BIG Country manager Ian Grant has high hopes for the re-born band as they prepare for an emotional home-town return to Dunfermline.

The band enjoyed huge success on the world stage in the 1980s, with a string of chart hits and a distinctive Scottish sound all of their own.

The music world was shocked by the tragic passing of co-founder and singer Stuart Adamson in 2001 but the three surviving members will now revive unforgettable songs such as 'Fields of Fire', 'In a Big Country', 'Chance' and 'Look Away'.

In the new line-up, co-founder Bruce Watson will be joined by his son Jamie on guitar and Mike Peters, of The Alarm, on vocals when they appear at the Alhambra on Sunday night.

The last time the band played Dunfermline - other than the memorial concert for Stuart at the Carnegie Hall - was at a fans convention at the Glen Pavilion in the early 1990s.

Big Country had made a massive impact after forming in the early 1980s. Their debut album 'The Crossing' sold over two million copies and earned three Grammy nominations.

Ian Grant and the band believe the time is right now to celebrate their music and bring it to a new generation of fans.

Ian told the Press, "I honestly don't know how it's going to go. I've not heard a note yet. On the one hand, they could go on to record a new album or it may be that after these gigs they never play again.

"From my own point of view as manager I'm going to be pushing it as hard as I can. The band are coming up towards their 30th annniversary and I'll be going to Universal and talking to them about a greatest hits album backed by TV commercials.

"There's a lot of media interest out there and Classic Rock magazine are going to doing a big piece on the band." Looking ahead to Sunday's gig, Ian said, "With 2000 people at the Alhambra the atmosphere is going to be fantastic.

"I've been coming up to Dunfermline since 1980 when I became manager of the Skids, have great memories and know many people there. I'm very much looking forward to coming back." As well as being his manager for two decades, Ian was also a close friend of Stuart and knows the band playing the singer's home town will be a poignant occasion.

Recalling the events of nine years ago when Stuart went missing before his body was found in a Hawaii hotel, Ian said, "It was a very traumatic time. Any passing is difficult to deal with and even more so when someone takes their own life.

"As someone who was very close to Stuart - I was closer to him than anyone I've worked with - you go over and over it wondering if there was something you could have done to help.

"But it was helpless and one of life' tragedies. It was a terrible time looking back and every so often you have to go over it again. I met up with U2 in Australia in 2006 and Bono and The Edge wanted to know everything about it." The band had already had their farewell tour a year before Stuart's death but had not officially split up.

After Stuart's passing there was no appetite for getting back together with a replacement singer, although they did get re-form briefly to mark their 25th anniversary in 2007.

Ian said, "From the band's point of the view we didn't want to do anything at all that would make it more difficult for Stuart's family.

"Now after these years have passed we can perhaps move on and although Stuart was the heartbeat of the band there were four guys in it.

"In fact, right at the beginning there was a different line-up and it didn't really start to work until Tony (Butler) and Mark (Brzezicki) joined.

"And what is left after all the press pieces, the publicity, everything that goes on in the music business, what's left are the songs.

"From a personal point of view, I've recently turned 60, I've become a grand-dad and now I'm back working with a band who were a big part of my life but something I thought had gone forever.

"So I don't think I'll have mixed feelings. There will be some fans who are not pleased, people who will criticise but that's always there.

"Stuart, who knows what he'd think? Stuart was a very humble person, his feet were always on the ground.

"He was always flattered by praise whether it came from a fan and more particularly from other musicians. It's always a great honour to get the nod from a fellow musician, similar to how it is with footballers." Ian recalled the first time he met Stuart and his Skids mates during the punk explosion of the '70s when he was managing The Stranglers.

"One night The Stranglers bassist JJ Burnel had gone out in London and had come across the Skids, thought they were great and wanted to produce them.

"At that time we had three places in London we put on gigs and we got the Skids along, got John Peel, Simon Draper (Virgin Records co-founder) and others to come along and they got their breakthrough from there.

"I've great memories from those days when they went out on tour supporting The Stranglers - especially the night at the Glasgow Apollo when fans set fire to the balcony, which obviously wasn't a very clever thing to do.

"There wasn't any particular reason behind it, just the kind that happened during punk. The Apollo always had a reputation for being a riotous place and when we went back there two days later the balcony was still smouldering.

"By the time they played the Apollo, the Skids were having hits like 'Into the Valley', 'The Saints Are Coming' and were as big as the Stranglers."