The Big Man and I had already done this tour earlier this year in Bristol (gig 1,323), but I guess you don’t refuse when they’re playing a stone’s throw from your house… So, second time this year then for 80’s post-punk Scots rockers Big Country, continuing the 40th (!) Anniversary tour of their sophomore effort “Steeltown” with a second leg, including a rare gig at the criminally underutilised MECA. As mentioned in that Bristol report, “Steeltown” marked a departure from the upbeat and windswept bagpipe riffery of Big Country’s debut “The Crossing”, ploughing a darker, more politically oriented lyrical furrow paired with a suitably murkier, almost heavy machinery musical feel. From Big Country to Big Industry, perhaps (!), but either way still a quality listen, with strident terrace chant hooks aplenty, so a much-loved album for me.
Ironically
my last MECA gig was fellow Scots The Skids last Autumn (gig 1,298), a band
which latterly featured Big Country mainstay Bruce Watson and his son and
gunslinging partner-in-crime Jamie, and tonight was another father and son
outing, as Logan joined me for the stones-throw drive into town. Met the posse
in the venue, plus other Swindon folks, before the support at 8. Happily, it
was Mike Peters, vocalist of 80’s contemporaries The Alarm, the guest singer in
the early 2010’s Big Country reunion shows (gigs 812 and 841), and latterly the
recipient of treatment for a recurrence of his cancer. Thankfully, he was in
fine form tonight, striding between 3 mics onstage and generally stadium
rabble-rousing the crowd (“raise your hands, raise your voices!”), whilst
bashing away at a fat acoustic accompanied by backing tapes fleshing out the
full band sound (not usually to my liking, but I’ll forgive him this time). The
set itself was a run-through The Alarm’s finest flag-waving 80’s post-punk moments,
with a fist-pumping “Strength”, the slow-burn intro into a rather epic actually
“68 Guns”, and the hymn of working-class hope and redemption that is “Spirit Of
76” all highlights. But the real highlight was the ovation for his impassioned
speech about his cancer charity, and simply the fact he’s still with us. “I
will never give in…” indeed!
Took a wander around the venue with Logan – plenty of room to move, but very few large empty spaces, denoting quite a decent turnout for this one. Well done, Swindon! We were back in our house left spot, half a dozen rows back, as the lights dimmed and the eerie pulsing opening to “Flame Of The West” heralded the band onstage, immediately ploughing into this “Steeltown” opening track. From the off, the sound was big, powerful and strident (if a little muddy early doors, with the more intricate riffery taking a while to become fully established in the sound), and the Watson boys in particular were a kinetic onstage presence, sawing furiously away on their guitars, swapping positions and back to back rock poses, and generally having a ball and challenging the initially static Swindon crowd to do the same. Side one of “Steeltown” was dispensed with in a heady rush, the dark, dramatic title track and a turbocharged, anthemic “Where The Rose Is Sown” early highlights, before Bruce told us the story of how the album was recorded (in Abba’s Sweden studio, apparently!) and introduced new vocalist, tribute band Restless Natives’ frontman Tommie Paxton, a serious Stuart Adamson look- and sound-alike who, “jumped in to save the day, 3 ½ months ago!”
A
couple of technical hitches (“thwarted by technology! Bastard!” bemoaned Bruce)
interrupted the flow of “side 2”, Jamie lightening the mood by leading the
“Broooce!” chants, some wag (ok, me…) shouting, “that’s “Dad” to you!” The
broody, morose “Just A Shadow” rounded off the album run-through, after which
the soaring singalong of “Look Away” and a melancholy yet roof-raising “Chance”
saw the Swindon crowd finally in full voice, Paxton reflecting on a point
Adamson made at a gig the vocalist attended in 1986 – “you should hear what
that sounds like back here!” A tremendous and still fresh sounding “In A Big
Country” and a rousing “Wonderland” segue into a hard-hitting “Fields Of Fire”
(featuring a snippet of old staple “Whisky In The Jar”) rounded off a punchy,
energetic and powerful set, the snaking and weaving guitar interplay between
Watson father and son a highlight throughout. Angular B side “Restless Natives”
rather appropriately capped things off, after which I grabbed a list then saw a
breathless Jamie Watson emerge from backstage. So I doorstepped the man to show
him a pic of him and dad Bruce with me and Logan, from the 2017 Skids Oxford
gig (gig 1,040); after incredulously realising my teenage son was the same
wide-eyed little man in the pic, he not only insisted on re-enacting the photo,
but then grabbed Logan and marched him over to the merch stand, instructing the
merch lady (his mum!) to sort him out with a free t-shirt. Chap! Thus loaded
up, we then grabbed some food and headed home. So, a great night out with son
and old friends, and plenty of familiar, singalong tunes. “Fields of Fire”?
Tonight, Big Country were on fire!
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