Big Country - 'River of Hope' Documentary, 1988.

Big Country.
A behind the scenes look at Big Country's trip to Moscow for shows on Sept 30, Oct 1, 2, 3 & 4, 1988.
The documentary looks at the issues faced by band and management to achieve this hitherto attempted task - to play gigs in the Soviet Union that were self promoted and not government sponsored and highlights the perils faced at almost every turn.
There are interviews with the band as well as record company executives, members of the foreign press junket of 200+ that was flown to Moscow especially for the occasion and also members of the Russian public and associated figures.
Interesting viewing.

[@elvia5935]

I could kiss you for this!! These images of the band before & during their ‘mission’ to Moscow are of inestimable value. All though the discussion in this documentary often is - promotion of BC’s record- I believe that what they call the ‘naïve’ idealism of Big Country to break down barriers through music, sparks with such sincerity when witnessing their energetic and emotive performance thereby creating ultimate soul work, felt by everyone regardless of their culture or nationality. BC put me under their spell - in what seems now another lifetime- and it won’t ever let go. I am confident not to be the only one.

[@jaford2]

You're not the only one!

[@elvia5935]

@@jaford2 Such a reassurance that it is already the two of us! Your reply brightened up my day 😊 .

[@fergusmacroigh]

Great post

[@murkartik]

Spot on, and beautifully articulated.

[@jaford2]

Aaah, I remember those heady days! Courageous, generous, humorous, innovative and sincere, Stuart and the boys took their talents to Moscow to unify and pacify - and we loved them all the more for it!

[@musicbybackinnyc1]

i miss stuart adamson i didnt realize how good he was until he was gone

[@sadowitz999]

You never do

[@tracysnow349]

I love Stuart Adamson. Always did. Always will. I was so messed up I didn't realize he was gone until I tried to come out of a stupor that lasted years. He had been dead over a year when some good Samaritan heard me listening to Big Country on my headphones and kindly said, "Isn't that sad what happened to him?" Me: "To who?" "To the lead singer", she replied. "Stuart?" from my lips. "What happened to him?" And I will never forget the look in her eyes. It was half pity and half, I can't wait to tell you. "He killed himself" I can still feel the rushing in my ears. Like a bomb literally went off in my head. I was in total shock and could not be consoled for a week. I was in a 90 treatment facility for treatment of alcoholism when I found out. Ironic.

[@RedMoonSanctuaryWA]

Thanks for posting this. It's nice in this Internet age to suddenly have all this access to the background stuff from your favourite bands growing up. :-)

[@denisamori]

As much as I try I cannot reproduce Scottish accent, but it is the best in the English spoken world! Love it!

[@danielnichols5632]

Big Countrys first album is amazing, Steeltown was good too, but by the time they got to the late 80's the sound changed and became more mainstream which didn't suit them, Why the long face was a great comeback album, they found their feet again, not long after Stus tragic death came about. Such a shame rip Stuart x

[@BC1000Stars]

To my ears, Steeltown topped the lot. It was the fiercest the band ever sounded.

[@spacetimecontinuum]

This is giving me Spinal Tap vibes. However, why doesn't this have 3 million views yet?, I guess the Big Country fans just haven't found it .

[@ministryofanti-feminism1493]

Those damned backing singers and that bloody keyboard! Aaarghh!

[@vfxtutswithdan1893]

part of the downfall

[@shawnesgate9599]

Trying too hard to mainstream their sound. Backgorund singers and keyboards have no business in BC. PIOT and No Place Like Home should be nuked off the face of the planet.

[@paulbradbury4734]

you are a legend the luck of a 1000 stars x

[@wilbertrobles1123]

Got into Rush first. Got into BC two decades later. Startling similarities in musicianship and meaningful lyrics. Hopefully Neil and Stuart are collaborating !

[@vfxtutswithdan1893]

And it drumming talent!

[@llk2815]

You too! There can’t be many of us out there into both Rush and BC... totally agree

[@frankstared]

I grew up listening to Rush and while their musicianship was never in question ,critically for me, their lyrics never really matured or sought to achieve societal equity, which is frankly unforgivable for affluent entertainers IMHO. I see Rush as in the main-"Subdivisions" and "The Trees" excluded (maybe?), though even the Trees is questionable while "Closer to the Heart was written collaboratively-bourgeoisie apologists for class inequity, unlike Stuart's lyrics which always sought progressive themes and which championed human rights. Rush was more about ego stroking, showing off and musical masturbation and that is why I long ago abandoned their nonsense. Art that is not driven by human rights, loving-kindness and equity is not art; it is merely marketing and advertising and that was sadly quite standard for the shallow and materialistic 1980's, Stuart and Bruce Cockburn excepted of course.

[@wilbertrobles1123]

@@frankstared well said, Sir. I can see it from your vantage point as well. The more real and from the heart gets extinguished early and or prematurely. The superficial goes on and on. Up to us to keep the legacies of the former alive.

[@frankstared]

@@wilbertrobles1123 You said it, my friend. We can care for one another...and considering the challenges, we now must.

[@ScotsGal]

Probably one of the most criminally underrated bands of all time ....they had such a unique and amazing sound they never got a fair shake in my opinion..stuart songwriting and guitar playing was amazing ....its such a shame to see what " the band " have become today ..Almost a parody of themselves

[@teeniebeenie8774]

stuarts voice so unique !!!!!

[@johnny5805]

Reading that cringe press clipping at the end - "Big Country are a bagpipey version of U2....". 😔 When of course, as is well documented, Stuart Adamson was the man who directly inspired The Edge's playing style. He was "The man who invented The Edge" as the headline once read.

[@rayobrien1161]

The first well known band I saw live was Big Country at the SFX in Dublin some time around 1987. At one point I waved to Stuart and amazingly he saw me in the middle of the crowd and waved back. The time this documentary was made is interesting in how it shows the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. The whole Cold War thing was an apparent conflict of East versus West, when in reality the "strength" of the Soviet Union was smoke and mirrors. Remember how Brezhnev watching the May Day parade was shown on the news every year? At the time we believed they were a real threat. Anyway, Stuart makes this great observation around 15:40 about the setup in Moscow and the pointless jobs people appear to be doing. Looking back at the time now, there were also lots of people in the "music industry" who had jobs that definitely wouldn't exist today. Listen to all the shit talk in this documentary, especially at the beginning - WTF? These people were employed? Ah well, the past is a different country.

[@frankstared]

About that 'shit talk' and arrogance displayed by those from management and the journalists, I feel it reveals their own meritless arrogance that was sadly typical among yuppie Boomers in the 80's. They had no clue about empathy unlike Stuart. What amazes me is that they were part of the band's superstructure-not quite sure how Stuart could have stomached them considering his own humble working class roots. It also speaks volumes about the materialism of that sad, sad decade. While there was the odd artist like Adamson and Bruce Cockburn in Canada who tried to build bridges, you can clearly see how societies were locked into quite regressive and toxic mindsets. There is a lesson in all of this: no matter what the artists say, it is how power is distributed that reveals a society's true core values. Adamson was far and away ahead of his decadent and misguided age.

[@Mudge07]

Another huge piece of the jigsaw picture representing the trials and trails of Big Country. In the the era of glasnost, eyes were optimistically looking towards the falling of the old East, rather than the West. Easily top of the bill, BC took on this adventure with the best of intentions and their natural message of good will and great music. The Wall was yet to come down and a return to Berlin probably was the nearest to Moscow the guys would want to bear.

[@matiasfisher676]

You prolly dont give a shit but if you guys are bored like me during the covid times you can stream pretty much all of the latest movies on InstaFlixxer. Been watching with my brother for the last weeks xD

[@daytondevin4306]

@Matias Fisher yup, been using InstaFlixxer for months myself =)

[@steveclaycross1280]

If anyone says they were underrated I'll head but them😀

[@chrisdunn7443]

They were underrated.

[@eyemoeba]

@@chrisdunn7443 your reply has been sadly underrated. until now!

[@mohammadseddon577]

All the Russian singers look like different versions of Rik Mayall.

[@marleybu7984]

Aww, Tony's so cute in his hat. I'm into the keyboards & backing girls either. Better just guitars & drums.

[@jackiebrown7229]

Yeah I prefer them without the girls and keyboards.

[@eyemoeba]

how ace to see a young(ish) John Peel at the Russian Embassy. their version of Peace in Our Time there was sheer perfection. does anyone know if the full recording exists? it's as if they are playing it for their A-level exam in front of their judges.

[@jkeaney7]

On Spotify 👍

[@davidb2095]

Wow, even John Peel was there. (7:39) Big event.

[@ROOKTABULA]

WHY so many close ups of food and of people mouths chewing? Bizarre.

[@BC1000Stars]

ROOKTABULA they wanted to see if people could actually keep the food down!? 🤣

[@eyemoeba]

they were having cheese in their time.

[@marleybu7984]

The guy in the yella shirt thought he wiz Jim Kerr! 😂

[@MisterGee1968]

Thanks so much Andi ! What were the names of the two female backing singers please ? Where did they come from, and what became of them I wonder ??

[@elvia5935]

Hello Graham, the name of the female backing singers were Susie and Gill.

[@MisterGee1968]

@@elvia5935 Thanks Elvia !

[@davidb2095]

Wow #2: American punks just on the streets of Moscow talking about the Meatmen. (41:55) How trippy is that??

[@BC1000Stars]

David B “The Meatmen are hardcore, man” 😃✊

[@hunterthompson2206]

The Russian bands are, um…interesting. LOL!

[@ingy2468]

Maybe it helped dismantle the old communist Soviet Union that crumbled not too long after this Big Country mission and Russia attempted to move on.

[@davidstewart4310]

Is this documentary on any dvds?

[@BC1000Stars]

Yes, its on the Peace in Our Time Live in Russia CD/DVD double combo that was released in 2009.

[@davidstewart4310]

@@BC1000Stars Ahhhh Thanks, i thought that. I need to add this to my vast BC collection ;-)

[@BC1000Stars]

@@davidstewart4310 there are 5 for sale on discogs currently if you use discogs. 🙂

[@davidstewart4310]

@@BC1000Stars Yeh there not cheap though. Theres one on ebay for £50...i might get that one.

[@BC1000Stars]

Yeah they're not. It's becoming fairly scarce now so definitely grab one while you can! I got mine from Ian Grant back when it came out and it came with a bonus t-shirt which I wore out once and got randomly called a communist by some stranger. 😂 Good times.

[@davidb2095]

Whoa, those Russian opening bands! Pretty punk rock for the time. Pretty awful too.

[@hjakman9402]

Podrian subtitularlo al español por favor 😥

[@BC1000Stars]

¡Esto sería difícil porque no hablo español!

[@BC1000Stars]

Espero que les guste mi canal de Big Country de todos modos! Gracias por comentar. 🙂

[@hjakman9402]

@@BC1000Stars lo estoy viendo y me está gustando mucho el documental, muchas gracias 🙏🏾

[@hjakman9402]

@@BC1000Stars gracias de todos modos lo veré 👀 porque amo a está gran banda ☝️

[@chrisa4634]

I was in my late twenties at the time and wasn't aware of this trip. Just a media freebie using BC in my opinion (no offence BC1000stars!). I love BC and this is great footage for us now, but they could have made better publicity choices.

[@vfxtutswithdan1893]

For a moment there, I thought Stu was wearing a TRUMP shirt.

[@ROOKTABULA]

Too bad they hadn't done this with The Seer album cuz this album was the start of a down hill slide in quality till Buffalo Hunters over half a decade later.

[@2000mk1]

Buffalo Skinners even . . . .

[@davidstewart4310]

Some great songs on PIOT

[@cloudfactory2000]

Around the 7.50 point, looks a bit like putin.

[@jkeaney7]

Good call! 👌

[@ROOKTABULA]

1:15 Not a "British rock band" you tweaker, a SCOTTISH one.

[@dannbradfc1]

Mark and Tony born from South of England whilst Stuart was born in Manchester. :) so 1 natural Scot

[@ministryofanti-feminism1493]

@@dannbradfc1 Pretty sure Bruce was born in South Africa.

[@SuperEdge67]

ROOKTABULA No they are a British band.......half them are English .

[@Carnivalihq]

Idiot! None of the members were born in Scotland!!!

[@jasonsmith2052]

Heard Ian Grant has parkinsons disease. Brilliant karma!!