Kingdom Come

Just unearthed thanks to Allan Smith from Dunfermline. He has found issues 1,4,6,7,9,11, 12 and 13. these fanzines written by the late great Johnny Waller and depicted life in the Dunfermline/Edinburgh music scene in 1977, 78. Loads of articles on Skids, Clash etc.It would be great if anyone else had anymore of these and could pass them on to me. I shall get them digitized then sent back to the owner.

Oran Mor Reminder

ÒranMór, meaning the ‘great melody of life’ or ‘big song’ is a cultural centre and meeting place in the Heart of Glasgow’s West End. There are 2 bars, 2 restaurants, a nightclub and stunning private event space available for hire in the converted church, formerly Kelvinside Parish Church.AFGM will be playing on the 27th of December.The gig is situated at the top of Byres road in the west end of Glasgow.Tickets £12 plus booking fee from Ticket Scotland.

Kelvin Hall Glasgow

Guys 'n Dolls

Here we are with our guests, Carrie, Smiley, Steve and Jane. This pic was taken just before our Kelvin Hall show.

The Ultimate Collection Review

http://www.rockahead.net/reviews/reviewpage.php?rev=67
Big Country
The Ultimate Collection
Classic Pictures /Track DVD 7023X
The DVD is exactly what it says on the box, The Ultimate Collection of Big Country’s finest visual moments. For some people Big Country will forever be the band that "Made Guitars Sound Like Bagpipes". Watching this DVD however many may be forced to admit that besides performing some incredibly catchy songs over the years which still stand the test of time. Big Country became an incredibly sophisticated rock band that deserved your attention and also that of the critics. For those long-time fans the early videos still have a charm to them and perhaps invoke memories of the early eighties when the band first broke onto the scene. For me however it is the latter material such as Alone and Fragile World that features fellow Scot Eddi Reader alongside the band’ As a visual timeline of the band however this DVD can’t be faulted and it’s twenty tracks stand as a fine body of work and also a fine testament to the talent of the late Stuart Adamson who’s presence permeates every one of the videos contained here. Ore for the fans then but also one for those who remember the early days of Big Country when songs like Fields Of Fire Big Country and the quite wonderful Chance resounded around theatres and stadiums the world over. Highly recommended

Instrumental music 21 11 05

Just for fun I am posting this link to a piece of instrumental music that I recorded yesterday. The recording was made with a Tascam 8 track portastudio. I used my Eggle guitar through a Line 6 pod amp simulator. Drum machine was a 20 year old mono Yamaha. No bass.
http://media.putfile.com/01Instrumental

Dead Men Walking Print

Here is a print of me which was done during my last stint with Dead Men Walking. It was created by Jack who was the agent on the tour.

Rarities VIII

Here are the details on Rarities 8
All Go Together
Alone
Comes A Time
Eastworld
Small Town Big News
I Could Be Happy Here
Keep On Dreaming
Long Way Home
Sweet November Nothings, The One I Love, Pan American Irish Girl, Pink Marshmallow Moon, Simple's Always Best, The Selling of America, Seven Waves, Soldier of The Lord, Winding Wind

AFGM to play Oran Mor Glasgow 27 12 05

ÒranMór, meaning the ‘great melody of life’ or ‘big song’ is a cultural centre and meeting place in the Heart of Glasgow’s West End. There are 2 bars, 2 restaurants, a nightclub and stunning private event space available for hire in the converted church, formerly Kelvinside Parish Church.AFGM will be playing on the 27th of December.The gig is situated at the top of Byres road in the west end of Glasgow.
Tickets £12 plus booking fee from Ticket scotland. More details to follow.

Glasgow Evening Times

Here is the article for AFGM. Glasgow Evening Times 12 11 05

The Hammer Song

Today I have been playing guitar on Kirk Brandon’s version of The Hammer Song. The song was originally recorded by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band for their album Framed. Kirk and I used to play this at Dead Men Walking soundchecks and his version will be available on his Dutch Master sessions on Itunes very soon.

Latest Guitar

Here is a pic of my latest guitar. It was custom made for me by Ryan Smith from Smiggs Guitars, Kirkcaldy, Fife. Although the guitar is similar in shape to a Yamaha SG 2000, the construction is identical to a Gibson Les Paul, ie the neck is glued in rather than being a straight through affair. The tailpiece and bridge are Gibson. Machine heads are sperzals. Pickups are Seymour Duncans. Mahogany body with Maple cap. Rosewood fingerboard and mahogony neck. The guitar is absolutely stunning and is lovely to play. Check him out he is a genius.

Fake gold discs on eBay etc

I have received a lot of emails from people asking me about the authenticity of Gold discs on eBay. All the ones I saw were manufactured by companies that had nothing to do with Big Country or Mercury Records. Pictured here is the genuine article from my own collection. The Union Jack is embedded on the top left corner. To the bottom left is The Crossing cassette sleeve with Chromium Dioxide printed on it. On the right bottom corner is a plaque which reads. BPI certified sales award. Presented to ----- ------ to recognise the sales in the United Kingdom of more than 100,000 copies of the Mercury album "The Crossing" 1983. Also on the back is a small gold sticker which reads. Century Displays. 21 Berrylands road, Surbiton,Surrey, Tel 01-390 1012 .

News Of The World free CD

Big Country were featured in todays News Of The World. In A Big Country live from Germany 1995. Other artists featured, Proclaimers, Deacon Blue, Maggie Bell, Bay City Rollers, Frankie Miller, Nazareth, Hue And Cry, Rod Stewart, The Shamen.

Ivory Blacks 10th Nov 05

Big thanks to everyone for supporting us at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow. We did a set consisting of our back catalogue plus a few other songs for fun. Great to meet Smiley and Steve from Spear Of Destiny. Great players and cool guys. Smiley was drummer for Joe Strummers Mescalleros and Steve has been playing with Gary Numan. Hope to do a couple of shows a month featuring new material as well as back catalogue.

My debut show

Great fun last night playing my debut gig with A Few Good Men. We played a short set for the Scottish Sports person of the year awards in Glasgow. The set consisted of Big Country and Simple Minds songs. ‘Waterfront’, ‘Chance’, ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ and ‘In A Big Country’. On Drums we had Malcolm Button, Vocals Jane Button and for the very first time on a Big Country performance. Carrie MacNeil on Bagpipes. Carrie is Mick’s niece and her performance on ‘In A Big Country’ was stunning. Mick also added some accordion and keys to the BC material which works really well.

Picture of Green Guitar

Hi Andy and thanks for your nice email and pics. I had the guitar custom made for me way back in the early 90's by the Patrick Eggle factory. I used it mainly on the Buffalo Skinners tours. In fact there is a picture of me using it on the 'Without the Aid of a safety net' album. I used the guitar on the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge tour where my mate Joe Seabrook got Keith and Ronnie to sign it. It is a fantastic guitar and one that I enjoyed owning and playing. Nils is a big hero of mine and if you play his song 'Mud in your eye' you will hear something very familiar.

Andy and Nils

Below is an email I recieved from Andy.
Hi Bruce, Hope you are well. I went to see Nils Lofgren on Friday with Buck Brown and he was amazing. I took along your green New York guitar for him to sign as I know he wrote a song about Keith Richards ' Keith Don't go ' so I asked him to sign it next to his name.( Rolling Stones '95 ) He was very impressed with the guitar and asked who's it was. I told him that it was yours and how I acquired it and he knew you straight away and said he admired your guitar playing , he knew of Big Country and seemed very happy to talk about your sound, talent etc.... I also got Buck Brown to sign it , he was some way away so didn't hear the conversation so when I told him that he was signing a Big Country guitar he immediately said was it Bruce Watson's guitar ??!!! You seem to be very popular Bruce , they were both really interested in you.....I was so proud to get him to sign it but I was blown away by how they both knew you and admired you. My brother took some photo's which I haven't developed yet , if you like I could send you some ( that's if they come out !! ) Thanks Bruce. Andy

Sports Personality of the year Scotland

A Few Good men will be appearing at the Sports Personality of the year event at the Radisson SAS on Friday the 4th Nov. Rehearsals for up and coming shows commence on the 2nd. Looking forward to it, should be good fun
Ian has done an interview with Vicky Davidson at The Glasgow Evening Times. Should be published this week. Real Radio also played ‘I Dream to Sleep’ and advertised Ivory Blacks show.

Rockpalast DVD

Here is the cover shot of the forthcoming Big Country Rockpalast DVD. As you can see it is a very good shot of Stuart