Some of my Big Country stuff on display...
Posted on 12/17/2001 3:16:43 PM PST by Pokey78
STUART ADAMSON, lead singer of 1980s pop group Big Country, has been found dead in Hawaii, his manager said today.
Ian Grant confirmed the body of the 43-year-old was discovered in a hotel yesterday. He said: "He was a great guy and I know there will be a lot of people will feel the same way."
Adamson, who had been living in Nashville, Tennessee, went missing several weeks ago. He had fought a long battle with alcohol and also went missing in November 1999.
A statement on the website of Mr Grant's record label, Track Records, said: "I cannot believe I am sitting at my desk typing this.
"Stuart Adamson was found dead in a hotel room in Hawaii yesterday. I have no more news other than that at present. I ask the media to leave his family alone in their grief.
"My heart goes out to his family, Bruce, Mark and Tony. I have just lost one of the finest people I have ever worked with or been lucky enough to know."
Big Country split last year and Adamson went on to form another group, The Raphaels. He had lived in Nashville for the past five years and was married to Melanie.
Adamson, born in Manchester, grew up in Crossgates near Dunfermline, Fife, and formed the punk group The Skids in the 1970s. He went on to form Big Country, which had a string of hits during the 1980s as well as eight successful albums.
In 1986, he told how he had suffered a nervous breakdown six years before and was on the verge of another due to stress and overwork.
When he went missing for the second time in two years earlier this month, his ex-wife Sandra, from Dunfermline, confirmed Adamson was due to appear in court in the US charged with drink driving. She said the case had been deferred until March next year.
Mr Grant first met Adamson in 1977 and managed him throughout his career, from his beginnings in The Skids to critical acclaim with Big Country.
He said: "He was a man that I had a lot of respect for. You don't stay with someone in this business for that length of time unless that is the case.
"At the moment someone close to me has died and I feel like I am in some kind of void. He was a great guy and I know there will be a lot of people will feel the same way. Everybody who met Stuart liked him."
And what are they fighting for? ROCK & ROLL!
Big Country was a great band. Much better than U2. And they sang about Scottish wars, too. Cannonballs, last stands, lost causes. You'd like `em, ya drunk sofa-soldier.
I loved this guy.
If you can't do this, don't get mad at those who can.
In retort, Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats said "who does he think invented Rock and Roll - Angus MacPresley?"
Brian Setzer couldn't hold a dim candle to the talent Stuart and his buddies possessed in their little finger. I submit proof in this short piece (and this is just the b-side song, yes a b-side song). Find an American that can play anything half this decent.... and remember this is from 1984.
Click "HERE" for an amazin short guitar piece by Big Country in 1984, b-side music at that
he he yeah right.....
I feel as if I might have made a mistake...not a big mistake.., but a mistake just the same.
I can feel for the military men overseas and feel for the guys that might think Big Country was good music
and have died while they were fighting for those Big Country's Right to hang himself.
There is more to your life than your CD labels. Those people do no more for our country than you do at your job,
yet you and the people like you on this thread elevate them to a celebrity status for no apparent reason other than
they sell cds. You at least do something, everyone here does something, yet you aren't elevated to that status!
Grow the hell up.
Hung Himself... Sheesh
My favorite song is "Prairie Rose" from Steeltown.
Great album art as well.
He will be missed.
You are just making an arse outta yourself here.
Your a gentleman to boot.
I never saw you look like this without a reason
Another promise fallen through, another season passes by you
I never took the smile away from anybody's face
And that's a desperate way to look for someone who is still a childChorus:
In a big country dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside
Stay aliveI'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertimeChorus
So take that look out of here, it doesn't fit you
Because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded
Pull up your head off the floor, come up screaming
Cry out for everything you ever might have wanted
I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered
I did hear another cut (not US hit) that was on a UK compilation LP that I bought at the time.
I don't mean any disrespect to the man who died; I missed seeing Screaming Lord Sutch in Vegas at Halloween by 2 months. He hung himself after 2 years of depression.
To my knowledge, he never had a US hit although he was the proving ground for Britain's rock musicians ("discovering" everyone from Nicky Hopkins to Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Noel Redding). He also ran for parliment with the Raving Monster Looney Party. He was dismissed as a joke but eventually a number of his platform "reforms" did become law (including giving 18-year olds the vote and several other "successes").
Some of my Big Country stuff on display...
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