When was Big Country’s debut album The Crossing released?
For a long time, most online references (from Wikipedia to more credible and dedicated Big Country fan sites) stated 15 June 1983 as the album’s release date. For good reason.
This was after all the original date that had been pencilled in for the release. The fan club had announced it and featured the date prominently in their members magazine. Other newsletters also ran with it, and ads in the music press would repeat it. Everything was set for that date.
Sometimes, though, delays can occur.
Big Country superfan Andy Inkster started suspecting something when he recently took a closer look at the UK chart history and found that the first chart overview that featured The Crossing was the one released on 6 August.
“Why did it take three weeks for The Crossing to enter the charts?” Andy muses. “When it did arrive, it landed straight in at number 4 and peaked at 3 for three consecutive weeks a little time after. So the figures and stats are telling us that one of the most anticipated album releases of 1983 just quietly slipped onto shelves on its 15 July release day, but sold in such poor numbers it didn’t even sell enough to make the top 100 in the first 3 weeks and all the while Big Country were touring up and down the country promoting their Top 10 singles as well as the forthcoming album and selling out venues. Their name and faces were in all the magazines, on all the music shows and everyone wanted a piece of them but the album couldn’t even chart? I’m not buying it – something is not right.”
All albums were released on Fridays in the UK in 1983 and 1984. The charts for the week were always announced on Saturdays. This was changed in 1985 to a Monday release day for albums but retaining a Saturday chart release day, meaning some albums took up to 12 days before they entered the charts.
Album release dates were also altered regularly by record companies – to allow for tie-ins with touring, for additional promotional aspects or just depending on what other high profile releases were on the release roster, or sometimes just due to a good ol’ delay in manufacturing or elsewhere.
Inkster started suspecting that something like this had happened for The Crossing as well. “The Crossing was maybe not actually released on 15 July 1983 as advertised and as we have been led to believe, but was actually delayed by two weeks and more than likely hit the shelves on Friday, 29 July and then charted initially on Saturday, 6 August. That would make far more sense to me.”
Martin Warner was involved with the official Big Country fan club in 1983 and can confirm that the delay actually happened. In a discussion about this on Facebook, he confirmed “The Crossing release WAS put back by two weeks but I can’t remember why.”
Several other fans added recollections about having heard it was related to the sleeve, including Keith Lewington: “I seem to recall reading something about an embossing problem causing delays.” This is not an unlikely reason, but obviously not 100% confirmed.
In any case, the fact that the release date was moved back two weeks to 29 July was also confirmed in several ads, including the examples on this page from Smash Hits and Record Mirror, which both feature the new release date.
It has now been accepted by everyone in Big Country fandom that The Crossing was released on 29 July 1983. If the printing of the sleeves caused the delays, it was almost worth the wait, as the album was eventually released in beautiful multiple colour variants with a lovely embossed design.
While the correct date of the 29th is now correctly displayed on most online resources, we still have to stay vigilant against errors stemming from anyone who took note of the original entry as the source.
With thanks to Andy Inkster, Martin Warner, Keith Lewington, and everybody else on the Big Country: Through A Big Country Facebook group where this matter was first discussed and explored.
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