A 13 year old me meeting Big Country~By Anthony

The night I met one of my heroes,

ended up backstage & getting something special from the band.

In loving memory of Stewart Adamson ( singer of Big Country)

April 11th, 1958 - December 16th, 2001

The year was 1986 ,Big Country, who were a band from my Native Scotland, were top of the charts going neck & neck with the likes of U2 & Simple Minds at the time, dominating with their single hit release “ In A Big Country” from “The Crossing” LP

peaked at No. 3 on the Top Rock Tracks chart , No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 of that year.

It reached No. 3 on the RPM Top Singles Chart in Canada

and they were coming to play Massey Hall. (Toronto)

You can imagine how excited I was at the time being a fan.

This would have been the 2nd concert I have attended in my life.

The 1st one was just several months before that at Massey Hall (Toronto),

when I got to break my cherry with Adam & The Ants, but that's a whole other story.

This is about Big Country.I believe I was 12 Years old, possibly 13 at the time ?

I was excited with glee, getting to see my heroes and cutting my chops at my 2nd concert.

(Concert day , also pouring first pint at Bramalea place tavern pre-show)

The band came on and obviously I ended up at the front of the stage

during the 1st song.

I felt the band were so mesmerized to see such a young person attending the concert that the singer, Stuart Adamson,

was looking at me during the songs performance with head nods, grins and what I thought at the time was imagining , but no it wasn't my imagination , come the end of the song, he came across the stage , over to me with the hands out reaching and had lifted me up on the stage, put me to the side of the stage, which is where I stood dancing and watched the entire concert, stage side completely freaking out.......

My world was spinning , second show in my life , second time at the great legendary Massey Hall , and here I am up on the stage with the act.

At the end of the concert when they said they're good night and went to walk off stage, one of the ushers was coming over to get me down from the stage, it was at that point when the singer, Stuart, came and grabbed me as they were walking backstage and said,

And I will never forget this

“ come on son , yer common wae us wee man”

Ended up getting taken onto the tour bus with them, This was the 1st of a long line of getting backstages through my concert going career, for some fucking reason I would end up back there, quite alot , possibly it was them that showed me the way, but I was going out of my head , in real time , trying to keep it as cool as I possibly could, and I did.

I will never forget the thrill of walking onto an actual tour bus with a band that were larger than life, getting to see first hand the inside of a tour bus with at the time legit rock stars ,

(that had me grow up pretty damn quick , like in a matter of minutes)

They were just as freaked out about me, asking me who the hell I was,? and couldn't believe the fact that I was there at that age ,and I was also from Scotland,

so it was a hit. I sat there watching them getting interviewed with Much Music which at the time was the nation's music station, it was actually also the 1st time ever I had a can of carlsberg Lol , they let me have one.

(again playing it as cool as I possibly could)

At the end of that tour bus visit backstage they were very adamant that I give them my address, and to watch the mailbox .

I went home that night floating on air, I got a full 1st hand dose of what that thing is all about and I held that memory dearly for the rest of the year, still do to this day……

Trying to tell my classmates that one the next day at school was just absurd , it took me a few days to even start the process.

Then all of a sudden,out of nowhere a week or 2 just before Christmas something arrived in the mailbox for me……

Wouldn't you know it, they kept their true honor, I got to find out what my giving them my address was all about, they actually sent me a bloody personal Christmas card in the post to my house.....

(bare in mind this was a rock and roll band who at the time were top of the pops in the middle of a world tour)

I never received anything at that level of personal coolness in my life at that point. My story to my classmates was now legit !

When I looked back in retrospect this was a band that actually gave a shit , and were genuine to the core . The singer Stewart Adamson, God Rest, struggled with bouts of depression and alcoholism was found dead in Honolulu after apparently descending into an alcohol-fuelled spiral of personal tragedy.

Adamson, 43 at the time , had fought a long-running battle with addiction and had been due to face drink-drive charges in Nashville, Tennessee, and went missing for three weeks.He had been sober for over a decade, but recently his alcoholism had returned with a vengeance. Friends had expressed fears that his habit could have fatal consequences and issued pleas on the internet for him to come home.

In a statement issued last week, his former Big Country bandmate Bruce Watson said: "If anybody is harbouring Stuart because they think it is helping him then please think again and turn him in. It could save his life.

"Stuart's alcoholism is not a cheap publicity stunt, it is a disease and he needs help as soon as possible."

Police said the cause of death was suicide……….

It is to The late great Stuart Adamson, one of my heroes and friend for a brief second

I say thank you for the memories, and God Bless…….

Love Ants xo

“So take that look out of here it doesn't fit you

Because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded

Pull up your head off the floor, come up screaming

Cry out for everything you ever might have wanted

I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered

But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered, see ya”

(A verse from In A Big Country)

Almost 30% of Ontarians will experience a mental health or addiction problem at some point in their lives.

If you or someone you know needs support, Ontario offers several options for free, confidential help with mental health and addiction concerns.

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May Good JuJu Find You

~Anthony~