strife back in the UK, fully in the grip of the Miners Strike: “We started work on Steeltown back in June 1984 at Abba’s studio. My Dad was a miner, so what we did was knuckle down to hard work for six weeks”. The title track ‘Steeltown’ was written about the town of Corby, telling how many Scots went to work at the Stewarts & Lloyds Steelworks when it opened in 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, but later found themselves unemployed when the steelworks declined in the early 1980’s.
You can’t keep a classic album down and so it was re-released in 1996 and this reissue contains all of the B-sides from the album’s single releases as well as the extended version of ‘Wonderland’.
The full tracklist now reading:
‘Flame Of The West’ – 5:01
‘East Of Eden’ – 4:29
‘Steeltown’ – 4:39
‘Where The Rose Is Sown’ – 4:58
‘Come Back To Me’ – 4:35
‘Tall Ships Go’ – 4:38
‘Girl With Grey Eyes’ – 4:47
‘Rain Dance’ – 4:19
‘The Great Divide’ – 4:50
‘Just A Shadow’ – 5:38
‘Bass Dance’ – 1:39 (Re-Issue Bonus)
‘Belief In The Small Man’ – 5:17 (Re-Issue Bonus)
‘Prairie Rose’ – 4:46 (Re-Issue Bonus)
‘Wonderland’ (Extended) – 7:07 (Re-Issue Bonus)
‘Winter Sky’ – 3:16 (Re-Issue Bonus)
Big Country will be performing songs from the album at the Concorde 2 as well as the classic hits and live favourites including: ‘Fields of Fire’, ‘In A Big Country’, ‘Chance’, ‘Wonderland’, ‘Look Away’ and many more..
The Big Country current lineup is made up of founding members Bruce Watson (guitars/vocals) and Mark Brzezicki (drums, vocals); along with Jamie Watson (guitars/vocals); Simon Hough (vocals); Scott Whitley (bass).
For more information on the band, visit their website – www.bigcountry.co.uk
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