Svein’s #5: Heart of the World, and about how Big Country finally got their own “special effects”-type video with a lot of exciting visual settings and background effects.
Tom’s #5: Where the Rose Is Sown (already covered).
Svein’s #4: Fragile Thing (already covered).
Tom’s #4: In A Big Country, where we saw a rock band in a way that we never really saw a rock band before. The guys go back and forth quite a bit on the “story” of the video.
Svein’s #3: East of Eden, which shows that the guys in the band could do characters portrayals amazingly well, and the story that the video tells is an incredible mini-movie.
Tom’s #3: Just A Shadow, with lots of touching footage of people thinking back on life – and a big cat rescue operation.
Svein’s #2: Fields of Fire, including a lot of Tony’s memories of shooting the video.
Tom’s #2: East of Eden (already covered).
Svein’s #1: Wonderland, set in a gorgeous Scottish-looking Oregon landscape in wintertime. The guys should be freezing, but are too busy dancing, smiling and having a great time. One of the ultimate feel-good videos.
Tom’s #1: Fields of Fire, and about how the band weren’t afraid to embrace the Scottish/bagpipe references back in the day. Lots of WW1 imagery to fuel the imagination, and strong, great nostalgia points, makes this one of the best videos for many of us.
Tom & Svein’s final ranking: 1) Fields of Fire, 2) East of Eden, 3) Wonderland, 4) Fragile Thing, Where the Rose is Sown and Harvest Home.
“The other side of the coin”: Which videos are the least good? Is there a clear “bottom of the barrel” video?
Honourable mentions: the love triangle in “Hold the Heart”, Stuart’s unfortunate wardrobe choice in “Chance”, the constant panning effect in “Broken Heart”, and Stuart’s hand waving when not playing a guitar (several videos).
“Wonderland” and “Fields of Fire” – live at Philadelphia Tower Theatre – 12th October 1986.
