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  1. Scottish Daily Record
    April 06, 2009

    By Joanne Curran

    Rocker The Edge has pledged his support to a fundraiser in honour of late Big Country singer Stuart Adamson.

    The U2 star has donated one of his prized guitars to a charity auction being held by Adamson's family.

    It's in aid of the Children's Hospice Association Scotland and the youth set-up at Adamson's beloved Dunfermline Football Club.

    And the gift from The Edge -- a longtime friend of fellow guitarist Adamson, who died in Hawaii in 2001, aged 43 -- will boost the fundraiser by £8000. His Gibson Epiphone guitar is expected to fetch at least that when it is auctioned on eBay.

    Its sale will come after Saturday's main auction and tribute to Adamson, when murals of him, created by local schoolkids, will be unveiled at Dunfermline' s home ground.

    Adamson, who achieved international fame with The Skids and Big Country, would have been 51 on Saturday.

    Dunfermline, nicknamed the Pars, and their fans are also involved in the event. Adamson's musician daughter Kirsten, lead singer The Gillyflowers, got in touch with The Edge.

    She said: "I couldn't believe it when the guitar turned up. It's pretty cool.

    "The Edge has signed it and has used it for a few gigs. My dad really had a lot of respect for The Edge and U2, so this is just a fantastic tribute." The Edge had one condition, though -- that some money raised goes a charity he co-founded to help musicians struggling in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

    Adamson's son Callum added: "My dad would have been extremely honoured by this gesture. He was a working class man with a burning ambition to become a successful musician.

    "His devotion to the Pars was, at times, as strong as the urge to make music." Dunfermline supporter Colin Gourlay said: "For some time, there's been a strong desire to permanently express the affection and respect we all have for Stuart.

    "Many wish to honour his memory and articulate the high esteem in which Stuart's legacy is held among us." Adamson had been suffering personal problems in the months before his suicide in a Honolulu hotel room.

    © Scottish Daily Record, 2009.
  2. Which Epi is it, Jeff? The Music Rising one?
  3. I mean this one:



    Will that beauty be auctioned? LOL lucky winner of the bid...
  4. I'm not completely sure what to think of this.

    On the one hand I appreciate Edge's action completely.

    On the other hand I ask myself if it was really necessary to have the money split up between two charities. 8.000,- is of course a lot of money for you and me, but if Edge wants to support his own charity project he can do so every day by auctioning a guitar or whatever. In fact I doubt he has to pay for most his factory guitars at all.

    Alex
  5. the late great Stuart Adamson can never receive too much honor

    Big Country, Skids, holy to the high!
  6. Oh God, just realized I posted the wrong pic. I posted a GIBSON, not an Epiphone

    I meant THIS gorgeous Epiphone:

  7. Originally posted by Alex:I'm not completely sure what to think of this.

    On the one hand I appreciate Edge's action completely.

    On the other hand I ask myself if it was really necessary to have the money split up between two charities. 8.000,- is of course a lot of money for you and me, but if Edge wants to support his own charity project he can do so every day by auctioning a guitar or whatever. In fact I doubt he has to pay for most his factory guitars at all.

    Alex


    I contacted Kenny's Music who are working with the Adamson estate with regards to the auction, they passed me on to a member of the Adamson Estate.
    He said with no debate,100% of the proceeds after fees are deducted will go to Music Rising, the press got it wrong!, they expect the fees to be minimal possibly waved?.
    It seems a genuine gesture on behalf of Stuarts kids and all concerned to do the best for Edge to continue the work in New Orleans, they also received an offer of 7K in the shop prior to the auction starting so that would be starting price when the auction starts.
    The person I was passed onto from the estate said, they would do their very best with regards to raising funds as they will with all the charities and Items donated.

    It sounds interesting, there will be rare items of Stuarts, the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson has contributed and I am sure he said Lewis Hamilton? to name a few.

    Good luck to them, will definately be watching the auction, I was told it will start fairly soon next 5/6 days? details will be here http://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/

    Pete
  8. I'd like to add one thing about the subject. I was a loyal Big Country fan since 1986. I loved Stuart and was saddened by his death. But I dislike the conflict between his heirs and the three Big Country survivors Tony, Mark and Bruce. Now they can't even use the band name anymore - that's a shame considering they played in this band for more than twenty years and contributed a lot to the "signature" sound.

    And since the mentioned conflict resulted in the effective cancelling of the almost- ready Big Country comeback album and tour, there's no more fresh money coming in at all. So no one wins. Not Bruce, Mark and Tony, not the Adamson heirs, not manager Ian Grant, not the fans. That's not the way it should be. All that's left is a half- finished EP called "In our Name", released under the moniker "Bruce Brzezicki Watson" and soon to be forgotten without any significant promotion.

    Makes me sad. I don't quite know who's responsible for that result, but I don't like it. So I don't know if the ones that benefit from the publicity of these auctions are the same people who had a hand in killing the band. I hope the contributors know what they are doing. I'd need more trustworthy information before contributing.

    Sorry for the rant. Peace and Love

    Alex
  9. Disagree alex, from what I heard musically, a comeback was not going to be the outcome, it was dreadfull!, also is the conflict not between the 3 or 4 who were associated with the illfated comeback?.

  11. Aren't opinions wonderful? Anyway, you might have misunderstood what I meant with the word "comeback".

    I didn't talk about a sudden commercial success like a number 1 hit. I meant new music and another tour after years of absence. The "In our Name" EP is arguably one of the band's weaker efforts but still far from dreadful. "No Place like Home" was dreadful.

    also is the conflict not between the 3 or 4 who were associated with the illfated comeback?.

    I don't think so. In this case they just could have been using the band name for the "In our Name" EP with the result of possibly tripling the sales. Like they did on "25 live". I'd suggest to visit the BC website and read last year's news announcements. I can't prove my viewpoint but what I read there gives me a different impression than yours.

    Seems like Ian Grant just cleans up the vaults before he closes the whole place down. BC music has never before been sold so cheap.

    Just a side note: A few years ago I had the glorious hallucination that Alarm's Mike Peters might form a hybrid band with the three Big Country survivors, continuing to play old Alarm and BC stuff plus new songs. Apart from a Bruce Watson guest spot on some live gigs that never happened. MP decided to stick with James Stevenson, Craig Adams and Steve Grantley.

    Alex
  12. I agree with you Alex that BC music has been devalued by half baked false starts, the blah blah club being the first failed incarnation, to the point of being comedy.

    From what I have read the only thing stopping them is their own conscience, they toured as BC so I dont get how you think anyone has put a spanner in the works.

    I did read bits that indicated someone had stopped them but they quickly back peddled when asked to quantify certain remarks as Tony has in the link below.

    Tony Butler http://www.bigcountry.co.uk/news/articleRead.php?id=202

    Big Country was over before Stuarts death thats a fact, for it to restart was about money and that is surely not a good reason.

    I wish them all the best in the future but, I think Mark and Tony are the only ones with any real ability sadly none of them are song writers and thats where it all falls down.

    Great band until the end, pitty they couldnt leave it at that.

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