Conceived by Bruce Watson as a way to keep the legacy of Big Country and Stuart Adamson alive (with whom he co-founded Big Country), Big Country Redux have taken a selection of demos and sketches written (and some co-writes) by Adamson and reworked and fleshed them out in to full songs. Attesting to the quality of Big Country’s discography, these tracks weren’t used at the time and were put on the back burner only to languish on old cassettes and remain previously unreleased (aside from a few cuts which found their way onto the internet). The reworked and rerecorded songs will be released as the ten track Eastworld album on 19th September 2026 and ahead of that release we get a track by track account of what we can expect:

Kiss the Girl Goodbye (Adamson)

This version of the track was originally recorded at Rockfield, in the sessions for the band’s fifth album ‘No Place Like Home’. Stuart wrote this one after watching something like the Pacino movie ‘Dog Day Afternoon’. He was often inspired by movies and books to come up with his own take on things. It is a bank robbery-type narrative, I feel, a bunch of guys away on a heist – that’s my reading.

We did a couple of versions, there was a thought at one stage that it might end up as a single, but it never quite got there: we were never fully happy with it. I always felt it needed a new intro, and that’s what I have given it here. Kiss the Girl Goodbye, as with all the songs here, have now been taken to where I always believed we could get them as a band, but we had not managed to, for various reasons. This has been a complete labour of love. I did not want to do the obvious with this ‘Eastworld’ album. What would be the point of reworking the hits that people know and cherish? I don’t think I could better those originals but, with these unfinished songs, there was an opportunity to make them really special. It has been a pleasure, and an honour.

What About Peace (Adamson, Watson)

Recorded at a 16-track studio, a residential place in Surrey called ‘The House In The Woods’, this was another demo that basically went into the archive to be looked at again, but its time never came. The studio was run by a Dutch couple, Giz and Marijke VanderKleut, we did lots of work there over the years, it was a real home from home for us.

We were kinda into the Neil Young / Crazy Horse thing at the time, and that rubbed off on this one. The song is about a pilot who flies a bomber in the first Gulf War, from his perspective and highlighting his remoteness from his own actions, “I don’t build the things, I only drop it”. The war was raging at that time, and of course it was fully televised and unavoidable.

The Hostage Speaks (Adamson, Watson, Butler)

Once again, a song that takes its inspiration from the Gulf War, this song was recorded and included on the ‘No Place Like Home’ album. The song captures the hopeless reality of a war; there are no winners. Even for the public, far away in their warm homes, the fighting was in your face every night on the 6 o’clock news.

The original demo was quite heavy, aggressive and nasty sounding – but in a good way. The album version ended up a bit safe and sanitised, and I know that some of the fans seemed to prefer the feel of the demo. So I went back and tried to capture that brittle energy, I wanted that edge.

Never Take Your Place (Adamson)

This was another demo that our manager at the time, Ian Grant, made available on the ‘Rarities’ releases on Track Records; this one was Volume 5. Unfinished songs, sketches, live versions, all interesting takes but nothing that was up to the standard required to make it onto a studio album.

This song was always there ‘in the background’, and really needed fleshing out. The existing version had a drum machine on it, and I wanted to add fiddles, backing vocals, and completely redo the instrumentation. Whilst I stayed quite true to the original, I am delighted with how this turned out; we have definitely rocked it up a bit.

Troubled Man (Adamson)

I have always loved this song, which was on another ‘Rarities’ release, Volume 3 this time – though it did also appear as a B-side on the 12-inch single release of ‘Heart of the World’ which was a non-album single that we released in 1990. This is just a beautiful song, and should probably have been a single in its own right. Stuart is probably singing about himself on this heart-breaking song, though of course I never realised at the time.

For the version on ‘Eastworld’ I kept the arrangement and tempo the same, but added a solo piano and kept the guitars back in the mix. Originally our singer Tommy recorded this one, but something made me try it with lead vocals by the vocalists that we often perform with, Belly and Lorna from Pistol Daisies, and it just took it to another, possibly even sadder, place. This process is all about doing what is best for the song, and what we achieved on this one really blew me away.

God’s Great Mistake (Part 1) (Adamson, Watson)

This song was built out of a piece of music that I had created. Always, in my mind, I envisaged being a bit of fun, a bit different, a Mott The Hoople kind of thing. And I think we achieved that.

Stuart ended up using many of the ideas from this – and in fact the title – on the track that ended up on our sixth album, ‘Why The Long Face’. That is why I have called this version ‘Part 1’ as it certainly came into being first. The take included here I guess provides a bit of light relief; Stuart had a great sense of humour and that shines through here.

Normal (Adamson, Watson)

Written about a real place: Normal, in Illinois. I think Stuart read about this place in the paper, certainly the band never toured there! This is written from the perspective of one of the weird and wonderful characters that he could sometimes channel through his writing. A demo was included on the ‘Restless Natives and Rarities’ collection, and for this album I have tried to ‘evolve’ it to where it should have been.

It’s another fun song, he certainly wasn’t being serious on this one – unlike on much of his better-known work, but there is a real quality to this one. It’s cut through with humour, but also he was a very keen and canny observer of people. Stuart was hilarious; he could have you in fits of laughter. However, when it came to speaking to the media, or being a public face for the band, he largely did not show that side. He did not want to cheapen what he did and, of course, he wanted the respect that his talent deserved.

Winter Sky (Adamson, Watson)

We were about to release ‘Just A Shadow’ as the third single from the 1984 ‘Steeltown’ album. We got a call from the label, Phonogram, telling us that they desperately needed a B-side, and could we come up with something: immediately, if not sooner! There was nothing left! Stuart and I headed to Edinburgh, with nothing prepared, and headed into a studio there. The equipment was very rudimentary, we had a keyboard with a drum effect so we used that. In fact, I used the white guitar that featured on the album cover of ‘Axe Victim’ by Be-Bop Deluxe. Stuart had once had the chance to acquire that guitar, which was owned previously by Bill Nelson of the band, a real musical hero of his. Nelson had in fact previously done some production work for Skids.

We knocked up the music in that one day, and then Stuart went away – as he often did – and returned pretty soon with the lyrics, again about the Cold War. I would never know what he was going to do when it came to the lyrics; it was always an amazing surprise! Often, once he had those, we would have to change the music a little to make them work together, but that process always produced great material.

The song ended up being really good: the label got their B-side, and we even played it live on occasion. That said, the arrangement was basic – it was after all a very hurriedly laid down demo – and I wanted to lavish some time and energy on it. I wanted to add a different flavour to it, and lend it a Cajun feel I guess. We used Seonaid Aitken on Fiddle, and Mick MacNeil from Simple Minds kindly agreed to play Accordion on it. I love how it turned out.

Eastworld (Adamson, Watson)

This song I think of as the soundtrack to a Spy movie – not the glamourous James Bond end of the market though, more a Michael Caine in The Ipcress Files, or of course Slow Horses.

Originally, this was a demo for The Buffalo Skinners album of 1993 but we never recorded the full version. The demo was recorded using a drum machine on an 8-track at a mate’s facility. Stuart programmed it with a stompy type of drum effect [similar to ‘Animation’ by Skids]. We then sent all the tracks to the brilliant Simon Phillips who had agreed to drum on the album. ‘Eastworld’ was last on his list and I have to confess we just ran out of time in the studio, so it did not make the cut.

This song gave its name to the new album because I think it is a key track, but also it just sounded like a good title! What can I say? It just felt right. In addition, this whole album has been about going with the creative flow and also doing what felt right, and so it is perfect. ‘Eastworld’ it is…

Pan-American Irish Girl (Adamson)

I had forgotten all about this one, but when I heard it again I loved it. I am not even sure what it is about, I just think it is great. The demo just meanders a bit and never seems quite sure where it is going. This demo was included as a bonus on the deluxe reissue of ‘The Buffalo Skinners’ though I think it pre-existed that record by a couple of years at least.

The band never played it live; and that process of performance can really animate a fledgling song. The band can ‘inhabit’ the song and turn it from something basic into something brilliant, that really shines. By learning to play something properly, a musician can really make sense of something and see how it works. It is that organic process of improvisation that delivers the magic…

• Eastworld is released via absolute on 19th September 2026.