Big Country's Why The Long Face album found the band on form - and on tour with the Stones

The Courier

12-06-2025

Big Country released Why The Long Face 30 years ago with Stuart Adamson delivering a powerful anti-war and pro-Earth message.
Big Country were revitalised in 1995.
Why The Long Face was the follow-up to the critically acclaimed sixth studio album The Buffalo Skinners, which got to number 25 in March 1993.
The album took three weeks to record.
Adamson opened up about the unusual place he found inspiration in a forgotten interview in June 1995 that has been uncovered from the archives.
'I've always been a traditional folk song writer and I've had my material performed by many artists across a wide spectrum from ABBA to a bizarre Japanese beer commercial,' he said.
'Good things have happened to us with amazing regularity.
'I am hopeless at organisation.
'A lot of songwriters are.
'Lyrics come to you at the most bizarre times.
'I was out for a run in Lincolnshire, and all of a sudden I'd got this lyric.
'I ran back to the studio where we were recording and wrote the entire lyric for I'm Not Ashamed, which became the first single.'
He described the album as 'modern day folk and country played on loud guitars'.
'I have been trying to write songs that are much more personal, again using contemporary folk as an influence in the writing,' said Adamson.
'It's more about people relating to each other than worldly events.'
You Dreamer and I'm Not Ashamed were the first two singles.
They were songs with anthemic chorus which also became live favourites.
Charlotte, Send You and Wildland In My Heart were heartfelt ballads.
Post Nuclear Talking Blues spread the anti-war message.
Adamson, guitarist Bruce Watson, bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki were still making sense in a changing musical landscape.
Why The Long Face was released during the Britpop era when the radio was full of bands like Blur, Dodgy, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, Pulp and Supergrass.
The hedonistic rock 'n' roll lifestyle that defined the Gallagher brothers held no attraction for Adamson, who said he preferred to get his kicks in the studio.
'I have seen any amount of burning out on gratuitous sex, wild parties and all that goes with that side of rock 'n' roll,' he said.
'But I've been in it for most of my life and not lived the lifestyle.
'It didn't interest me.
'I get my kicks out of the creative side and still love performing.
'I get my high out of writing a new song, recording it, playing it, and seeing that it gives people enjoyment.'
The band went on a record store tour across the UK to promote the album.
Adamson's biographer, Allan Glen, said this was an interesting period for the band and a real test of their resilience and commitment to making music.
He said: With NME, Melody Maker and the radio saturated with Britpop, creative thinking was required to promote a country-flavoured introspective album heavy on the threat of nuclear war amid the loud, brash and life-affirming sounds of acts such as Oasis and Blur.
'Big Country still had an incredible reputation as a live band.
'The band's long-standing agent, John Giddings, was keen to take advantage of it.
'Strong sales of Why The Long Face in Germany coupled with the band's live reputation paid off when Giddings booked the band to play with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in Dublin and for nine dates as support to the Rolling Stones.'
Big Country performed nine dates in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands on the European leg of the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge tour.
They played in front of a combined audience of 800,000 people.
Mick Jagger hailed Big Country as one of the Stones' best-ever opening acts.
Bruce Watson returned the compliment when he said the Stones were the only band Big Country had supported that he wanted to watch every night.
Not everything went to plan.
Watson found himself locked up inside Colditz when the band were travelling from Leipzig to Berlin to open for the Stones at the Olympic Stadium.
Big Country decided to investigate the castle 'high on yonder hill' that became infamous as a Second World War prisoner of war camp.
Watson wandered into another part of the castle and got locked in a wine cellar.
The only way out was through one of the ill-fated tunnels.
He was later freed by a guard.
The band returned to the UK.
The Why The Long Face tour started in Norwich in September 1995 and included dates at the Rothes Hall in Glenrothes and Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow.
Adamson led a Greenpeace march in Edinburgh before the Rothes Hall show and handed over a petition of 10,000 signatures to the French Consulate.
He was protesting against nuclear tests by France in the South Pacific.
Big Country dedicated their tour to Greenpeace and the tour programme included a leaflet urging people to 'stop nuclear tests' and donate to the charity.
There was a Greenpeace stand at every concert to gather support.
The band also released the EP Non, which featured the tracks Blue on a Green Planet and Post Nuclear Talking Blues with all proceeds going to Greenpeace.
Big Country also provided pre-match entertainment to 40,000 fans at Hampden Park in November 1995 for the League Cup final between Aberdeen and Dundee.
'1995 was another example of Big Country as a classic rock band with an innate ability to survive the vicissitudes of the ever-fickle music industry,' said Allan.
'It also set them up a few years later for arguably their finest single of the 1990s.
'Fragile Thing was the track that would have kick-started their career had someone not screwed up.
'On the night of its release, chart regulators CIN informed the band that the CD2 format and its jack-in-the-box style lid had one too many folds.
'It denied them a spot in the Top 40.
'Yet that compulsion throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s to make music, regardless of the external circumstances, was what made Stuart Adamson such a gifted – but often tortured – songwriter.'