Big Dish take Hydro by storm

On Friday evening The Big Dish reconvened for a fine performance supporting Del Amitri at Glasgow Hydro.  Highlights included a shimmering Miss America, a rousing 25 Years, the inclusion of new song Cherry Blossom Falls, and oldies Jealous, Big New Beginning and Swimmer.

Full Setlist:

SWANSONG
SLIDE
WISHING TIME
SHIPWRECKED
JEALOUS
BIG NEW BEGINNING
MISS AMERICA
CHERRY BLOSSOM FALLS
25 YEARS
SWIMMER

The Big Dish with Del Amitri

The Big Dish will be supporting Del Amitri at the Glasgow Hydro on 24 January as part of Celtic Connections 2014.  Great to see these two fine Scottish bands together again.

The Big Dish website

New Big Dish website - www.thebigdish.org It's fantastic, head on over and check it out. Also check out the excellent www.stevenlindsayisbraw.com

ABC Show - 'Miss America'

'Miss America' from the ABC show.

ABC Glasgow, 21 January

The Big Dish played a triumphant reunion show at the Glasgow ABC last night to a sell out crowd. The gig was part of the 2012 Celtic Connections festival. The band, supported by Iona Marshall, played for around 90 minutes. The set, probably not in exact order:

Prospect Street
Life
Bonafide
Waiting For The Parade
Shipwrecked
Warning Sign
Monday
Miss America
Breakdown
Jealous (acoustic)
Christina's World (acoustic)
Big New Beginning
Big Town
Burn
Where Do You Live
Wishing Time
Swimmer

Slide
All The Young Dudes

A clip of 'Slide' from the show can be viewed here

The band will play the Darvel Music Festival on Saturday 5 May, supported by Red Sky July.

Radio Scotland session

Big Dish were in session on Janice Forsyth's Radio Scotland programme this morning. Currently being repeated on BBC iPlayer for those in the UK. Fairly lengthy interview along with acoustic performances of 'Prospect Street' and 'Wishing Time'.

Big Dish Reunion

The Big Dish will reunite for a one-off performance at the Glasgow ABC on Sauchiehall Street on 21 January 2012. This is part of the 2012 Celtic Connections festival. Tickets are available via this link.
http://www.celticconnections.com/whatson/event/118624-The-Big-Dish-and-Iona-Marshall

Media article:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/showbiz/music-news/2011/10/25/the-big-dish-to-re-form-for-one-off-gig-at-celtic-connections-festival-86908-23513916/

Fake Gods 'Chords of Human Kindness' EP

Given that this is a quiet time for Big Dish/Steven Lindsay info, I thought I would bring you up to date with my own band. Fake Gods has released its 'Chords of Human Kindness' EP through Bandcamp. The 3-song EP features 'My Love Will Follow You', 'On A Sea of Fleur-De-Lis', and 'Reunion Hill' and can be downloaded for free here. All we ask in return is your e-mail address. We promise never to spam you!

The band's official website is here.

Steven Lindsay: Aspect Prize nomination

Steven Lindsay has recently been nominated for The Aspect Prize. The Aspect Prize is organized in conjunction with the Paisley Art Institute and is one of the art world's biggest privately funded awards. It aims to help talented painters realize their full commercial potential. Four finalists have been selected from artists who submit works to the Aspect Exhibition at the Paisley Art Gallery and Museum including our very own Mr Lindsay. The premier award will be issued at the Aspect Prize Winners’ London Exhibition to be held at The Fleming Collection in January 2011.

More details can be found in this publication. Steven's sub page at the Aspect Prize is here.

We wish him good luck!

10 Instrumentals

'10 Instrumentals' is a rare Steven Lindsay promo from 2007, released on the Echo label (SLINSTR1). It is hard to find and essentially features instrumental tracks from 'Exit Music' and 'Kite'. It has been known to surface on eBay so keep your eyes peeled.
















1 Motorcade (Kite)

2 Catch A Star (Kite)

3 Deep (Kite)

4 X72

5 Light Sleep (Kite)

6 Hairshirt (Kite)

7 Butterfly (Exit Music)

8 The 14th (Exit Music)

9 Breakdown (Exit Music)

10 A Memory (Kite)

Presence

Given that this blog still receives a considerable number of hits, I thought I should make a greater effort provide updates. Firstly, I would like to direct you to Glenn MacDiarmid's website StevenLindsayIsBraw which is dedicated to all things Lindsay and Big Dish and is well worth a look. It features band biographies, pictures, reviews, and rare tracks. What's not to love?

I caught Brian McFie live recently at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh, as part of ex Love & Money singer James Grant's band. Quite fantastic he was as well. If you haven't checked out Grant's solo material, I can heartily recommend doing so.

I have a few other live shows on mp3, from which I will try to upload songs soon.

Finally, a shameless plug for my own band Fake Gods. We are in the process of recording live takes of songs for an EP, provisionally entitled 'Chords Of Human Kindness' which will be out in late summer. These will be uploaded to our website in the coming weeks. Our debut album 'Wine To Water' was released last year and is available to download in its entirety for free via Bandcamp.

New Blog

hi everyone,

apologies for the lack of Big Dish activity on this blog in recent times. I have diverted much of my energy to promoting my own band Fake Gods. This is being done via our official website , our Bandcamp site where we are giving away our entire album for free, and my other blog on the process of marketing our music.

I hope you will take the time to check us out.

warmest regards,
Alex

Steven Lindsay website and Myspace

Steven Lindsay's Myspace page can be found here. It includes some streaming audio, video, pictures, a few external links, and a list of influences. Meanwhile, his official site seems to have vanished, at least for the time being.

The Big Dish - Edinburgh 20 August 1988

The 'Creeping Up On Jesus' era of the band is probably the most bootlegged. That's not to say there are a plethora of superior quality recordings out there, merely decent ones like the one from Edinburgh on 20 August 1988 (venue unknown - any ideas?) This one, recorded by a mobile unit, is very listenable and took place one month before the release of the album.

The set opens, as was typical for that tour, with the opening track from the new record, 'Life', followed by 'Christina's World' complete with false ending. It's noticeable however that the band is considerably tighter than in the Liverpool show of 1985. Ignoring calls for 'Prospect Street', they debut several new songs including 'Burn', 'Jean', 'Where Do You Live'. Lindsay introduces current single 'European Rain' by suggesting the audience "may have heard it on the radio" and it receives the biggest cheer of the night. However, sections of the audience appear restless between songs and continue to holler boorishly for older numbers. Lindsay reminds the hecklers that the show is being recorded and they "should be on their best behaviour" before launching into 'Slide'. He eventually declares it's "time for some older songs" and the band offer up 'Loneliest Man', the much requested 'Prospect Street', and 'Swimmer' before rounding the show off with 'Swansong'. 'European Rain' from this show is available below.

Set

Life
Christina's World
Wishing Time
Burn
European Rain
Slide
Jean
Where Do You Live
The Loneliest Man In The World
Prospect Street
Swimmer
Swansong

The Big Dish - Liverpool 19 May 1985

I have amassed a number of Big Dish live recordings which were sourced from various places over the years. This show is the earliest Big Dish performance I could find, recorded in Liverpool in May 1985, several months before the release of the band's debut album 'Swimmer'. This early Big Dish rarity captures an exciting time for the band, about to embark on the release of their first single 'Big New Beginning' for Virgin Records. I'm not sure whether this set was a support slot for Lloyd Cole due to the its brevity. I know the band toured with him in its early days. If anyone can provide more information on this or the exact venue, please get in touch.

The gig is a soundboard recording and, as with all such shows, it's unfair to make an ultimate judgement on the performance due to the limitations of the quality. The set opens with 'Swimmer's opening track 'Prospect Street' and immediately it becomes apparent that the band's sound lacks the expansiveness of its later live shows. In fact, the sound is fairly uniform throughout with jangly guitar and bass riffs dominant. This becomes rather wearing after a few tracks.

Next up is the bouncy 'Justice' followed by a somewhat plodding 'Everlasting Faith' where the band seem out of tune. Things take an upward turn with 'Another People's Palace' with the keyboards and guitars truly complimenting each other for the first time in the set. The uptempo 'Presence', the eventual b-side to 'Slide'. maintains the monentum nicely, even if it does feature a guitar riff scarily reminiscent of Ultravox's 'Vienna'.

The set continues with an interesting paradox, a fast-paced 'Jealous' followed by 'Swimmer', introduced by Lindsay as "another slow song". The former is perfectly listenable but lacks the intimacy of later live versions (check out the live b-side to '25 Years' recorded at Barrowland), however 'Swimmer' is somewhat ponderous with lacklustre keyboards and the mid-point guitar break which is so integral to the song's appeal had yet to be devised.

The set climaxes on two high points, the band's single at the time 'Big New Beginning' and the closing 'Beyond The Pale'. Lindsay's vocal performances on these two tracks are his best of the evening and both sound vibrant and coherent.

Set

Prospect Street
Justice
Everlasting Faith
Another People's Palace
Presence
Jealous
Swimmer
Big New Beginning
Beyond The Pale

Brian McFie - post Big Dish

For most of their eight year tenure, The Big Dish were essentially a duo. Other than Lindsay, the other constant was guitarist Brian McFie, the band's sound being as synonymous with his playing as with Lindsay's voice. Since the band's split, McFie has remained active, playing and touring with a number of musicians including Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Marianne Faithful, Hue and Cry, Carol Laula, and Hollow Horse.

In 2007 McFie contributed guitar to one track on the Button Up album 'No Dancin' On The Tables', which also featured contributions from Justin Currie, Joseph Malik, and Ken McCluskey. McFie also plays with Chris Glen and The Outfit, an evolving group of classic rockers from Glasgow.

Steven Lindsay - post Big Dish

For ten years after the band's split Lindsay was busy working as a manager, producer and television soundtrack composer. He returned to the fold in 2002 to provide vocals on 'Let It Be Love', a stellar piano ballad on former Big Dish keyboard player Craig Armstrong's album 'As If To Nothing'. The album also contained contributions from Bono, Evan Dando, David McAlmont, and fellow Scots Mogwai.

Lindsay returned to the fold properly in late 2004 on his own Seminal label with the piano-driven 'Exit Music' featuring string arrangements by the Scottish Ensemble. Lindsay played and programmed all other instruments and the album, which received widespread acclaim. Critics noted its sparse nature was closer to the sound of The Blue Nile and was a marked contrast from the glossy feel of much of The Big Dish's work. The Guardian commented that "after a couple of spins the music starts to seep into your pores and play tricks with your emotions" while The Independent offered "Exit Music is a gloss-free, coffee-table pop record". I'm not sure if the latter is a compliment. Lindsay played a handful of gigs on the back of the album, instead preferring to concentrate on writing more new material.

Lindsay signed to Chrysalis and in 2007 his second solo CD 'Kite' was released, with the lead single a cover of The Pixies' 'Monkey Gone To Heaven'. Reviews for 'Kite' have been slightly more mixed than for 'Exit Music'. The List magazine commented that the songs were 'uniformally mournful but pleasant' and that the aforementioned Pixies cover "shows the Smiths-murdering Mark Ronson how to reinterpret a classic". However, CD Times noted that 'Kite' "for all its artfulness and lofty good intentions, is dreadful". Prior to the album's release, Lindsay gave a short interview to Londonist and this can be found here.

The Big Dish on Youtube - updated March 2009

For those who have never heard the band and those who wish to take a trip down memory lane, here a few active Youtube links for the band's singles.

The Big Dish
'Christina's World'
'Miss America' (audio)
'Prospect Street' 7" (audio)

Steven Lindsay
'Kite'
'Monkey Gone To Heaven'
'Let It Be Love' (with Craig Armstrong)

The Singles

Around the late 1980's there seemed to be a plethora of Scottish bands competing for a small slice of chart action, some more successfully than others. The Big Dish's prominent early singles 'Prospect Street' (released twice) and 'Christina's World' were certainly catchy enough to have maken inroads to the charts.

Furthermore, 'Faith Healer' and 'European Rain' from the band's second record 'Creeping Up On Jesus' were extremely commercial in nature, radio friendly poprock with jangly guitar and horns very much to the fore but they still didn't have the desired impact.

The Big Dish's then label Virgin Records became restless during the recording of the band's second record 'Creeping Up On Jesus', and couldn't hear the 'smash hit' they were looking for. They tried to force the band to include a cover version on the album but the band refused. By way of comprimise Lindsay wrote the commercial 'European Rain' to order for the record company and when it, and the follow-up 'Faith Healer' both failed to chart, the band's days at Virgin were numbered. A third single 'Burn' was scheduled for release at the time when the band were dropped from the label.

How ironic it would prove then that the band should have it's first Top 40 hit with 'Miss America' in January 1991, their first single for the East/West label (a subsidiary of Warner) peaking at #38. Although the follow-up singles 'Big Town' and '25 Years' failed to chart, the band appeared to be on solid ground both critically and comercially when they called it a day in 1992. Their final album 'Satellites' received considerable acclaim and reasonable sales and the band were maintaining a relatively high profile with a support slot for Level 42 and an 2 song appearance on the short-lived Friday Night At The Dome television show.

The Big Dish - Singles

* 1985 "Big New Beginning" b/w "Jealous", "I Must Be In Love"
* 1985 "Prospect Street" b/w "Something from Nothing", "Tours"
* 1986 "Slide" b/w "Reverend Killer", "Presence"
* 1986 "Prospect Street" (Re-Release) b/w "From the Neighbourhood"
* 1987 "Christina's World" b/w "Everlasting Faith", "Prospect Street '85"
* 1988 "European Rain" b/w "Voodoo Baby", "Time On Your Own"
* 1988 "Faith Healer" b/w "Be My Friend", "Country Song", "Things Fall Into Place"
* 1990 "Miss America" b/w "From The Mission Bell", "Town Celebrity", "Roll Down The Flag"
* 1991 "Big Town" b/w "Good Way", "He Stumbled On Some Magic", "Medicine Jar"
* 1991 "25 Years" b/w "Swimmer" (live), "Jealous" (live), "Refugee" (live)

He Stumbled On Some Magic

I remember hearing The Big Dish for the first time in 1988. I used to frequent Glasgow's Barras market regularly to buy the latest bootleg cassettes from unscrupulous market traders (how times have changed for the better in that regard). For whatever reason I was already attracted to many Scottish bands of the era, Love and Money, The Silencers, Hipsway, and The River Detectives to name a few. A couple of people advised me that The Big Dish was sort of the missing link between those bands and that I ought to give them a listen. So an additional £3 was spent on a decidedly average quality audience recording of one of their gigs from Barrowlands. However, I was impressed enough to purchase their second record 'Creeping Up On Jesus' shortly thereafter.

A few months later a friend taped a Radio Clyde broadcast from the Glasgow Pavilion and I was pretty much hooked from then on in. This show still features in my collection to this date and serves as an interesting overview of the band, showcasing tracks from all 3 records. The set broadcast from the 1989 Pavilion show:

Life
Christina's World
Burn
Birdland (this track was never officially released)
Where Do You Live?
Monday
Swansong
European Rain
Slide
Bonafide
25 Years
Jealous
The Loneliest Man In The World
Swimmer

The band came across as fairly nervous at the time, something admitted by Steven Lindsay in subsequent interviews about the band's early live performances. However, their musicianship certainly shone through and it was a solid gig, even if Lindsay did manage to forget the lyrics to 'Burn', their proposed single at the time. It was interesting to hear 'Bonafide' and '25 Years' more than two years before their eventual release on 'Satellites'. The rarity 'Birdland' was also played, a quirkly little number presumably pencillied in for inclusion on 'Satellites' but never to be heard again. This version of this song has been posted on the band's Myspace site, which is otherwise fairly thin on the ground.