‘The song-writing art was really big in the 80s – people love it’
Thirty-five years after first hitting the Top 40, Big Country are set to rock Rewind Festival this summer. GEMMA DAVIDSON chats to drummer Mark Brzezicki about what we can expect.
I think about 20 years needs to pass before people become nostalgic, and that has happened with the 80s, not only the music but with the fashion as well,” explains Mark Brzezicki, whose band Big Country rose to fame in 1982 with hits such as Fields of Fire, In a Big Country and Chance.
And it is the songwriting of the decade which Mark believes gives Rewind its appeal and sees fans returning year after year.
He says: “Eighties music is very, very nostalgic, for some reason at the moment. There needs to be a certain amount of time that passes before people get to a certain age and go ‘Wow I remember that’, all the songs were so great and I think people love the songwriting in the 80s, it was great stuff.
“I’m not knocking any of the music now, but today’s music is a lot easier to sing along to, some of the stuff you hear in the chart, I find it hard to grasp musically where it’s at, but I can understand why people like it, but it’s hard to grab hold of a computer’s groove. A lot of it is done on computer these days, programmes generate the ideas and you sort of come up with some rhyming stuff on the top.
“For me, the song-writing art was really big in the 80s and it was in a certain way it has become very linear, the chords don’t change much, other than the classic bands who are still around now, it’s different.
“I don’t want to sound like an old fogey but it is different.
“It was very eclectic back then, there were a lot of keyboard stuff around, which I really liked, but rock bands like Big Country, U2, Simple Minds, and loads of other bands who contributed to that big eclectic sound we had in the 80s.
“There was big production, very big drum sounds in the 80s and I think the songwriting was fantastic, Nik Kershaw is still very, very revered as an incredible songwriter, and the vocals were great from Mark King from Level 42, you had a good rounded songwriting prowess with great vocals and great musicianship as well.
“They were very catchy songs which is why people flood to these gigs, obviously they are a certain age and have memories of those songs as you do, but it’s celebrating that time and the time when they were younger and watch music meant to them then.”
Having played the Rewind Festivals before, Mark is no stranger to the spectacle which will await him when the band take to the stage at Henley on Saturday, August 19.
Mark says: “It’s great going out there, they’re big gigs, there’s a party atmosphere with the glow-sticks and the fluorescent pink and stuff like that.”
And it is that over-the-top fashion that Mark says makes the 1980s so iconic.
“Eighties fashion was a bit dubious, there were lots of big statements at that time. You can define the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80, 90s, but once you get to the 00s it sort of stood still a bit, I don’t know what it is but you can’t pick something and say it was definitely from that decade. It kind of blends a bit more, it morphs more slowly.
“You can see the 90s thing, what they were wearing in Friends, a grungey look, but in the last 15 to 20 years it hasn’t changed that much, not like it did in the 70s with disco, and the 80s with pop, and the 90s with the Britpop thing, it’s sort of levelled out a bit.”
So it comes as no surprise to Mark that young bands who are starting out today are looking back to the music of the 80s for inspiration.
He explains: “I think when they [young bands] need to be inspired they always sort of look back and everyone has influences, and looking back to the 80s isn’t a bad place to look.
“There was very strong imagery and a huge range of styles. Looking back on the dusty, old magazines that I have in my loft, it was very stylistic, you had the particular colours and the shoulder pads, they became iconic for the 80s, and that style has influenced on advertising and young people today.”
But it isn’t just fellow musicians who are looking back to the 80s with fondness, but the changing audiences at Big Country gigs.
Mark continues: “At our shows we have not only people who have grown up with us and saw us the first time round, which is great, but they are bringing their families, their sons and daughters, young people checking us out. They’re interested to see it, and it’s undeniably good stuff.”
Rewind is beginning to hold a special place in Mark’s heart, not least because it gives him and his bandmates an opportunity to catch up with some old faces, but it also keeps them feeling young.
He says: “I saw the guys from ABC at Rewind one year and I remember them from the first time round but they were amazing!
“Music keeps you young, you make more of an effort if you’re playing music and always in the public eye, rather than letting yourself go!
“It keeps you focused and your energy up to stay in that environment, not to stay in the 80s because we feel like we have moved on.
“It’s the same but different, because try as we might we can’t get Stuart Adamson [Big Country’s lead vocalist who passed away in 2001] back. It’s a celebration.”
Tickets for Rewind South are on sale now from £59.50. For more information, the full line-up and to buy tickets visit www.rewindfestival.com/tickets.