NEW ZEALAND / AUSTRALIA JOURNAL #4

12/06/2016

Day 4. Auckland.

Picture of me straddling the big gun when I went to Mount Victoria. Ooh er madam, that sounds a bit rude. New Zealand you were wonderful. Tomorrow Australia.
That is all.

NEW ZEALAND / AUSTRALIA JOURNAL #3

11/06/2016

Day 3. Auckland.

As Tony Hatch once said: Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours. Well Tony, this is Karangahape Road, not bloody Ramsay Street. We would all love to live next door to Kylie and Jason but real life’s not like that. For instance, take this dubious character who lives next door. He kept me up all night with his low end rumblings. God only knows what he was up to.

Right. Where’s my trombone.

That is all.

-Bruce

NEW ZEALAND / AUSTRALIA JOURNAL #2

10/06/2016

Day 2. Auckland.

On the search for some bedtime literature. Jamie studies this informal medical journal, while I check out some hot new talent. Yes friends, jet lag is a wonderful feeling, isn’t it? I don’t know whether to go for a shite or a haircut. Anyway, looking forward to playing our first NZ show in a couple of hours.

That is all.

-Bruce

NEW ZEALAND / AUSTRALIA JOURNAL #1

09/06/2016

Well that’s 25 hours of my life I won’t be getting back 11.000 miles from my house in Dunfermline to New Zealand. No wonder NASA lied about going to the moon. Neil, Buzz and Ringo must have been bored out of their skulls on that gig. At least we could get up, move around a bit and not have to soil our own clothes. Those poor buggers had to sit for days in a confined space, eat dry food then piss themselves..

Come on NASA, let’s work with gravity not against it.

-Bruce

02/01/14
Dunfermline

Happy New Year!

Many thanks to everyone who supported us on The Journey in 2013. As you can imagine there were many high points as well as some low points. The recording of The Journey was a pleasure. Maybe the stars were aligned or something as the chemistry was right at the time. The touring aspect was another kettle of fish. We spent 6 months on a bus touring the Western Hemisphere which is really a social experiment. Think ‘Big Brother’ on wheels. Not great when most of the band are in their mid 50’s.

2014 will take us on a new adventure. There will be no long tours, but we will still be playing frequently, playing the songs from our past with some rarities thrown in, the way we played them back then. Also, some new ones. As you know, Mike has departed and Simon has come on board. I won’t go into the gory details of ‘who killed who’ but there are 2 sides to every story. Simon is fully committed to Big Country this year. By the way, for all you Facebookers and YouTubers out there, we are not hiding Simon at the back.

The first gig in Clitheroe was a pub gig as a favour and he was moved back because he was blocking the fire exit (lol) and the Lemon Tree has a really small stage, plus the person who filmed it didn’t focus on him. That aside, the conspiracy theories have been hilarious. So anyway, let’s hope this year will be good. My resolutions are to have a convention in the summer, get more involved in this social media thing (I am not very good at it), and put together a Steeltown tour for the last part of the year.

We make no promises

That is all.

More Memories
22/11/13
Dunfermline

Here is another picture from the attic. This is the day we got signed by Warner Bros in America. In this picture are Mo Austin, Ian Grant, Alan Edwards and Lenny Waronker.

Mo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 by Paul Simon, Neil Young, and Lorne Michaels. He is known among his colleagues as the most artist-friendly executive in the music business.

He was hired as president of Reprise Records by Frank. At Reprise he was involved with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr, The Kinks and, guess who?

Lenny produced recording sessions for Nancy Sinatra, The Everly Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, etc.

It was a privilege and a pleasure to be involved with those legendary people.

That is all.

Memories
15/11/13
Dunfermline

Stuart, Mark and Bruce with producer Rafe McKenna

Came across a batch of old photos in the attic last night. This is from the Driving To Damascus sessions at Rockfield Wales. Tony was in isolation booth getting ready to do his bass on ‘Dive Into Me’ and that is why he is absent from picture. We had a fantastic time at Rockfield and Rafe was a great choice for producer, he certainly brought out the best in us. I hope to scan in more photos from the past and share them with you.

Happy times indeed

That is all

Lerwick, Shetland
13/10/13

Shetland, Shetland, Shetland. So good they named it thrice.

First time on the island for Big Country and boy did we have a ball. You Shetlanders know how to party. Best Saturday night I have had in ages. The Mareel Centre was bouncing and we had a great time back at the hotel with some fantastic Shetland hospitality. You guys have a wonderful venue up there and I hope it brings work and revenue into the community. That is why this tour is really important to Big Country. We are playing in a lot of venues that are off the beaten track and I find that really satisfying, travelling the extra distance to take our music to the people of this wonderful place we call home. Check out the bulletin on the breakfast menu.

Shetland you rock.

That is all.

Sweet Home Alhambra
11/10/13
Dunfermline, Fife

Lord I’m coming home to you, so sang the great Lynyrd Skynyrd, (pronounced and spelt Lynyrd Skynyrd, although if you do a spell check it reads Lanyard Spaniard) Anyway enough of my yakkin’, Have a swatch of these two beauties I found in the attic. What a gorgeous pair of SG’s. The wine red one has a bolt on neck, and the sunburst is a replica of my old 500 that I had in the early 80’s built by Smiggs of Kirkcaldy. The replica has a glue in neck unlike the 2000 which was straight through and needed a brass sustain bar to improve the tone. This one is built to the same spec as a Gibson Les Paul and actually sounds like one. All pickups are Seymour Duncan and the 500 has a Di Marzio at neck with single coil.

Looking forward to seeing friends at this wonderful theatre in Dunfermline on the 19th.

That is all.