Stuart Adamson - Big Country singer- guitarist
The circumstances surrounding the death of the 43-year-old singer are not yet known, although early indications suggest suicide. Adamson disappeared from his home in Nashville, Tennessee last month (see News Story) and had not been seen since.
Although born in Manchester, Stuart Adamson grew up in Crossgates near Dunfermline, Fife in Scotland. He first came to fame in the late 70s as the guitarist with Scottish new wave band The Skids. In 1981 he left the band and formed Big Country with Bruce Watson, Tony Butler and Mark Brzezecki. The band found enormous success with their debut album The Crossing, which sold over three million copies worldwide and earned the band two Grammy nominations. Their subsequent four albums, Steeltown (1984), The Seer (1985), Peace In Our Time (1986) and No Place Like Home (1988) were all certified gold on release and took the band’s total record sales tally to over ten million. During their career Big Country scored 17 top 30 singles and seven top 30 albums. The band played at the Wembley leg of Live Aid and in 1988 played the first ever privately promoted rock show in Russia at the Moscow Sports Stadium. Low-key success continued throughout the 90s, as Big Country continued to release records and toured with the likes of Bob Dylan, Faith No More, The Black Crowes and twice with The Rolling Stones. In 1986, Adamson told how he had suffered a nervous breakdown six years earlier and was on the verge of another due to stress and overwork. In 1996, he decided to move to Nashville and in November 1999, he made headlines when he failed to appear for British TV appearances and a Big Country show supporting Bryan Adams. Having suffered from alcohol-related depression, Adamson disappeared from his home in Nashville (USA), to be found dead some weeks later in a hotel in Hawaii.