Big Country 1st album 'The Crossing' remastered & reissued

[Rich <legalize@xmission.com>]

Hey, I just noticed this in the store the other day.

Big Country's first album 'The Crossing' has been remastered and
reissued in 2002 with 5 additional bonus tracks not on the original
LP.  This album originally came out in ~1982/1983.  (Also "The Best
of Big Country: The Millenium Collection" was issued in 2001.)

So what's the connection to The Who?

The original lineup of Big Country included Mark Brzezicki
(drums/percussion/vocals) and Tony Butler (bass/vocals), both of
whom played with Pete on his solo albums.  Another Who connection is
that a later lineup of BC used Simon Philips on drums.

Pilfered from CDNow.com is this biography of the band for those
unfamiliar with them:

    "With their ringing, bagpipe-like guitars and the anthemic songs
    of frontman Stuart Adamson, Scotland's Big Country emerged as one
    of the most distinctive and promising new rock bands of the early
    '80s, scoring a major hit with their debut album, The Crossing;
    though the group's critical and commercial fortunes dimmed in the
    years to follow, they nevertheless outlasted virtually all of
    their contemporaries, releasing new material into the next
    century. The England-born Adamson formed Big Country in mid-1981
    following his exit from the Scottish punk quartet the Skids,
    enlisting childhood friend Bruce Watson on second guitar; Clive
    Parker and brothers Pete and Alan Wishart completed the original
    lineup, but were soon replaced by bassist Tony Butler and drummer
    Mark Brzezicki. Signing to Polygram's Mercury imprint, the band
    issued its debut single, "Harvest Home," in the fall of 1992; a
    series of opening dates on the Jam's farewell tour increased Big
    Country's visibility exponentially, and the follow-up, "Fields of
    Fire," cracked the U.K. Top Ten. The Crossing appeared in the
    spring of 1983, its passionate, idealistic approach and
    Celtic-inspired arrangements far removed from the prevailing new
    wave mentality of the moment; the album not only went platinum at
    home but went gold in America as well, its success spurred by the
    Top 20 pop hit "In a Big Country." Critics raved, and in early
    1984 Big Country returned to the British Top Ten with the single
    "Wonderland." Their second album, Steeltown, entered the charts at
    number one, but despite good reviews there were already rumblings
    that all of the band's material sounded much the same; charges
    against 1986's The Seer did little to rectify (although the single
    "Look Away" was their biggest hit yet). A tour of the Soviet Union
    accompanied the 1988 release of Peace in Our Time, but the
    following year Brzezicki resigned from duty, with drummer Pat
    Ahern enlisted for the single "Save Me." Chris Bell replaced Ahern
    upon completing 1991's No Place Like Home, the first of the band's
    albums not to receive an American release.After parting ways with
    Polygram, Big Country signed with the Compulsion label for 1993's
    The Buffalo Skinners, recorded with yet another new drummer, Simon
    Phillips; the record launched a pair of British Top 30 hits,
    "Alone" and "Ships." Brzezicki rejoined the lineup in time for
    Without the Aid of a Safety Net, a live LP recorded in Glasgow at
    year's end. Why the Long Face followed in 1995, and after
    recording the acoustic effort Eclectic, Adamson relocated to
    Nashville in 1997, prompting Big Country to go on extended hiatus.
    The group's first new studio effort in four years, Driving to
    Damascus, appeared in 1999; the single "Somebody Else" was
    co-written by Adamson and the Kinks' Ray Davies. Adamson had
    problems with alcohol that contributed to his brief disappearance
    in November 1999 and announced his intentions to retire from
    touring in the spring of 2000, concurrent with the release of the
    limited edition Nashville Album. Later that fall, Come Up
    Screaming was issued on SPV. On December 16, 2001 Adamson was
    found dead in a hotel room in Hawaii. He had been missing for
    several weeks from his Nashville, Tennessee home. ~ Jason Ankeny,
    All Music Guide"
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