Big World

Big World was recorded live at the Roundabout Theatre on East 17th Street in New York on 23, 24 and 25 January 1986. The one exception is Man in the Street, taken from rehearsals on 22 January. The songs are loosely linked by a theme of post-war international relations and travel. The invited audience was asked to stay quiet while the band played. There was no mixing afterwards and no overdubbing: the music was mixed live from microphones on each instrument and sent directly to a two-track digital recorder.

Two myths grew up around it, and Jackson corrected both. The audience was not forbidden to applaud; it was asked to wait until a song had really finished. And the record was not a double album with a side missing. It was his first album released on CD, where running time was no issue, and he suggested a three-sided LP at the price of a single album. The fourth side of the vinyl carried a label saying there was no music on it, with a groove holding about thirty seconds of silence. The sleeve, by Serge Clerc, prints the title in many languages. The CD put all fifteen tracks on one disc.

The band was Vinnie Zummo on guitars, Rick Ford on bass and Gary Burke on drums, with extra backing vocals from Joy Askew, Nikki Gregoroff, Peter Hewlett and Curtis King Jr. Jackson played piano, recorder, accordion and melodica. Two songs were later covered on the 2004 tribute album Different for Girls: Be My Number Two/Shanghai Sky by Amy Fox, and Home Town by Mary Lee's Corvette.