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Stuart Adamson | |
|---|---|
 Adamson with Big Country in 1991 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | William Stuart Adamson |
| Born | (1958-04-11)11 April 1958 Manchester, England |
| Origin | Dunfermline,Fife, Scotland |
| Died | 16 December 2001(2001-12-16) (aged 43) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Genres | Punk rock,new wave,Celtic rock,alternative rock |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, keyboard, bass guitar |
| Years active | 1976–2001 |
| Labels | No Bad,Virgin,Phonogram,Mercury,Vertigo, Compulsion,Fox,Transatlantic,Track |
| Formerly of | Skids,Big Country,the Raphaels |
William Stuart Adamson (11 April 1958 – 16 December 2001) was a Scottish rock guitarist and singer. Adamson began his career in the late 1970s as a founding member and performer with thepunk rock bandSkids. After leaving Skids in 1981, he formedBig Country and was the band's lead singer and guitarist. The group's commercial heyday was in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he was a member of thealternative country bandthe Raphaels. In the late 1970s the British music journalistJohn Peel referred to his musical virtuosity as a guitarist as "a newJimi Hendrix".[1]
Adamson was born in the city ofManchester, England, to Scottish parents Anne (née Muir) and William Adamson. When he was four, his family relocated to the small mining village ofCrossgates, about a mile east ofDunfermline inFife.[2] Adamson's father, afishing industry executive who travelled the world, encouraged his son to read literature, and both parents shared an interest infolk music. Adamson received his formal education atBeath High School.[3]
Adamson entered rock music during the Britishpunk rock movement of the mid-1970s, forming a Dunfermline band called Tattoo in 1976 after seeingthe Damned at a gig inEdinburgh. Besides Adamson, Tattoo included his friend William Simpson, who would also play bass guitar in their next band,Skids, which began performing in the local area and in Edinburgh.[3]
Adamson foundedSkids in 1977 when he was 18. He and Simpson first recruited drummer Thomas Kellichan and performed as a trio until meeting the 16-year-oldRichard Jobson,[4] who became the act's lead singer/frontman, Adamson and Jobson being the principal songwriters for the act.
Skids' biggest success was the single "Into the Valley", released in 1979, which reached number 10 in theUK Singles Chart.[5] The band had four chart singles in the United Kingdom that year. Adamson was involved with the band's first three long-players, before quitting the act in 1981 after disagreements with Jobson, whose personality was increasingly dominating the band's output.[6] Jobson later said of Adamson: "This was a guy who had a mortgage, a wife, and a family when we were all trying to live some mythic punk lifestyle. He seemed level-headed, grounded."[4]
Adamson found international fame withBig Country, a band formed with friend and fellow guitaristBruce Watson, then employed as a submarine cleaner atRosyth naval base, and a rhythm section of studio musiciansMark Brzezicki andTony Butler, found with the help of hislabel.
Big Country's first hit, 1983's "Fields of Fire", reached the UK's Top 10, and was rapidly followed by the albumThe Crossing. The album was a big hit in North America (Canada number 4,[7] United States number 18) powered by the single "In a Big Country", which was performed onSaturday Night Live and theGrammy Awards. The video for "In a Big Country" received frequent airplay onMTV and featured the band ridingall terrain vehicles in the countryside.
Their second albumSteeltown appeared in October 1984. The band's third albumThe Seer (1986) featuredKate Bush on the title track. The first two albums were produced bySteve Lillywhite. The band continued to record studio albums and tour until 2000. Adamson supplied much of the distinctive guitar work, as well as being the lead singer and main songwriter (both music and lyrics). The band's lineup rarely underwent changes, the exception being the departure of drummerMark Brzezicki who left in the summer of 1989 and was replaced by Pat Ahern. Brzezicki re-joined the band in 1993.
Adamson was married twice. He had two children with his first wife Sandra in 1982 and 1985. His sonCallum Adamson is the guitarist of the band Ahab, and his daughter Kirsten has a solo musical career. In 1996, Adamson split with Sandra and moved toNashville, US.[8][9] There he married his second wife in 1999, a hairdresser named Melanie Shelley,[10] and founded his final band, the alternative country bandthe Raphaels, a duo of Adamson and Nashville songwriterMarcus Hummon.
Adamson was a keen motorcyclist who regularly purchased new machines for riding aroundFife. His interest extended to the race track where he sponsored the career of the British Championship rider Iain Duffus in the late 1980s.[11]
In 1999, Adamson briefly disappeared, causing the band to miss performances.[12] In 2001, Adamson was again reported missing by his wife Melanie. He had left his son a note on November 7 saying, "back by noon Sunday."[13] Adamson and his wife had been estranged for several weeks, and Melanie filed for divorce on the day he had disappeared. He had been due to faceDUI charges in March 2002, and had been ordered to attendAlcoholics Anonymous (AA). He had previously experienced problems related toalcoholism, and had begun drinking again after having been sober for over a decade. His manager had hired a private investigator to search for Adamson and two fans also volunteered to help out.[14] By early December, he had last been reported as having seen afootball match betweenIran andIreland inAtlanta.[13]
On 4 December 2001, Adamson checked into the Best Western Plaza Hotel inHonolulu,Hawaii.[14] On 16 December 2001, Adamson was found dead in his hotel room.[15] According to a local police report, he had died by hanging himself with an electrical cord from a pole in a wardrobe.[16][17] A subsequent Coroner's Office report found that he had consumed a 'very strong' amount of alcohol around the time of his death.[18] A legal dispute over his estate ensued between Adamson’s ex-wife Sandra and Melanie after his death.[19]
His body was flown back to Scotland, where after a private funeral service at Dunfermline Crematorium inFife, he was cremated.[20] On the evening of 27 December 2001, a public memorial service was held to celebrate his life and career at Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, attended byRichard Jobson and a crowd of several hundred mourners, including Adamson's family and friends, and former members of Big Country. Messages of condolence were publicly read out, including one fromU2'sthe Edge, stating that Adamson with Big Country had written the songs that he wished U2 could write.[21]
In April 2009, a mural of Adamson was unveiled atEast End Park, the home ofDunfermline Athletic Football Club of whom Adamson was a fan: the mural was painted by art students from the localQueen Anne High andDunfermline High Schools, and adorns the wall of the north stand.[22]
In September 2011 a commemorative bench to Adamson was unveiled atPittencrieff Park inDunfermline. It was paid for by fans and is inscribed with some of his lyrics chosen by fans in an online poll.[23]
Adamson was the inspiration behind the song "3 Ways To See Despair" byManic Street Preachers.[24]
A housing development inCrossgates, opened in 2021, is named "Stuart Adamson Crescent".
According to Skids bassist Bill Simpson, Adamson's first real guitar was aGibson Flying V. He is usually associated with the Yamaha SG2000 guitar, which he used extensively during the Skids years, as well as on the first twoBig Country albums. He also usedFender Stratocasters in this period to achieve lighter tones. Around the time ofThe Seer, Adamson began to lay his SG2000s aside[25] and experimented with other models. Among these were several Les Pauls,[26] a Gretsch Duo-Jet, and a number ofESP Model 901 Stratalike with humbucking pickups (in distinctive yellow and red colours). Adamson also had several guitars made for him by the Glasgowguitar-maker Jimmy Moon.
Big Country's distinctive 'Scottish'sound was created using an MXR pitch transposer,[27] which pushed the guitar notes up an octave and created a shrill, bagpipe-esque whine. This can be heard in the lead guitar passages in the song "In a Big Country". Adamson was also noted for his use of theE-Bow, a device that magnetically vibrates guitar strings and generates unique tones with infinite sustain.[28] The e-bow is most prominent in the introductions to the songs "The Storm" and "Lost Patrol".
The Scottish flavour is also present due to Adamson (and other co-writers in the band) using an open 'drone' string when writing and playing songs.
Adamson used Session 'Sessionette:75' amplifiers mainly for live performances and recordings.
During his time in Skids, Stuart used HH amplifiers. In early Big Country he used Marshall but moved toFender Showman twin amps, including two with silver eagles stencilled on the grilles (a reference to cover art of their third album,The Seer). Later he moved to Mesa Boogie amps and often displayed a smallSaltire badge on the corner.
| Year | Title | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Scared to Dance | Virgin | |
| Days in Europa | |||
| 1980 | The Absolute Game | ||
| 1981 | Joy | Guitar on Track 5 only. | |
| 1982 | Fanfare | ||
| 1987 | Dunfermline: A Collection of the Skids' Finest Moments | ||
| 2007 | The Saints Are Coming: The Best of The Skids | EMI/Virgin |
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Supernatural | Track |
| International | |
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| National | |
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