Review: Big Country - Glasgow Barrowland

By Jay Richardson
Published on Wednesday 8 February 2012 03:56

BIG Country’s return to the Barrowland ballroom, the final UK venue they appeared in before singer Stuart Adamson took his life in 2001, was always likely to be emotional.

An elegy for days past before they focus on recording new material, with a setlist dominated by debut record The Crossing, their earnest, fist-pumping Celtic anthems were echoed by the chants of their loyal fans. Chief among these was Mike Peters of Welsh rockers The Alarm, the replacement frontman never less than reverent towards the band’s back catalogue, sustaining all the full-throated, head wrenched-back passion the tracks of the adopted Scots demand.

Originally released as a B-side, opener Belief In The Small Man was emblematic of the band’s quality control – there were few duff renditions here – but also a lack of variation, sounded with the first military beat of Mark Brzezicki’s drums. Recent comeback single Another Country arguably recalls The Alarm as much as the classic Big Country guitars-as-bagpipes sound but it’s still unmistakably from a familiar template. Peters afforded What Are You Working For? an epic salute by wading into the crowd to sing from the room’s centre, while a romp through their soundtrack to the film Restless Natives was unabashed nostalgia. Predictably, the highlights were the rousing explosion of In A Big Country and the rollicking Fields Of Fire. Adamson’s favourite song, Tracks of my Tears by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, provided a lovely touch for the encore.

Rating: ***

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Alanjm1964

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 07:25 PM

Well said tb1977- where exactly was this guy at on Monday? And what was he smoking????!! Set list was- Angle Park, East Of Eden, Another Country, Balcony, The Crossing, Restless Natives, In A Big Country, Inwards, Chance, 1000 Stars, The Storm, Harvest Home, Lost Patrol, Close Action, Fields Of Fire, Porrohman. Tracks Of My Tears, Look Away & Wonderland were encore. If he's getting paid to do this for a living, he really needs to pay attention or he'll be on the broo soon.

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tb1977

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 03:38 PM

Oh, and what is 'adopted Scots' supposed to mean? The band was born in Dunfermline which was the home of both Stuart Adamson and Bruce Watson. True, Mark Brzezicki and Tony Butler are both English but there was never any doubt that this was a Scottish band.

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tb1977

Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 03:12 PM

I'm grown-up enough not to expect a reviewer to like something because I do, but it annoys me when they can't even get the basic facts right. I hate myself for saying it, but was this reviewer even there? It starts badly with 'the setlist was dominated by debut album The Crossing'. Well, considering that the whole point of this tour is that they are playing The Crossing in its entirety to mark the album's 30th anniversary - a fact that featured heavily in all the promotion of the tour, and was referred to repeatedly on the night - that really shouldn't come as a surprise. It then goes downhill by saying the opener was Belief in the Small Man. It wasn't. They didn't play that at all. They opened with Angle Park. But the nadir is undoubtedly saying that Peters went into the crowd to sing What Are You Working For. Again, they didn't even play that. He was actually singing Chance. Never mind, it's probably only the band's third best-known song after In a Big Country and Fields of Fire. And they were playing The Crossing, in order, but that's not much of a clue is it? Nor the fact that Chance is a slow track and What Are You Working For is a fast one off an album released 10 years later. Seriously, where on earth did that come from? And you dare to have a pop at Big Country's quality control...

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