The Great Divide - The Big Country Podcast

Tom and Svein delve into the actual songs on The Crossing in this episode. They cover "In A Big Country" and "Inwards," and break the record for longest time spent on a single song in the process. Plenty of deep-diving, sound clips and general hilarity in this one. Enjoy!

The final BC album deep-dive is upon us, as Tom and Svein get out their scuba gear and jump in at the deep end to explore The Crossing. This first part sets the stage for the song discussion that will begin in Part 2, and covers the early years of the band and how the music started coming together in 1981-83: the demoing, the record company try-outs, the Alice Cooper tour, the producers, the first...

Fans have been asking for new music, and in this episode, they get it, although not quite in the format they may have expected. Tom, Svein and a lurking JfnG are joined by Bruce and Jamie Watson to debut a new musical project that Bruce, Jamie and Tom have been secretly working on over the last few months. That project is WKW, and the resulting 3-song EP they're debuting on the show is called "Han...

After their longest break ever, Tom and Svein try to get back into the swing of things. So many things have happened in the past eight months, and our hosts do a good sweep through all of them to catch up ahead of coming episodes. Welcome to the big housecleaning episode!

Yule is the time for traditions. Some of the traditions of the Great Divide crew are to do a sweep through the Big Country-related releases of the past year, look back at the podcast activities since last Yule, play Speakpipes, answer listener questions, and just deliver the longest episode so far. This one gets dangerously close to the four-hour mark! Somewhere in there, though, we play a mix of...

Tom and Svein finally make it to Damascus. They celebrate by launching a celebratory, egg-timer-based discussion of the 24 non-album tracks from this period. The result is an episode that's longer than an average Bruce Springsteen concert. Enjoy!

Tom and Svein continue slogging their way toward Damascus with three more songs discussed: "Trouble the Waters," "Bella" and "Your Spirit to Me." Only one song remains until we finally arrive.

Tom and Svein continue delving into Damascus with a show as bloated as Dom Deloise after an all-night binge at a Denny's buffet. Three more songs are discussed: "Fragile Thing," "The President Slipped and Fell," and "Devil in the Eye." You'll also hear more Speakpipes and interview clips. Have at you. All of you.

Tom and Svein actually get three songs in this time, as they take apart "See You," "Perfect World" and "Somebody Else" from Big Country's "Driving to Damascus" album. The usual hijinks ensue.

Tom and Svein start the actual Driving To Damascus song discussion, and manage to get all of TWO songs into the album this time! You know the drill - look for the ultimate breakdown of music and lyrics, demo analysis, song backgrounds etc. Diving deeply is tough work, but remember that we do it so that you don't have to!

We finally set off to Damascus, probably the album they've been dreading the most to dissect. The reason? There's just so much material, so much emotional baggage, so much to talk about. In this episode, we set the stage for the song discussion that will begin in Part 2. We talk about activities of the band members starting at the end of 1996 and leading up to the album's release. The Stuart Adams...

The third and final part of our conversation with Tony Butler is here. This completes his reflections on each and every Big Country album, as he recalls working with Robin Millar and Kate Bush on The Seer, the near burn-out they experienced at the end of The Crossing tour going into Steeltown, the real reason The Buffalo Skinners turned out so hard rocking, how Why The Long Face was one of the hap...

This is the second part of our conversation with Tony Butler. He touches on The Great Unknown album and recalls early memories of meeting the BC guys and joining the band. We discuss Live Aid what-ifs an his development as a singer. Tony recalls working with people like Pete Townshend and The Pretenders, his time in L.A. working on Peace In Our Time with Peter Wolf, and the dreaded synclavier... T...

The time was finally right! We are very happy to welcome bass player extraordinaire Tony Butler to the show. He comes armed with a number of announcements, reveals what he has been up to during his retirement of recent years, and of course talks about anything and everything Big Country from ages past. Enjoy this first part of three TB extravaganzas!

It's the return of the Great Divide egg-timer in this episode! After breezing through recent releases and BC-related activity, Tom and Svein continue to tackle a myriad of Big Country-related questions - but only until the bell rings, when they have to move on to the next one. Enjoy this fast-paced plethora of topics!

Tom and Svein somehow manage to release their annual Yuletide episode after a blizzard of activity. What's more, it's the longest episode ever at more than three hours! They are visited by the spirits of podcast past, present and future as they look back at BC-related releases of 2016, podcast comments and rankings from listeners, play Speakpipes and blab about a variety of subjects. Enjoy this gi...

Tom and Svein finally finish their latest minutiae-laden Deep Dive, Part 4 of the "Peace in Our Time" dissection. In this one, they take on "River of Hope," "In This Place," and "I Could Be Happy Here." They also play more SpeakPipes and give their final rankings of the album's songs and listener rankings from the Facebook page.

Tom and Svein continue flapping their fat mouths about Big Country's most divisive album, "Peace in Our Time." And they still don't finish. In this episode, they tackle "Everything I Need," "Peace in Our Time," and "Time For Leaving." More listener SpeakPipes are also played.

Tom and Svein pick up the pace a bit - just a bit - in Part 2 of the PIOT Deep Dive. In this episode, they cover the songs "Thirteen Valleys," "Thousand Yard Stare" and "From Here to Eternity." Yes, only three. BC bloviating at its finest.

Tom and Svein are digging deep again as they delve into the Peace In Our Time album - one of the most divisive albums in Big Country's timeline. In this first part, they cover the general time period of the band, their activities of 1988, the R.E.L. Tapes, the situation with the label, the choice of procucer, and get into the first single and first track of the album (King of Emotion).

The legendary Bruce Watson joins Tom and Svein once again to help celebrate 60 episodes of the podcast. Bruce talks about all sorts of subjects, from working with Robin Millar, the coming Seer tour, the Millar Mix petition, new music, the possibility of a PIOT tour, the relationships with Mike Peters and Tony Butler, the meaning of the word "Scorpheus" and much more!

Tom and Svein welcome two great Aussie guests, Andy Inkster and Dwayne Bunney, who share their insights, experiences and emotions from Big Country's recent and first ever tour of Australia. Multiple Aussie gigs are discussed at length and bits and bobs from those gigs are played, courtesy of Andy Inkster. So throw another shrimp on the haggis pit and join us for a fun, fast-paced episode. Time zon...

Tom and Svein welcome guest Martin Warner to the show. Martin ran the official Country Club fanzine from issues 3-7 in 1983, and he shares some great, fun stories from the early days of Big Country as they changed overnight from a barely-known entity to a world famous, chart-topping band.

Tom and Svein finally conclude their epic deep-dive of The Buffalo Skinners with "Chester's Farm" and the song "Buffalo Skinners." They tie up loose ends with brief discussions about the return of the classic logo, the U.S. vs. U.K. masters, the poem that inspired the album title and more. SpeakPipes are also played, as well as a couple of acoustic rarities for good measure. Whew, another album ta...

Tom and Svein continue their dissection of The Buffalo Skinners. This episode takes them from "All Go Together" through "Pink Marshmallow Moon". More listener SpeakPipes are also played.