Big Country fans to remember rock star with Fife pilgrimage

tribute: Music lovers will mark what would have been 60th birthday

He was the Skids and Big Country rock star regarded as one of the outstanding musicians and songwriters of his time.

Now fans of the late great Stuart Adamson will mark what would have been his 60th birthday with a pilgrimage to his beloved Dunfermline.

The 60th birthday event on April 11 has been organised by Big Country fans to take in the sights, the inspiration, and the scenes that helped create the music which sold 10 million records worldwide.

The walk will start at the Glen Pavilion, which was the scene of Big Country’s first ever show, and end with a visit to Tappie Toories which was the small pub Adamson ran in Dunfermline in the 1990s.

In the evening a Big Country tribute band will perform an acoustic show at the 17th Century Balmule House.

Fife Provost Jim Leishman, the former Pars manager, who was a longtime friend of the big Dunfermline Athletic fan, said: “I can’t believe it is 17 years since he died – it feels like yesterday.

“Stuart was a big fan of the football team and Dunfermline still run out to Into The Valley which was the Skids song he wrote with Richard Jobson.

“There is also a mural in the North West Stand at East End Park and Big Country actually used to rehearse down at the Dunfermline Athletic gym.

“When I was manager I would see Stuart, Bruce (Watson), Mark (Brezizicki) and Tony (Butler) every morning playing in what is now the club shop.”

Mr Leishman said he was shopping for Christmas presents in November in London when he went to a record shop in Piccadilly Circus.

He asked if they had any Big Country albums and he was handed a vinyl copy of the No Place Like Home album, which he opened to find had been signed by the band.

“I’ll always be a Big Country fan and I would love to go to the tribute concert in April,” he said.

Born in Manchester, Adamson grew up in Crossgates near Dunfermline and formed the punk group The Skids in the 1970s.

After leaving the band he formed Big Country, who had a string of hits in the 1980s including Fields of Fire, In a Big Country and Look Away.

Stuart was a big fan of the football team and Dunfermline still run out to Into The Valley which was the Skids song he wrote with Richard Jobson. FIFE PROVOST JIM LEISHMAN

Picture: PA. Band ace Stuart Adamson, from Crossgates, took his own life aged 43.