Search - Big Country :: Come Up Screaming

Hands Down, The Best Live Album EVER

Richard J. Atkinson | Queensbury, NY USA | 03/16/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Big Country made some wonderful studio albums, but the concert stage was where they really came alive. I knew that this album was due for release about two months before its actual release date, and I haunted music stores until I found it. My heart sank when a sticker on the front informed me that it was recorded on something called The Final Fling tour. It didn't take a mental giant to realize that a stellar band was calling it quits.They surely did not go out with a whimper. They put together a show that was studded with the band's best known songs, and then added in some of their best (but less well known) album tracks for good measure. The album covers material from every part of their career, from their debut album "The Crossing" right up to "Driving to Damascus". There just aren't enough good things to say about this album. The performances are first rate, the pacing is great, the sound is excellent, and the crowd is with them every step of the way, egging them on. If you take a music fan who has never even heard of Big Country and play them just the final six tracks of this album, you will create a rabid Big Country fan.From a purely selfish point of view, I find it unimaginable that a band that sounded this good, even while standing on the edge of oblivion, had to break up. In the back of my mind I harbored the hope for a reunion at some point in the future. Obviously that hope was dashed with the tragic suicide this past December of frontman/singer/songwriter/guitarist Stuart Adamson.For me, the only downside to this album is the bitter irony of its closing seconds. At the end of the final number, Adamson addresses the crowd and thanks them for their support. His final words to them (echoing the lyrics to the song "In A Big Country") are "...remember, stay alive!" If only he could have followed his own advice..."

This is THE one BC cd to own. God Bless You Stuart. R.I.P.

Steve Rist | Edwardsville, Illinois United States | 12/18/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"He's gone. He wrote songs that spoke of good and bad situations, all the while telling the listener that time would make everything ok. Well, time has run out for Stuart Adamson. I sincerely believe this album features his best songs and best performances. If you have only one in your music collection, forget the greatest hits. Get this one. Stuart, hopefull the angels did indeed take you home!"

Come Up Motting

Kim Fletcher | Pattaya, Chonburi Thailand | 10/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's amazing how many people thought Big Country split in the mid-eighties. In fact, the band carried on recording and gigging until 2000. It is a story of unrealized potential, lack of support from record labels, and a musical style that the music industry couldn't pigeon-hole. However, let's go back to the beginning. The band formed in 1981 when hugely-talented vocalist/lead guitarist/songwriter Stuart Adamson left Scottish punk band The Skids and joined with long-time Dunfermline pal and ex-nuclear submarine cleaner Bruce Watson on rhythm guitar. In 1982 the original rhythm section was fired and Tony Butler (bass) and Mark Brzezicki (drums) were recruited from On the Air via session work. On the Air was a three-some with Simon Townshend, who's now helping brother Pete out in The Who.The band signed up with Phonogram and released their first single `Harvest Home'. It introduced the band's distinctive twin-racing guitar sound. References have been made to a `bagpipe' sound. Let me tell you that most bagpipes I've heard would make a deaf dog cringe. We'll leave this stereotype to the ill-informed. The band's second single, `Fields of Fire', hit #10 in the UK charts in 1983. The excellent first album, `The Crossing', charted initially at #4 and eventually reached a peak of #3. Subsequent touring and singles releases confirmed Big Country as the hot new act in the post-punk music industry.Big Country's second album, `Steeltown', hit the UK charts in 1984 and went straight in at #1. More successful singles and sellout gigs followed. The band then took a brief sabbatical to record the soundtrack to the movie Restless Natives. The third album, `The Seer', was released in July 1986 and reached #2 in the UK charts supported by the success of their biggest hit single (at #7) `Look Away'. High profile live appearances followed at the classic 1986 Princes Trust Concert and at Knebworth, supporting Queen at their last ever UK gig in front of 200,000 people (including this dog!). Looking back, 1986 was the band's commercial peak.Each of the five studio albums that followed had some elements of experimentation and achieved varying degrees of success. The sixth studio album, `Buffalo Skinners', was a classic twin-guitar hard rocking album that eventually reached #25 in the charts, but with proper support from the record label could have brought the band back into the big time. Big Country's last studio album, `Driving to Damascus', encompassed many of the styles of the previous albums and had a more relaxed leaning consistent with Stuart Adamson's move to Nashville in the US.So, what do we have in Come Up Screaming? A double live album of 22 of their best tracks taken from the Glasgow and London gigs on the `Final Fling' tour of May 2000. The album kicks off with the rousing `Harvest Home', quickly followed by the hard-rocking `King of Emotion' from the `Peace in Our Time' album. `John Wayne's Dream' and `Driving to Damascus' follow with Adamson and Watson in great form, supported by the tightest rhythm section in the business. Other classic tracks follow including `The Storm' with the unique E-bow intro; a quieter moment with `Come Back to Me', before cranking up again for the ever-popular `Look Away' and 'Wonderland'. The finale is formed of four tracks from `The Crossing' in rapid succession - the epic `Porroh Man', `Chance' with vocals as usual loudly augmented by the crowd; theme song `In a Big Country', and great favourite `Fields of Fire', all with the racing guitars on full throttle. Where are they now? Sadly, Stuart Adamson took his own life in December 2001; Bruce `the man who invented the seagull' Watson is recording and touring with ex-Marillion-frontman Fish; Mark Brzezicki has been recording and playing in Procol Harum, and Tony Butler currently concentrates on remastering and music production. It's always been a mystery why Big Country never made the big time commercially. They shied away from publicity-seeking at the height of their popularity, when many of their less-talented contemporaries sought the limelight. The band stayed together for most of their 18 years and continued to be a great live act to go and see. However, a band with four top ten albums and four top ten singles should not have been forgotten so easily. Their legacy is kept alive by the ever-supportive ex-Manager Ian Grant, the two websites he runs (Track and Big Country), and an enthusiastic group of fans across the world. Live and rarities albums continue to be released and some of the studio albums have been lovingly remastered by Tony Butler. The big stores in Thailand have seen fit not to import `Come Up Screaming', so the best bet is the Track Records website - www.trackrecords.co.uk or the Big Country website - www.bigcountry.co.uk Mott the Dog."