Big Country Fan Poll

Screenshot of my old Big Country web site

I maintained a Big Country fan site from 1997-2006. Click the thumbnail to see what it used to look like. I also managed the Big Country fan email list for a few years. If you’re looking for other Big Country fans, there’s still a moderately active discussion group at Yahoo.

The main thing worth preserving from my old site is the results of the online fan poll I conducted in 1997. To my knowledge it was the only fan poll ever done (not counting another one I did in 2005, but the results of that one were not as good – there were too many bogus entries).

Also worth mentioning:

The 1997 Fan Poll

The Big Country fan poll was conducted via a web form that was open to the public for 3 weeks during the summer of 1997. A total of 134 people participated in one or more parts of the poll. There are 4 sets of rankings:

  1. Studio albums
  2. Live albums
  3. Top 10 favorite songs
  4. Worst song

Analyses of the results in the first three of the above categories were conducted with weighted scales.

Studio Album Rankings

122 people provided rankings for some or all of the 8 studio albums that were available at the time (Driving to Damascus was released after the poll was done).

Rank Album Score
1. The Crossing 6.96
2. Steeltown 6.41
3. The Seer 5.35
4. Wonderland 4.60
5. Buffalo Skinners 4.58
6. Why the Long Face 3.72
7. Peace In Our Time 3.04
8. No Place Like Home 2.12

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Live Album Rankings

107 people provided rankings for some or all of the 4 officially released live albums.

Rank Album Score
1. Without the Aid of a Safety Net 3.21
2. King Biscuit Flower Hour 2.71
3. BBC Live 2.27
4. Eclectic 2.20

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Top 10 Songs

121 people participated in this part of the poll. The 10 most popular songs are listed below.

Rank Song Score
1. Wonderland 77.0
2. In a Big Country 69.6
3. Fields of Fire 65.2
4. Just A Shadow 64.8
5. Chance 62.2
6. Where the Rose is Sown 48.4
7. The Storm 44.0
8. Steeltown 40.0
9. Restless Natives 39.4
10. Eiledon 36.6

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The Worst Song

105 people offered their opinion on what they think is the worst Big Country song ever created and commercially released. The songs that received 4 votes or more as the worst are listed in the table below.

Song Votes
Beautiful People 7
Flag Of Nations 7
Balcony 6
Charlotte 5
Pink Marshmallow Moon 5
Fly Like An Eagle 4
King of Emotion 4
Leap of Faith 4

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Other Big Country Sites

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