Features full-page colour photo of Bruce, Stuart & Tony; quote - 'Big Country Tourist Guide'.
Other features - Laurie Anderson, Colourbox, Spitting Image, Screaming Blue MEssiahs, Pete Wylie.
BMF PREVIEW
ARRANGING BRASS
Artistic Control - Yours or the record company's?
Contents pages
INTERVIEWS
86 BIG COUNTRY
Born-again guitar heroes Big Country forsee even greater success for their latest album, The Seer. Overseeing their ambitions, our very own Ricky Gordon
FEATURES
42 ARTISTIC CONTROL
Who keeps it when you sign your deal? You, or the record companies? Does it matter anyway? Keith Grant sounds out opinion from both sides of the Biz
PIC: Country Boys pic by Clare Muller
Pages 42 & 43
DREAD AT THE CONTROLS
Bands write the songs - but record companies write the contracts. So who's really in control of a band's career?
Everybody knows the lengths that a band might have to go to to land a recording contract these days. But far from being the answer to their prayers
it is often the beginning of a long uphill struggle. The thin line between music and marketing, art and commerce can be a nightmare of wrangle and
confusion in which the humble performer can watch his career disappear without trace.
Amazulu: "The only compromises we've made are in terms of our music"
"The only compromises we've had to make are in terms of our music," explains Lesley Beach, saxophonist with Amazulu.
The people who they have had to make the compromises for are their record company.
Amazulu spent a lot of time playing gigs across the country, supporting bands like The Clash, establishing their credibility and developing their own
songwriting. This led to a publishing deal with ATV Music. So far, however, only one of their songs has been released as a single: the rest have all
been covers.
"Our first single for Island Records was Midnight Romance, which was written by us and produced by Gerry Dammers. But it didn't turn out the way we
expected it to and Island wouldn't let us go back and do it again. They went ahead and released it but didn't promote it."
Island blamed the failure of the single on the band's song and brought in producer Chris Neal to steer their career and select future releases.
"They said what you need is something that is automatically going to grab the buying public."
The band continue to release their own songs and have even started to produce themselves, but only on the B-sides of their singles. So are they happy
with this arrangement?
"What we would like is for our B sides to be the A sides," says Sharon, their percussion player. "But when you've signed a contract you just can't
turn round and say 'we're doing this or we're not doing that'. They'd just leave you on the shelf."
A band may themselves with little control as the record company moves in with its team of experts and wealth of market experience. Equally they may
find themselves subject to almost total neglect from these people; the victims of prevailing political whim.
The Armoury Show: "Parlophone obviously resented having to promote a band from this country who they hadn't been interested
in signing themselves"
The Armoury Show, arisen from the ashes of Magazine and The Skids, received their best offer from EMI America.
"We were ready signed to an American management company, explains Russell Webb," and the A&R people were really keen to sign an English band and
break them over there from the outset.
Distribution of their records in this country was to be through Parlophone (part of EMI in Britain) and here the trouble began.
"Parlophone obviously resented having to promote a band from this country who they hadn't been interested in signing themselves. They thought we had
been dumped on them."
Another blow came when the people in EMI America who had signed the band left the company. And all this before the first album was even released.
"We were literally dropped onto someone's desk. They probably didn't even know who we were. They hadn't been involved in putting the album together
and weren't interested in its success."
The result was an album which cost over £50,000 to record being released without any promotion whatsoever. No promotion also meant no finance for
tours and more money coming out of the group's own pockets. However, there may yet be hope. Even if John McGeogh has left to make more money as
guitarist for Public Image the band are determined to pull through. Set to name a replacement, they are also attem pting to salvage their contract
and are waiting for the go-ahead to record a new album.
"The new people at EMI seem to be behind us this time. It's no longer somebody else's project. They're taking a much greater interest and a lot more
control."
What is there that a band can do to maintain their artistic intentions and avoid getting lost in the record company machine? One answer might be to
sign to a smaller record label.
Then Jerico: "We picked London Records because of their commitment. Everybody from the company came to the gigs"
Then Jerico are among the up and coming, and great things are expected of them. Not least of all by London Records, who signed them
up a year and a half ago.
Having successfully promoted themselves playing the club circuit — including some appearances in New York — they found themselves pursued by several
companies, contracts and cheque books in hand. Singer Mark Shaw and bass player Jasper Sainethorpe explain why they chose the smallest...
"We picked London because of their commitment. Everybody from the...
Page 45
company came to the gigs. You'd come in the next day for a meeting and see the entire front row from the night before."
So was it a decision about people rather than about money?
"Definitely. I mean, London offered us a lot of money but not as much as, say, Virgin or Chrysalis".
"It felt more like joining a family than signing to a record label" adds Jasper. London have only been around for four years but have already had remarkable success, most notably with Bronski Beat and Fine Young
Cannibals. Although part of the PolyGram corporation they operate as an independent label.
The band has had disagreements with the label most recently about their liking for expensive artwork on their singles — but nothing that has soured the
relationship.
"They'll explain that they're trying to sell your records and that you are making it harder on yourselves by insisting on doing all these really artistic
things."
On some points the band have stood their ground, especially when London did not want to release the first single they recorded. Then Jerico threatened
to go ahead and release it themselves. "They realised how important it was to us. So they put out about a thousand copies. They were just keeping us
happy but most companies wouldn't have entertained the idea"
Then Jerico see it as an essential part of what they do to work closely with everyone involved in releasing their records. They are sure that with some
companies this would be regarded as interfering.
"You would probably be told 'what do you know, I've been doing this for ten years."
Tracy Bennet, A&R manager and, along with Roger Aimes, co-founder of London is proud of their style and the relationship that they have with the bands
they sign.
"Roger and started the company to combat the major labels who had done a very good job of stamping out the independents. I think that we are the best
label in the industry. CBS might sign up 15 album bands in a year and break one of them. I think that's pathetic. The bands always get their own way in
this company. I'm not interested in working with people who do not have a good idea of their own direction."
London Records may operate as an independent but are still in direct competition with the major labels. Not everyone, however, is so concerned with
success in the market place. Success for some record labels is about making enough money from one record to pay for the next. 4 AD records is associated with bands like the Cocteau Twins and Colourbox. They are a label known not only for the quality of their
records but also in the way in which they are packaged. With little or no expenditure on the promotional gimmickery employed by the mainstream of the
industry, their records come in sleeves as distinctive as the music itself.
Ivo Watts-Russell began it all with a clutch of demo tapes and £2000 borrowed from Beggars Banquet.
"I was working for Beggars and hearing all these demo tapes they were recieving but were too busy to do anything with. I kept saying you should listen
to this one. They eventually said why don't you start something yourself. So literally within 24 hours they set up the finance and we had the label."
From an initial release of four singles the label grew to the point where today sales are often in the 'respectable category. Ivo does not, however, see
himself becoming involved in the type of sales pitch employed by the large companies.
"Even if we could afford it, the sort of bands we are involved with wouldn't want it. The major companies spend so much money throwing around T-shirts
and free gifts. It's like the music itself is just not enough. Even with a single as commercial as The Moon Is Blue (released off the Colourbox
LP) we couldn't get any radio play. If it wasn't for John Peel our records wouldn't be heard on the radio. All that we can offer people is an outlet for
their music."
Promotion is mostly through the bands's own live appearances. Ivo admits that this is increasingly difficult as the number of venues across the country
continues to fall. Some of the groups who work with him are under contract, only where it makes life easier and is mutually desired, as with the Cocteau
Twins. Many of the releases are one-offs; until it is decided to make another record.
The future for most bands, however, increasingly depends on their amount of chart sucess, and therefore that element of hype, marketing and promotion
that is now required for that success. How long this dubious situation will continue is anyone's guess. With Radio One 'unofficially' reverting to a 25
song playlist the casualty rate can only increase.
What is decidedly criminal is that the music and the musicians should be so irrelevant.
Keith Grant
Pages 86 & 87
BIG COUNTRY - LOCAL HEROES
With the release of their latest album, The Seer, Big Country look set to consolidate a growing international
reputation. But their hearts — and music — are still located in the small-club Rock scene from which they sprang
Words - Ricky Gordon
Pics - George Bodnar/Claire Muller
Let's face it, by 1982 the guitar was all but dead, gone, buried, RIP... no more: poleaxed by its old sparring partner the bass. Thousands of would be
axe-heroes up and down the country suddenly realised that they had been learning the wrong sodding instrument, and rushed out to buy a bass guitar. Ah!
cruel fate. Little did they know that Stuart Adamson and his cohorts in Big Country were planning a new guitar-based Pop with which to seduce a nation
or two. However, these were unlikely heroes, more your average Gavin than anything else. I mean, firstly there was the small matter of their stage
presence, What with the synchronised skipping and the insect pirouetting of Bruce Watson. And then, to cap it all, their leader Adamson openly admits
that he is still excited by Rock music.
"I think it's a shame that it's become unhip to say that you're in music because you love playing and you like being in a band and being inspired by
Rock music, but I genuinely am. I get excited by it. There's a lot of crap, but when you're out there actually playing and sharing your songs with
people, I find that it can be very spiritual, more than just four people providing evening's entertainment for some punters who are out on the town."
Admirable sentiments indeed, so how did it all begin?
"It happened almost by accident. We had the idea for the band and knew what it should sound like, but it a long time to find the right people and then
when it did happen, it happened immediately."
The right people, as we know, were Tony Butler on bass and Mark Brzezicki on drums.
"Right from the start, I sat down and explained to Mark and Tony what I felt we should be about and gave them pointers as to what it was, and they've
taken it from there, and built on it and made it their own style, which has made them more identifiable in their own right as bass player and drummer.
Mark was an absolutely brilliant drummer when he first joined the group, but he would rarely use his tom-toms at all, and I said 'Stop what you're
playing on the hi-hat and play it on the toms instead... there's only four of us and we can afford to make a bit of a racket!'"
However; since Spring '85 remarkably little has been heard of Big Country; apart from the soundtrack to Restless Natives that is.
Big Country Restless Natives (Full Soundtrack) - posted by Nalani Ó Dubháin
This soundtrack gave Big Country the chance to experiment with new ideas and bring out new elements. Bruce was playing mandolin and slide guitar and
Stuart was loaned a Roland Guitar synth ("That 'Darth Vader' Guitar") but reverted to straight guitars for the new...
"Bruce and I try and make sure that there isn't any time when we are bashing away at the same chords together"
Page 89
...album. In many ways The Seer marks a new beginning for Big Country. The playing is perhaps bolder and the tone more optimistic than
Steeltown.
"I think that any underlying feel that there is to any body of work that we do comes from the atmosphere surrounding the group at that time. I tend to
just sit down and write songs rather than think about what the concept behind them is going to be. In the same way that didn't want to do a
Crossing Volume 2 with Steeltown, I didn't feel it would be right to do a Steeltown Volume 2 with The Seer.
Steeltown marked the climax of phase one of Big Country and was really the album that we had got together to make. We knew that We wanted to
make the album harder than The Crossing and we wanted to do current things much more in black and white, whereas with this album we've opened
up a little bit." The Seer also marks Big Country's first excursion with a new producer. Steve Lillywhite was still working on the Stones' new album when Big
Country read in a magazine that Robin Millar was fed up with being tagged with doing Jazz stuff all the time and would like to work with Big Country or
U2. One phone call later and the deal was cemented. Whereas Lillywhite would try and capture spontaneity at the recording session it seems that Millar
would say "Let's do that in five minutes when I've got the sound right." Millar also had an "amazing ear for arranging music," something that Adamson
was looking for.
"It's something that I wanted since I started the group. I always wanted to have the parts much more orchestrated than say this song goes F, D, G, A and
I based everything around the melody lines, on the bass as well as on the two guitars, so there are identifiable harmonies and choral effects going on.
Bruce and I try and there isn't any time when we are bashing away at the same chords together. It's something that we've tried to achieve and we hope
that it works. Our styles are too similar for us to play the same parts at the same time. It would just sound like one guitar with an ADT on it". It
is perhaps this inventiveness with simple guitar lines and attention to detail that makes Big Country that little bit more original: "Something that
'Bill Nelson said to us a long time ago when he was producing The Skids Days in Europa, which I have always held in high esteem, was 'to make
every note count'. So I think that we try to do things with a measure of economy and lack of self indulgence. Every note has a chance to state its case
rather than being lost in a welter of sound.
"Things like In a Big Country were initially only two rhythm parts and the lead part came as an afterthought while we were recording it, like
the lead line on Look Away, whereas Fields of Fire was always two lead lines. I think Bruce is a bit more off-the-wall than I am.
I'm quite traditional whereas Bruce is much more into his echo effects and reverbs and things.
"Whenever either of us are doing a lead line, all there is usually on it is a loop echo, something with a few repeats and a little bit of chorusing or
high octaves on the harmoniser"
If any of you caught the live shows recently, then you probably them you were probably impressed by the vast banks of effects racks behind both Bruce
and Stuart. They were, however, not quite as impressive as they seem...
"Why there's so much of it is because I've got back-ups for each one. They're not really pieces of equipment built to be trucked halfway round the
world so it's always handy to have a back-up and it's come in useful one one or two occasions. I use a Korg digital delay and all the effects that I've
got programmed into that go onto the back-up and the same with the MXR pitch-shifter. That and a noise gate are the only effects that I use. They are
racked up so I can shift between them if any one goes down."
Live, Stuart now uses two Fender Showman amps. These replaced his HH gear when that went 'wonky' and he couldn't find any new valve sound amps.
"They are really versatile amplifiers and they sparkle a lot more than the Boogies do. I used two amps, one which is setup for a good clean Fender
Twin Reverb sound and one which I set up really overdriven with the gain really high up. I can interchange between them with the footboard that I have.
Another new acquisition is a couple of Jimmy Moon custom built Telecasters:
"I always liked the Telecaster shape, but I always felt the guitar itself sounded a little bit restricted and I got Jimmy Moon, a guy from Glasgow, to
build me a couple of Telecaster-shaped ones with some bollocks about them, so they have a humbucker pickup at the bridge, which are both EMG active
pickups, and then there's an out-of-phase style Stratocaster pickup at the neck and I can get this really wide range of sound out of it. Then there's
a small whammy bar, not a full hand bar, which is good because I can just slide my hand back on it and it becomés a far more integral part of my style
than having to lift my hands away from the strings and wobble a big bloody iron about.
I am really pleased with the Jimmy Moon guitar.... guitars with no action at all!"
Stuart has temporarily retired his favourite Strat, mainly because he is trying to keep it in good condition, but feels that it may have to make a
welcome return on the forthcoming tour due to its unique sound. Another prized possession is a white Hoyer Les Paul, which was once owned by Bill Nelson
and appeared on the back cover of Be Bop Deluxe's Axe Victim. The very much underrated Fender E1 Rio acoustic guitar also makes an appearance
on The Seer.
"It's got a good sound. It's not as fat as an Ovation or something like that, but it cuts through. It works really well with a hi hat on record and I
like that because I really only use it for rhythmic parts to back up certain sections and I find that if Mark is doing a lot of hi hat work then it goes
really well with it."
And what of the Adamson vocal chords? Did he find it difficult adapting to the role of the frontman after being not quite so prominent in the Skids?
"Before I was in the Skids, I was in a sort of club group and I used to do all the lead vocals in that, but then I thought it was a better idea to have
a singer, so Richard (Jobson) performed admirably for a few years and then I decided to do something else and left. It was a bit nerve-racking at first,
getting back into it, and I must admit that I wasn't very confident about it but I didn't want anyone else singing the songs. I've worked on it for the
past couple of years and I think it's much better now and probably much more forceful. I find I can improvise without worrying about it. I just get in
there and give it some stick!"
"Robin said that that was one of the things that made him want to work with us. He says that he gets fed up with singers that say 'I'm not very good at
this bit and having to say, look don't worry about it, get in there and do it'. That was pleasing for him to have said that because you get so used to
being in your-own situation that it's some hard to believe that you're in a real band."
Despite their worldwide success, Big Country refuse to wear the mantle of the superstar. At a recent gig, Adamson had to stop playing mid-song in order
to take control of a potentially dangerous situation, a responsibility that so many so called 'stars' would perhaps have shied away from:
"That was terrible. I thought that because it was a stand up place it would have been an absolutely brilliant gig, but the way it happened was that every
time we played a faster number people were just coming forward and really getting hurt. It was realy off-putting because usually you see people smiling
or whatever at the front, but it was all like looks of agony, with people fainting and everything and I just wasn't willing to be responsible for someone
getting severely hurt at a gig."
It was a tribute to the band that they managed to pick up the song again and re-establish the atmosphere that had been there earlier in the night.
The next year sees Big Country step out into the Big World once again, but Adamson assures us that we won't be seeing any career moves ("We won't be
getting on the lurex strides or start using smokebombs!") He aims for music that comes from the heart and not from the purse... long may this continue.
