Top 50 Debut Albums - No.45 "The Crossing" Big Country (1983)

Though this was an early entry in my draft list I wasn't convinced it was going to stand up to re-listening. That changed within 30 seconds of putting it on, I was instantly transported back to a place in time where bagpipe guitars seemed the most logical step and all I really cared about was a band who could make you leap up and down.

I struggled with music in the eighties. Whilst most of my school friends were into Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet I was into The Beatles and The Carpenters. I watched Top Of The Pops every week but there were very few bands that really got me excited. Even Big Country didn't grab me straightaway, I picked up a copy of their second album (on cassette obviously) from the Library and thought it was OK, but it was my best pal buying a video of the band live at the Glasgow Barrowlands that really caught my eye. The clip below is probably from the same video and gives you a sense of how great a live band they were.

It didn't take us long to work out all the best songs were from The Crossing and once we had a copy of that we were confirmed fans. When we eventually saw them live in 1989 it was every bit as thrilling as we'd hoped and kick started a run of gigs in which the band never failed to meet those expectations.