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The Latest Breaking News from Big Country

“His death was such a shock. I met him before he joined the Pretenders – he had actually talked to me about playing with the band”: How the Pretenders emerged from tragedy with new guitarist Robbie McIntosh

Shattered by drugs and reeling from the loss of James Honeyman-Scott, the Pretenders came back swinging with 1984’s Learning to Crawl

Guitar World

Big Country Redux guitarist Bruce Watson picks the soundtrack of his life. "The Rolling Stones are the quietest band on stage I've heard in my life. You can actually talk over the top of them playing"

Bruce Watson picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and names some lyrics that'd make a great tattoo

Louder

"They sound like a very talented band forced to play punk." Stuart Adamson's guitar work elevates Skids' Scared to Dance above the ordinary

The sound of a bunch of scrappy youths from Scotland's industrial heartland

Louder

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“I lost my virginity to a member of Legs & Co…” From the Bar-L to the Barrowlands, a day out with the Skids

We go inside Scotland’s biggest prison, Barlinnie, for a gig by time-served and rehabilitated post-punks the Skids

Louder

“Even though it’s a budget guitar, it’s great. Paul Stanley used to smash one up at the end of KISS shows”: The amps that defined punk, the custom electric that was “painted in a shed” – Bruce Watson on the gear behind Big Country’s sound

The Big Country guitarist pulls some choice guitars and amps out of the vault, and explains why the Esquire beats the Tele

Guitar World

“I was in Norman’s Rare Guitars in LA when I spotted the Les Paul. I played it for hours in the shop”: The unlikely fate of Big Country frontman Stuart Adamson’s ‘Peace in Our Time’ Les Paul

Bruce Watson shares the story of a guitar that encapsulates the time Big Country tried to break America – before they took their Scot rock sound to Moscow

Guitar World

“There was no master plan apart from we didn’t want to do the Thin Lizzy/Status Quo blues bendy thing”: Bruce Watson on the birth of Big Country, Stuart Adamson’s legacy and the secret to bagpipe guitar

Bruce Watson shares the guitar story of the Scottish rock stalwarts, the "Itch and Itch" amps so crucial to his tone, and how “Scotland’s answer to Jimi Hendrix” was the heart of Big Country's sound

Guitar World

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“They’d always played fast and loose with traditional song structures. This album pushed it even further”: Big Country wouldn’t have called Steeltown a prog record – but it is

1984 release tackled issues of the day cleverly and with incredible musicality

Louder

“Automatically you go into blues when you do that”: Big Country's golden guitar rule that steered them clear of the blues

The band drew great inspiration from Thin Lizzy’s sonic template, but they made a concerted effort to avoid being labeled as a blues band

Guitar World

They were bottled off stage by Alice Cooper's audience, derailed by a death in The Pretenders and made U2's producer cry: How Big Country made one of the biggest albums of the 80s

In an exclusive extract from a new book about the life of Stuart Adamson, we look at the hidden story behind The Crossing

Louder

"We'd like to discuss a chart position." How a secret $70,000 cash payment to Italian gangsters secured a British rock band their first US hit single

A flashback to an era when payola ruled the US music industry

Louder

“Chrissie Hynde was getting fed up with our performance. So she stood in front of us and bent over, so we were staring at her backside”: How bassist Tony Butler helped relaunch The Pretenders with this 1982 rock classic

Having fired bassist Pete Farndon for his erratic drug-fuelled behaviour, The Pretenders tapped Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner and bassist Tony Butler

Guitar World

Soho's most famous strip club to shut its doors after nearly a century

The Windmill in Soho is believed to be the first venue in London to show naked women on stage and famously kept its doors open during the Blitz

Evening Standard

Funeral for Welsh musician Mike Peters ‘spot on perfect’, long-time friend says

Mike Peters died at the age of 66 in April from blood cancer, more than 30 years after he was first diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Evening Standard

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The National (Scotland)

Former singer of Scottish rock band Big Country dies aged 66

THE former singer of legendary Scottish band Big Country has died at age 66 ...

Louder

The Alarm's Mike Peters has died after a 30 year battle with blood cancer

Songwriter, singer, campaigner and force of nature Mike Peters has died, aged 66.

BANG Premier

The Alarm frontman Mike Peters loses battle with cancer aged 66

Mike Peters, the Welsh musician who sang for The Alarm and Big Country, has passed away.

MusicRadar

"Like all great rock tracks, the song has a staggeringly simple structure": The story of The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary

Almost 40 years since its release, The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary stands the test of time as a soaring and majestic pop-rock anthem – including some happy accidents

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Louder

"Half of the people I knew wanted to pat me on the back, and the rest to punch me in the face": Bruce Watson looks back on Big Country's second album Steeltown

Big Country's Steeltown album was recorded during the 1984 miner's strike as guitarist Bruce Watson's father stood on the picket line: the album reflected those dark times

Louder

Iron Maiden's Powerslave at 40 and the Greatest Albums of 1984: Only in the historic new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Mick Mars, Tony Clarkin, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Spinal Tap, Ace Frehley, Big Country, Frankie Miller, Don Henley, Blackberry Smoke and much more

Louder

“I’m not interested in my own angst. I like a good story. Violence. A bit of sex, a bit of drinking, a bit of drugs, y’knoworramean?” A tribute to Shane MacGowan, the genius lyricist who thought the music was more important than the words

As the music of the 80s became more polished, synthesised and over-produced, The Pogues took it back to its rudiments. And at the heart of it was Shane MacGowan and his lyrics: funny, romantic, full of characters and stories

The National (Scotland)

10 things that changed my life with Ian Blackford

There’s the song, when I was five my daddy took me down to Easter Road and in my case that was that. When I was five years old in 1966 I was taken…

Daily Record

Acts announced for 2023 Music at the Multiverse near Sanquhar

Scouting for Girls, Skerryvore and Big Country are set to perform at Crawick Multiverse in September

Daily Record

Scots rockers Texas set to welcome Stirling's first major gigs since Covid pandemic this weekend

Stirling will play host to a number of top gigs this weekend as the city welcomes major musical acts back for the first time since the Covid pandemic. Rockers Texas and Celtic group Skipinnish will both perform, as well as a host of supporting acts.

Daily Record

Poll site names Scotland's top 100 bands as voted for by music fans - do you agree?

Did your favourite make the top 10?

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