Search - Big Country :: King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents in Concert

Good Performance, But Pathetic Sound

Richard J. Atkinson | Queensbury, NY USA | 03/16/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Let me say it straight out: I'm a Big Country fan. I enjoyed their studio studio work, and I loved their live albums. I think that by any standard, the live albums "Come Up Screaming" and "Without the Aid of a Safety Net" are among the best live albums ever recorded. That's why it pains me to think so badly of this album. Yes, it's a good insight into how good they were even early on in their career. I have no quarrel with their talent or the fire with which they performed. So much for the album's good points. The sound on this album is horrible. The performance was recorded on New Year's Eve 1983 at The Barrowlands in Glasgow, but don't take that as an excuse for the abysmal sound quality; the previously mentioned "Without the Aid of a Safety Net" was recorded in the same venue almost exactly ten years later (12/29/93), and the sound on that album is crystal clear. Here, it sounds like the album was recorded in a boiler factory. The guitar work is muddy, some of the backing vocals are almost totally lost, and in some places the drums are so loud that they distract from the rest of the performance. If this was the only available live recording of Big Country I would probably overlook all of these faults. But with so many good live recordings in their catalogue, why tolerate something that's second rate? I have one other criticism, but it's much smaller. In introducing the song "The Storm", the late Stuart Adamson tells the crowd that it's one of his favorite numbers (and it's certainly one of mine, as well). That makes it twice as infuriating when the band abandons the song in the middle to stop and celebrate the New Year! Oh well...I didn't like the album anyway!"