I never formally met Stuart, but one day Big Country played a free show on a boat at the Cambridge Side Galleria in Boston, MA. I was there and after the show when the boat docked, I had the opportunity to meet the entire band and say hi. I was just one face in a crowd of many, but all four members shook my hand and we spoke small talk until the next person muscled their way into the conversation.

Back in 1983 I was too cool to like Big Country and I actually on occasion made fun of them and the two kids at my high school that loved them. Seven years later that all changed when a good friend made me a tape of the band’s first two albums. I fell in love with them and wanted more. So he taped me the third and fourth albums and even that was not enough. I started searching the world for b-sides, videos, Skids records, you name it, I wanted it.

To this day, his passion, his lyrics, his amazingly unique guitar style and writing technique has been one of the biggest influences to me as a song writer. I just wish that more people felt the same way, maybe he’d still be with us today…

http://www.windfall-go.com/theantiemoempire/inmemory.htm