Big Country/Station Parade

The Brook, Southampton

After two successful comeback tours under their belts, Big Country with The Alarm’s front man Mike Peters at the helm look to have made a come back with some style, throughout the summer the band have been booked to play a host of Festivals including a slot at Scotland’s T-In the Park and Ireland’s Oxegen Festival. Tonight’s gig is a rather intimate affair billed as a warm up for their next day’s performance at the world famous Isle Of Wight Festival. The venue is completely Sold out with all of the £22 tickets being snapped up soon after they went on sale, also there is an additional promise of the band airing some new material, the 1st they have written with this line up.

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Station Parade are tonight’s support act and take the opportunity to come out and impress, with a set comprising of songs from their new album ‘Another Case Of Misconception’. Lead vocalist Kate delivers some fine vocals which lies somewhere in-between the style of Kate Nash and Lily Allen, she is ably backed by some splendid catchy guitar work in songs such as ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Don’t Wanna Know’ which all seem to go down well with the attentive Southampton crowd.

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The atmospheric classic intro music of The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams signals Big Country’s entrance to the stage, they kick off with ‘1000 Stars’ from ‘The Crossing’ which gets much of the excited crowd bouncing around and singing out aloud. Mike Peters is sporting the familiar Big Country check shirt and neck tie which Stuart Adamson wore when the band 1st started in 1982, Mike does Stuart proud delivering the songs with masses of energy. The new material promised arrived in the form of ‘Another Country’ a song that combines the best bits of Big Country’s twin guitars with Mike Peters own harmonious vocals which loses none of the spirit of the original band.

The evening seems to fly by with classics such as ‘Fields of Fire’ and ‘In A Big Country’ giving the crowd just what they want. It is clear by the smiles on the faces of all the band members that they are clearly enjoying being back on stage together performing as a unit, there is further evidence of this when during a reprise of ‘Chance’, guitarist Bruce Watson sits behind the drum kit and Mark Brzezicki take to the microphone to sing the lyrics ‘Oh Lord where did they feelings go oh lord I never felt so low’ accompanied by the very loud and enthusiastic audience. You cannot help by being impressed by what these guys are doing and by the looks of all the recent media coverage the band will once again find a place in the hearts of new and old fans alike.

Set List
Intro -The Lark Ascending
1000 Stars
Harvest Home
Look Away
Chance
Another Country
Wonderland
Porrohman
Inwards
Fields Of Fire
In A Big Country

Lost Patrol
Restless Natives
Chance(Reprise- with Mark on vocals and Bruce on Drums!!)

Videos
Big Country

Another Country