440 Hello Big Country - Fields of Fire ( 400 Miles )

Chart  entered :  26  February  1983

Chart  peak : 10

Number  of  hits : 23

More  than  two  years  after  The  Skids  last  troubled  the  charts , Stuart  Adamson  was  back   and  in  some  style.  I  think  that  delay  probably  helped  Big  Country  establish  themselves  as  a  new  act  in  their  own  right  as  did  the  fact  Stuart  was  still  only  24  and  hadn't  been  the  front  man  in  his  previous  outfit.

As  we  know  Stuart  confirmed  his  departure  from  The   Skids  in  the  summer  of  1981  and  almost  immediately  recruited  another  guitarist  Bruce  Watson.  Bruce  was  born  in  Canada  but  working  in  a  Dunfermline  shipyard  at  the  time. The  first  line  up  of  Big  Country  also  included  Peter  and  Alan  Wishart  ( the  former  now  an  SNP  MP)  and  drummer  Clive  Parker  from  Spizzenergi  after  The  Jam's  Rick  Buckler  played  on  their  first  demos. They  played a  couple  of  support  dates  for  Alice  Cooprer  in  1981  and  went  down  so  badly  they  were  thrown  off  the  tour.  A  number of  record  labels  rejected  their  demos.  Manager  Ian  Grant  persuaded  Stuart  to  fire  off  the  other  three  members  and  look  for  a  new  rhythm  section.

They  were  pointed  to  a  couple  of   Anglos,  bassist  Tony  Butler  and  drummer  Mark  Brzezicki   who   were operating  as  a  session  duo.  Tony  was  born  in  London  in  1957  to  Ghanaian  parents  while  Mark's  father  was  Polish. His  willingness  to  help  out  any  band  with  drummer  issues  led  to  Smash  Hits  famously  dubbing  him  "Mark  Unpronounceablename from Big  Country" . They  were  already  known  to  Stuart  through  being  in  the  band  On  The  Air  with  Simon "brother  of  Pete"  Townshend  who  supported  The  Skids  on  tour  in  1980. Their  first  single  "Ready  For  Action"   is  a  power  pop  anthem  with  prog  rock  keyboards  somewhere  between  Secret  Affair  and  Marillion. It's  notable  for  the  comic  book  sleeve  design  which  was  obviously  the  inspiration  for  the  one  with  A  Woman  In  Winter  six  months  later. The  follow  up  "Another  Planet"  six  months  later  strips  out  the  keyboards  and  they  sound  more  like  The  Jam   on  a  dystopian  fantasy  song  about  overpopulation  which  is  worth  hearing. At  the  same  time   the  pair  worked  on  Pete  Townshend's  solo  album  Empty  Glass   although  Mark's  involvement  was  restricted  to  one  track.

The  chemistry  was  good  as  soon  as  they  met  in  the  studio  and  Tony  and  Mark  accepted  the  invitation  to  join  the  band. A  recording  contract  with  Mercury  soon  followed.  Their  first  single  "Harvest  Home  "  came  out  in  the  autumn  of  1982. "Harvest  Home"  is  an  effective  introduction  to  their  sound. The  "bagpipe  guitar"  effect   pioneered  in  The  Skids  is  even  more  to  the  fore  now  Stuart  has  an  accomplice  in  playing  it. The  punk  energy  is  replaced  by  crisp  martial  rhythms. Stuart  was  a  prominent  backing  vocalist  in  The  Skids  but   now   he  was  out  front  with  a  strong  but  inflexible  holler  and  , in  a  nod  perhaps  to  previous  Scottish  chart  stars  the  Bay  City  Rollers, well-filled  ( as  some  girl  bothered  to  write  in  to  Record  Mirror  to  point  out ) tight  trousers. The  song  is  just  a  string  of  pastorally-themed  accusatory  questions  and  the  Biblical  assertion  "Just  as  you  sow  you  shall  reap"  which  suggests  it  may  be  aimed  at  the  government  with  most  of  the  folk-y  melody  in  the  instrumental   passages.

David  Jensen  gave  it  some  spins  but  it  didn't  chart  which  helped  persuade  the  band  that  their  choice  of  producer  - Chris  Thomas -  was  a  bad  one. Certainly  the  sound  on  "Harvest  Home"  is  a  bit  murky. Before  their  next  single  they  boosted  their  profile  with  a  support  slot  on  The  Jam's  farewell  tour.

 Steve  Lillywhite  was  brought  in   for  the  next  single  In  1983  he  produced  all  three  of  the  bands  leading  the  "new"  rock  charge. Although  the  basic  elements  of  the  sound  are  unchanged  on  "Fields  of  Fire"  Lillywhite  makes   a  huge  difference  with  a  big  fat  drum  sound  that  encourages  you  to  turn  up  the  volume  and  a   spaciousness  that  matches  Stuart's  epic  pretensions  on  this  anthem   for  returning  Celtic  heroes. I'd  forgotten  just  how  much  of  the  record  is  given  over  to  guitar  pyrotechnics  with  the  song  itself  relatively  slight  but  it  set  them  up  to  be  one  of  the  year's  big  success  stories.