Big Country - Live At Rockpalast 1986 & 1991 (CD/DVD)

Release Date: 12/08/23

The Big Country Rockpalast concerts March 1986 and September 1991 show the commitment to their enthusiastic audiences.

'It was always a pleasure doing the Rockpalast gigs.' says Watson. 'And coming to Germany was always a highlight of any European tour.'

That would have been the performance on 15 March 1986 at the Grugahalle in Essen captured on DVD1 of this release. This was the beginning of the tour in support of BIG COUNTRY's third album 'The Seer', and saw the band performing material from their first three albums which was astonishingly consistent and powerful.

Much has been made of the twin-guitar Celtic sound Adamson and Watson produced, with the use of the E-Bow and other effects producing something - to Adamson's annoyance - frequently compared to bagpipes. But particularly impressive from the 1986 concerts is the consummate musicianship of all concerned, from Brzezicki's complex drumming to Butler's rock-solid but fluid and imaginative bass. Overlaid, of course, with intricate but immensely powerful six-string work from Adamson and Watson.

Bruce Watson laughs: 'Our guitar parts sound a lot more complicated than they really are! In fact they're not that difficult to play. Stuart and I did so many overdubs in the studio that what we would do before a tour is sit down and listen to the record, and just work out which were the most important sounds, the most important guitar parts, and then we would determine how to produce them on stage with just the two of us.'


By 1991, and the September Rockpalast gig at the Biskuithalle in Bonn on DVD2, things were different. The band was touring in support of the 'No Place Like Home' album, but the touring lineup did not include Mark Brzezicki, who had played on the record. And there was now a keyboard player.

The commitment of the band to the enthusiastic audience is evident, and while the sound of the band had moved, at least on the new material, towards something less overtly Scottish, the joy and inclusiveness of the performance was and is, as ever, thrilling.

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