Fifer Stuart Adamson returned to the place where his musical journey started when Big Country performed at the Caird Hall in Dundee in 1984.
He spoke to the crowd during the December 23 1984 concert and pointed to the spot where he watched Led Zeppelin whilst he was still a pupil at Beath High School.
Adamson’s first concert was a life-changing experience.
The son of Crossgates knew he wanted to be a rock star after watching Jimmy Page and Robert Plant churning out face-melting guitar riffs on the Caird Hall stage.
Adamson then wrote his first song aged 13 and formed a covers band called Tattoo at 14 which used to play Rolling Stones and David Bowie covers in the local dance halls.
Adamson left Beath High School and took a job with the council as a trainee environmental health officer before forming a punk band with Richard Jobson in 1977.
The Skids debuted live in August 1977 and fame came quickly with Jobson/Adamson-penned classics including Into The Valley, The Saints Are Coming and Masquerade.
Adamson formed Big Country in Dunfermline in 1981 and the band’s 1983 debut album The Crossing went on to sell more than two million copies worldwide.
Second album Steeltown went to number 1 in October 1984 and band embarked on the Town and Country Tour which included the 17-song set at the Caird Hall.
Adamson’s defiant lyrics would articulate the plight of Britain’s embattled working class amidst the backdrop of the miners’ strike and industrial decline.
The 2,300-capacity sell-out Caird Hall Steeltown gig came just 18 months after the band performed at Dundee’s Dance Factory at the Barracuda on April 12 1983.
“With Steeltown, people who looked upon the band with a certain amount of cynicism now realise we are what we say we are — it’s not a pose,” said Adamson.
“We’re playing the game according to our own rules.”
The band kicked off the 90-minute set with Rain Dance which was followed by Wonderland, Lost Patrol, Steeltown, Flame of the West and In A Big Country.
Set highlights included Chance, 1000 Stars, East of Eden, The Tracks Of My Tears and Fields of Fire which was as loud as a cavalry charge for the grand finale.
Big Country returned to the Caird Hall in March 1986 on The Seer Tour following the release of the band’s third album which was another big success in the UK.
Adamson spoke to Smash Hits magazine following the release of the album’s fourth single Hold The Heart about watching Led Zeppelin at the Caird Hall aged 12.
“The first band I ever went to see was Led Zeppelin,” he said.
“It was at the Caird Hall in Dundee in 1972. They’re a bit trendier now but it wasn’t easy to explain that 10 years ago in the heady days of punk.
“Things always go in cycles, don’t they?
“Maybe in 10 years Big Country will be trendy. Do I want to be trendy? I’m not really fussed. We’re trendy in my house and that’s what matters!”
Adamson’s sums were slightly out because it was November 1971.
The Dundee fans were the first in Scotland to hear Stairway to Heaven performed live and the band returned in January 1973 before the stadium era beckoned.
Things came full circle for Adamson in the 1990s.
Page and Plant were reunited in 1994 for the first time since Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 and Big Country toured alongside them in the UK and Ireland.
Driving To Damascus, released in 1999, was the band’s eighth studio album with Adamson at the helm before he died in Honolulu in 2001 at the age of 43.
Adamson was once called “Britain’s answer to Jimi Hendrix” and Oasis legend Noel Gallagher recently named him as one of his favourite guitarists of all time.
My old Evening Telegraph colleague James Masson, now retired, was there at the Caird Hall when Adamson and his band performed on December 23 1984.
James was happy to pay homage to someone he knew.
He told me: “Stuart came from the Dunfermline area and he was a big fan of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club.
“The then Dunfermline team boss, Jim Leishman, invited me and a few friends down to Athletic’s home ground of East End Park to hear the band rehearse.”
Adamson never forgot his roots
James got to know Adamson and a lovely surprise awaited my former colleague.
James went on: “One day Stuart said he would leave a few tickets for me for a Big Country gig at the Caird Hall in Dundee.
“He left more than a few tickets and myself and several others had a rip-roaring night listening to one of the great rock bands of our time.
“During the gig, Stuart pointed to a spot on the Caird Hall balcony and stated: ‘I came to a concert here and that’s where I was. Right there’.
“That’s where it all started for Stuart and he never looked back.”
James subsequently met Adamson in Dunfermline and they got together at another Big Country gig in Dundee.
It was at Brannigan’s in Cowgate in 1998 during a tour of smaller venues.
James went on: “Myself and a few friends were a wee bit late in turning up.
“However, Stuart had left passes for us to go to the VIP area where we were welcomed and had another great night in the band’s company.
“I was saddened to hear of Stuart’s death. He was really good to me.
“Despite his fame, he was a laddie from Fife at heart. He never became big headed, he never forgot his roots – and I won’t forget him and his kindness to me.”
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