Bruce William Watson (born March 11, 1961) is a Canadian-born Scottish guitarist, best known for being a member of

Big Country Big Country are a Scottish rock band formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981. The height of the band's popularity was in the early to mid 1980s, although it has retained a cult following for many years since. The band's music incorporated Scott ...

Early life and career

Watson was born in

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. He moved with his family to Scotland as a toddler. Prior to joining Big Country, Watson had been a member of several Fife-based new wave bands including the Delinquents and Eurosect.

Role in Big Country

Watson's role in the band was primarily as a supporting guitarist. He typically contributed rhythmic textures ("Wonderland," "Lost Patrol") and repetitive melodic fills ("In a Big Country," "Look Away") which underpinned verses, contrasting with

Stuart Adamson 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 the punk rock band Skids. After leaving Skids in 1981, he ...

's more straightforward chord work in these sections. During solos, as Adamson played the main melody, Watson often contributed a counter-melody. Watson also played slide guitar on some of the band's early material, including "Rain Dance" and "Red Fox." Later on, Adamson played much of the slide guitar work on the band's songs. Watson is also an accomplished mandolin player, and put this skill to use on several of Big Country's more country and western-influenced songs, including "Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys)." During recent tours, Watson has played many of Adamson's lead guitar parts live, while his son, Jamie, fulfils his old role. Watson has played guitar on every Big Country album, and co-wrote many Big Country songs with Adamson. He also sang live backing vocals.

Performances and tours

In the summer of 2007, Watson played with the Skids who had reformed to play two gigs in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Accord ...

prior to a set on the main stage at

T in the Park T in the Park festival was a major Scottish music festival that was held annually from 1994 to 2016. It was named after its main sponsor, Tennents. The event was held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire, until 1996. It then moved to the disused ...

. Also in 2007, to celebrate 25 years of Big Country, he reunited with founding members Tony Butler (now lead vocalist) and

Mark Brzezicki Mark Michael Brzezicki ( , ; born 21 June 1957) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Scottish rock band Big Country. He has also played with the Cult, Ultravox, From the Jam, Procol Harum, Rick Astley, the Crazy World of A ...

to embark on a tour of the UK with dates in Scotland and England. Fellow band co-founder

died in December 2001. Starting in 2008, Watson began performing with his son Jamie Watson, as well as releasing an album, ''The Portastudio Diaries'' (2009), which chronicled a series of

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

in Bruce Watson's home

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

. Bruce and Jamie, along with American musician Tom Kercheval have a side project called WKW. WKW released an album in 2019 called ''Men of Steel''.

References

External links

Big Country websiteOfficial Casbah Club websiteOfficial website of Bruce and Jamie WatsonThe Skids fan websiteThe Skids official website
1961 births Living people Musicians from Timmins Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian emigrants to Scotland Scottish rock guitarists Scottish male guitarists Scottish new wave musicians Big Country members Skids (band) members Dead Men Walking members Casbah Club members {{Canada-guitarist-stub