Stuart Adamson co-founded the Skids and Big Country but was profoundly ill-suited to the spoils of his success. Author Scott Rowley unpacks his passage from Dunfermline to Nashville and Hawaii to get a sense of his demons and what drove and inspired him. He talks to us here about his compelling new memoir ‘Stay Alive: the Life and Death of Stuart Adamson’ and touches on …
… hints of troubled family life in his early lyrics and the shadows of his father and grandfather
… that famous three-word review: “More crusading porridge!”
… the guilt of his success when he returned to his Dunfermline roots
… why learning to sing is unwise!
… how Big Country were saved by Steve Lillywhite and the resentment about their being sold as a pop group
… Nick Drake, Sinead O’Connor … “people who should never have been given a record contract”
… insurmountable friction with Richard Jobson
… how Nevermind made the old rock landscape look outmoded
… “guitars that sounded like bagpipes!” and other hoary old clichés
… “empty, breast-beating, bombastic!”: the rigours of the rock press consensus
… and how Big Country nearly played Live Aid.
Order ‘Stay Alive: the Life and Death of Stuart Adamson’ here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Stay-Alive-The-Life-and-Death-of-Stuart-Adamson/Scott-Rowley/9781917923538
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