Tom and Svein start the actual Driving To Damascus song discussion, and manage to get all of TWO songs into the album this time! You know the drill - look for the ultimate breakdown of music and lyrics, demo analysis, song backgrounds etc. Diving deeply is tough work, but remember that we do it so that you don't have to!
We finally set off to Damascus, probably the album they've been dreading the most to dissect. The reason? There's just so much material, so much emotional baggage, so much to talk about. In this episode, we set the stage for the song discussion that will begin in Part 2. We talk about activities of the band members starting at the end of 1996 and leading up to the album's release. The Stuart Adamson solo album? The celtic album with Carol Laula? Whatever happened to those? We talk about Stuart's...
The third and final part of our conversation with Tony Butler is here. This completes his reflections on each and every Big Country album, as he recalls working with Robin Millar and Kate Bush on The Seer, the near burn-out they experienced at the end of The Crossing tour going into Steeltown, the real reason The Buffalo Skinners turned out so hard rocking, how Why The Long Face was one of the happiest times in the band, and much more. A fantastic trip down memory lane, with a lot of wonderful s...
This is the second part of our conversation with Tony Butler. He touches on The Great Unknown album and recalls early memories of meeting the BC guys and joining the band. We discuss Live Aid what-ifs an his development as a singer. Tony recalls working with people like Pete Townshend and The Pretenders, his time in L.A. working on Peace In Our Time with Peter Wolf, and the dreaded synclavier... The anecdotes and stories flow quite freely in this episode.
The time was finally right! We are very happy to welcome bass player extraordinaire Tony Butler to the show. He comes armed with a number of announcements, reveals what he has been up to during his retirement of recent years, and of course talks about anything and everything Big Country from ages past. Enjoy this first part of three TB extravaganzas!
It's the return of the Great Divide egg-timer in this episode! After breezing through recent releases and BC-related activity, Tom and Svein continue to tackle a myriad of Big Country-related questions - but only until the bell rings, when they have to move on to the next one. Enjoy this fast-paced plethora of topics!
Tom and Svein somehow manage to release their annual Yuletide episode after a blizzard of activity. What's more, it's the longest episode ever at more than three hours! They are visited by the spirits of podcast past, present and future as they look back at BC-related releases of 2016, podcast comments and rankings from listeners, play Speakpipes and blab about a variety of subjects. Enjoy this giant Big Country Yule log. Have at you!
Tom and Svein finally finish their latest minutiae-laden Deep Dive, Part 4 of the "Peace in Our Time" dissection. In this one, they take on "River of Hope," "In This Place," and "I Could Be Happy Here." They also play more SpeakPipes and give their final rankings of the album's songs and listener rankings from the Facebook page.
Tom and Svein continue flapping their fat mouths about Big Country's most divisive album, "Peace in Our Time." And they still don't finish. In this episode, they tackle "Everything I Need," "Peace in Our Time," and "Time For Leaving." More listener SpeakPipes are also played.
Tom and Svein pick up the pace a bit - just a bit - in Part 2 of the PIOT Deep Dive. In this episode, they cover the songs "Thirteen Valleys," "Thousand Yard Stare" and "From Here to Eternity." Yes, only three. BC bloviating at its finest.
Tom and Svein are digging deep again as they delve into the Peace In Our Time album - one of the most divisive albums in Big Country's timeline. In this first part, they cover the general time period of the band, their activities of 1988, the R.E.L. Tapes, the situation with the label, the choice of procucer, and get into the first single and first track of the album (King of Emotion).
The legendary Bruce Watson joins Tom and Svein once again to help celebrate 60 episodes of the podcast. Bruce talks about all sorts of subjects, from working with Robin Millar, the coming Seer tour, the Millar Mix petition, new music, the possibility of a PIOT tour, the relationships with Mike Peters and Tony Butler, the meaning of the word "Scorpheus" and much more!
Tom and Svein welcome two great Aussie guests, Andy Inkster and Dwayne Bunney, who share their insights, experiences and emotions from Big Country's recent and first ever tour of Australia. Multiple Aussie gigs are discussed at length and bits and bobs from those gigs are played, courtesy of Andy Inkster. So throw another shrimp on the haggis pit and join us for a fun, fast-paced episode. Time zones be damned!
Tom and Svein welcome guest Martin Warner to the show. Martin ran the official Country Club fanzine from issues 3-7 in 1983, and he shares some great, fun stories from the early days of Big Country as they changed overnight from a barely-known entity to a world famous, chart-topping band.
Tom and Svein finally conclude their epic deep-dive of The Buffalo Skinners with "Chester's Farm" and the song "Buffalo Skinners." They tie up loose ends with brief discussions about the return of the classic logo, the U.S. vs. U.K. masters, the poem that inspired the album title and more. SpeakPipes are also played, as well as a couple of acoustic rarities for good measure. Whew, another album takes the dive!
Tom and Svein continue their dissection of The Buffalo Skinners. This episode takes them from "All Go Together" through "Pink Marshmallow Moon". More listener SpeakPipes are also played.
Tom and Svein continue their dissection of The Buffalo Skinners. This episode takes them from "Long Way Home" through "Ships." Listener SpeakPipes are also played.
Tom and Svein jump into another one of their notorious album deep-dives. This time they delve into The Buffalo Skinners from 1993, and after nearly two hours they have managed to cover four of the songs on the album. Yes - the guys are back in usual style!
It's the return of the roundtable! Tom and Svein sit down with three new guests - Cara Cuiule, Jason Allen and Tim Eldred - to talk about the band's landmark Buffalo Skinners album. This will lead up to a series of deep dive episodes from Tom and Svein. We talk about the musical climate of the time, what we were hoping for from the album, memories of first listening experiences, the tour and much more. Settle in for a marathon of Big Country babbling!
It's that time of year again. Svein and Tom sit down in their respective palatial estates to ruminate on the meaning of the holiday season, to discuss the year that was, the year that may yet be and the years that may not be what was once again. Or something like that. Tom and Svein also select five bands each they discovered through their love of Big Country. Sometimes the connections are obvious, sometimes tenuous, but perhaps you'll find some new music to check out or despise eternally. We al...
Kirsten Adamson joins us for an in-depth discussion about her debut self-titled album. For the synaptically challenged among you, that means it's called "Kirsten Adamson." We go through the album track by track to glean Kirsten's insights on the songs from both a writing and production standpoint. We also ask her to rate the weirdness factor of fans of her dad's band who've been aware of her since she was young now taking an interest in her career. Spoiler alert: she doesn't think it's very weir...
Tom returns to the show after a five month absence just in time to celebrate the fiftieth episode of the podcast. Svein and Tom discuss current happenings in Big Country land and receive a congratulatory message from a special guest. Well, special to Tom and Svein, anyway. After 30 years, thanks to a Polish listener, Tom learns how to pronounce Mark's last name. Well, maybe. Then the hosts tackle a series of Big Country questions with a three-minute time limit for their combined answers. Once th...
Svein and special guesting co-host CJ Wade take a look at Big Country cover versions and do a top 10 countdown of their favourites. They discover significant discrepancies in their lists. They also look at the recent line-up changes in the band.
Svein and Arlin are back with the second and final part of their track-by-track discussion on Tony Butler's 1997 solo album The Great Unknown.
Svein and guest co-host Arlin Bartels take a look at Tony Butler's activities during Big Country's hiatus in 1997, including the launch of Great Western Records and his first solo album The Great Unknown. The episode contains the first part of a track-by-track discussion of the album.
Tom and Svein, with JfnG occasionally contributing from Tom's hallway, take a closer look at the band's recent, current and possible near future activities. What's been going on, what is going on, and what are we hoping to see in the future? The guys also take a closer look at the crowdsourcing model and discuss if/how this would fit for Big Country.
This is NOT an episode of The Great Divide podcast. Episode 46 will be coming soon. Although Tom and Svein are present and doing their usual thing here, the discussion centers around Tom's new CD, "We Were Here." This is a one-off tangent to the plot that we (especially Tom) hope you won't begrudge us for. We'll be back with regular programming very soon. In the meantime, perhaps some of you will find this discussion interesting and will perhaps even be inspired to listen to or pirate Tom's musi...
As promised, we play the fan-created, fan-driven audiobook of "A Certain Chemistry" in its entirety. Thanks to Tim Eldred for spearheading this great project, and to all those who lent their wonderful voices.
Tom and Svein are back, with special guest Tim Eldred. The three discuss the classic Big Country book "A Certain Chemistry," leading into a discussion about Tim's idea to create a DIY audiobook of the publication using fellow BC fans from around the globe. The audiobook will be played in its entirety in Episode 45.
Tom and Svein look back on the year, answer listener questions, and reveal the moments listeners ranked as their favorites in 2014. Also, a BC cover song is performed by Svein! Happy Holidays to all!
