Big Country this summer will release a four-disc box set — 3CDs and a single DVD, featuring a total of 81 tracks — that compiles the Scottish rockers’ BBC studio sessions, live concert appearances and performances on TV shows such as “Top of the Pops,” a collection Universal Music says “charts the spectacular rise” of the band through the ’80s.
The collection, dubbed At the BBC
Twenty-six of the tracks across the three CDs are previously unreleased, according to Universal Music.
The box set follows last month’s release of The Journey, the first new album in 14 years from Big Country, which now features The Alarm’s Mike Peters filling in for the late Stuart Adamson, plus guitarist Bruce Watson, drummer Mark Brzezicki and Watson’s son Jamie on guitar as well.
The reformulated band is set to tour the U.S. next month.
As for the box set, Universal has released an un-annotated tracklist, which you can see below, and offers the following notes on the content breakdown:
About this product
Disc One contains the 4 songs from the David Jansen session from 1982, the 4 songs from the John Peel session from 1983 plus 6 previously unreleased songs recorded live at the Hammersmith Palais in 1983.
Disc Two contains 14 previously unreleased live songs including 4 songs recorded live at the Reading Festival from 1983, 4 songs recorded live at Wembley Stadium supporting Elton John in 1984 and 6 songs recorded live at the Soviet Embassy in 1988
Disc Three contains 14 songs from their legendary 1989 concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, 6 of which are previously unreleased.
Disc Four is a DVD containing all of the band’s “Top of the Pops” performances, plus performances from “The Old Grey Whistle Test,” “The Oxford Road Show” and an interview with Stuart Adamson conducted by Richard Jobson, Stuart Adamson’s former colleague from The Skids. There are also concerts from Pop Carnival, Sefton Park in 1983, The Hogmany concert from the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1984 and a concert from the Reading Hexagon in 1986. Plus 2 bonus tracks in the form of the band’s second appearance on “Top of The Pops” performing “Fields of Fire” and “In A Big Country.”
Big Country’s At the BBC box set is now available for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk
A slimmed-down two-disc set called At the BBC: The Best of the BBC Recordings
Tracklist: Big Country, At the BBC
CD 1
1. “Harvest Home”
2. “Close Action”
3. “Heart & Soul”
4. “Angle Park”
5. “Inwards”
6. “1000 Stars”
7. “Close Action”
8. “Porrohman”
9. “Balcony”
10. “Lost Patrol”
11. “The Storm”
12. “In A Big Country”
13. “Angle Park”
14. “Fields of Fire”
CD 2
1. “Harvest Home”
2. “Close Action”
3. “The Storm”
4. “Fields of Fire”
5. “Lost Patrol”
6. “In A Big Country”
7. “Porrohman”
8. “Inwards”
9. “Peace In Our Time”
10. “Look Away”
11. “Broken Heart”
12. “Thousand Yard Stare”
13. “King of Emotion”
14. “River of Hope”
CD 3
1. “Peace In Our Time”
2. “Look Away”
3. “Wonderland”
4. “Broken Heart”
5. “Just A Shadow”
6. “Thousand Yard Stare”
7. “The Seer”
8. “Come Back To Me”
9. “The Travellers”
10. “King of Emotion”
11. “East of Eden”
12. “Restless Natives”
13. “Tracks of My Tears”
14. “Fields of Fire”
DVD
1. “Fields of Fire”
2. “In A Big Country”
3. “Chance”
4. “East of Eden”
5. “Look Away”
6. “King of Emotion”
7. “Fields of Fire”
8. “Close Action”
9. “A Thousand Stars”
10. “Just A Shadow”
11. Interview
12. “Heart of The World”
13. “Porrohman”
14. “The Storm”
15. “In A Big Country”
16. “Chance”
17. “Angle Park”
18. “Fields of Fire”
19. “Just A Shadow”
20. “The Storm”
21. “Chance”
22. “Where The Rose Is Sown”
23. “Come Back To Me”
23. “A Thousand Stars”
25. “Harvest Home”
26. Interview with Billy Sloan
27. “Wonderland”
28. “Where The Rose Is Sown”
29. “Remembrance Day”
30. “I Walk The Hill”
31. “Look Away”
32. “Chance”
33. “The Teacher”
34. “In A Big Country”
35. “Inwards”
36. “Harvest Home”
37. “Fields of Fire”
38. “In A Big Country”
39. “A Big Country”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Mike Peters-fronted Big Country to support ‘The Journey’ with U.S. tour this June
- Big Country to release new album ‘The Journey,’ tour U.K., Europe and North America
- Tony Butler quits Big Country, band promises ‘adventure’ with Simple Minds’ Derek Forbes
- Vintage Video: Big Country on ‘Rockpalast’ in 1986 — watch full 100-minute concert
- Big Country’s ‘The Crossing: Deluxe Edition’ reissue to include 10 unreleased tracks
- Big Country releasing ‘Another Country’ — first single in 12 years — with Mike Peters
- Big Country enlists The Alarm’s Mike Peters as lead singer for 30th anniversary tour
SWEET!!! And let’s hope “The Crossing” is gonna rank way up there in the ’83 poll! Stuart, RIP and another thank you for all this GREAT music.
Im buying it, but where is “steeltown” and “the flame of the west” live? I guess I’m never going to hear/see those live.
I have never stopped feeling sad over Stu’s death. I am usually an upbeat person, but this has been heavy for me. WTF.
“Hey, Stu! This didn’t have to happen!”
Get The Journey and listen to it. I find myself doing the same thing I did with my vinyl copy of The Crossing…listening to it over and over and over again. It’s very much a Big Country album with heavy emphasis on healing. It deoesn’t come off as corny or contrived, but honest and real. Everything you’d expect Big Country to be.
Stuart S, Without the Aid of a Safety Net has a great live version of Steel Town. I think there is a version of Flame of the West on Youtube. They didn’t play that live much.