A band big by name and fame

Stuart Adamson formed an early version of Big Country with Bruce Watson in Dunfermline in 1981.

The former Skids guitarist recruited bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki, both top London session players, within a year.

Released in 1983, the band’s debut album The Crossing went on to sell more than two million copies worldwide. Second album Steeltown (1984) debuted at No 1 in the UK.

The Seer (1986) included the band’s biggest UK hit Look Away, which reached No 7 in the UK singles chart and spent a week at the top of the Irish singles chart.

The album Peace In Our Time (1988) saw the band playing the first ever privately promoted gig in Russia at the Moscow Sports Stadium.

The fifth studio album No Place Like Home (1991) took the Fife band’s total record sales to well over five million copies.

Further studio albums Buffalo Skinners (1993) and Why The Long Face (1995) followed, which saw Big Country landing the special guest slot on the Rolling Stones’s Voodoo Lounge European tour.

In 1998 they were once again invited to open for the Stones on their Bridges To Babylon tour of Europe.

Driving To Damascus (1999) would be the last album they recorded together with Stuart Adamson at the helm before he took his own life in 2001.