Where there's prog there's brass

The first of a number of videos on the making of our new album, The Underfall Yard, can be found here. This short film is about the recording of the brass session for the album and, if you have a fast enough internet connection, is best watched in high definition.

One beautiful summer's day, a couple of years back, I was in Bath, near the Parade Gardens, when I heard the stirring sound of an English brass band. I can't remember what they were playing, but it was a slow piece, and this extraordinary, melancholy music filled the gardens where children played and old men slept in deck chairs. At that moment, I realised that Big Big Train needed a brass band.

We commissioned Dave Desmond to to write some arrangements for a brass quartet and recorded a session with Dave (trombone), Nick Stones (french horn), Rich Evans (cornet)and Jon Truscott (tuba) a couple of weeks ago. It was a very enjoyable session which captured the sound that I had heard on that summer's day in Bath.

The video contains music from three tracks on the album, Evening Star, The Underfall Yard (which builds on themes established in Evening Star), and Victorian Brickwork.

Next month, there will be a second video featuring the first vocal sessions.

The brass is done

Our session with the brass quartet the other night was a huge success. I'll be posting some footage of the session on our new YouTube channel in the next few days.

In the meantime, here is a pic of Jon Truscott, one of our brass players, in action (incidentally the deeper notes of a tuba make Moog Taurus Bass pedals sound, frankly, a bit wet.)

Successful parenting

At certain times parents will reflect on how good or bad a job they have made of bringing up their children.

My daughter has just named her cat after the foremost Icelandic post-rock band*. This makes me feel that I am not doing too badly at the moment.





*His full name is Sigur Hoppipolla Ros. Not a name I'm looking forward to having called out at the vets.

New album: progress report

There is a point reached in the making of an album when the creative process almost becomes of secondary importance to project management. We’ve reached that point now. This is the most complex album we’ve worked on, with a number of different threads that we need to draw together. The convergence point is getting ever closer as the album is due to be released later this year, and it is time to get organised (our main organisational tool being a notebook called ‘The Underfall Yard Bible’ which is rapidly filling up with aide-mémoires .)

A lot of work is happening at the moment. I’ve just finished off the lyrics for the album and David is developing the vocal and flute parts in his studio, preparing for recording at Rob’s place in the next few weeks. Andy and myself are going back over the album demos (which are evolving into the finished tracks) and re-recording bass, guitar and keyboard parts as necessary (some parts will make it all the way from the demo onto the album if they fit the bill.)

Meanwhile, a number of CDR’s of work-in-progress have been (or will shortly be) despatched to various guest artists so that they can prepare their contributions.

Early next month, we have a session booked at Rob’s to record the brass parts with the chaps from Kate Rusby's band (the elegiac sound of an English brass band is what we’re trying to capture) and then we need to crack on and get the session for the string quartet booked up.

In view of Big Big Train's new line-up, we'll also be launching a new YouTube channel in the next few weeks. We'll use the new channel to document progress with the album recording.

So, it’s all beginning to happen, the pages of the 'Bible' are filling up and it looks like we'll be spending another summer indoors, topping up our studio tan.

New Interview

A new interview with me has just been uploaded onto Progwereld (it's in Dutch.)

Spotify

A new web-based music service called Spotify has been getting a lot of press coverage recently.

Thanks to our good friends at CDBaby who handle our digital distribution, Big Big Train will shortly be available on Spotify, so I thought I'd check it out to see what it offered.

After a quick software download and a few minutes of testing, I am able to report that Spotify is completely brilliant. And utterly addictive.

As I'm writing this, my Spotify connection is temporarily unavailable and the lack of streamed music from the site is making my experience of working on this computer much less pleasurable. Sure, I could put a CD on, or fire up iTunes, but I want the diversity offered by Spotify and I want it now.

So, what is it? (as Cat once said in Red Dwarf.) Well, as Cat went on to say in the same sketch, it's a sort of magic door. The door leads into an endless music library where you can instantly play (almost) anything that's ever been released. Songs are streamed on request to your computer. Audio quality is good. You can pause, rewind and fast-forward. You can create playlists and save your favourite songs. You can find links to other similar artists. However, you never own the music as it isn't downloaded or saved, only streamed.

Spotify are hoping, in the future, to make available all of the music which has ever been released. At the moment, they are a long way short of this (there are some major gaps - eg Pink Floyd), but vast numbers of songs are being added every day and they are not just focusing on the major artists.

I tested the depth of music on offer by looking for music by one of my favourite bands, Mew. As far as I could see, everything they've ever released is on there, including some obscure 'b' sides I'd never heard before. I then went prog-surfing and found music by the big boys (Genesis) down to more esoteric bands like Gentle Giant. They even had every PFM song.

I went looking for more modern prog. There is nothing yet by Frost or Spock's Beard, but The Tangent are there, as is The Old Road CD by the internet's arch-enemy, Martin Orford (but, strangely, no IQ.) I then checked out some of the heavier bands I like - Oceansize and Mastodon, Draconian and The Mars Volta, all present and correct.

I also looked for some new music. The brand new Bell X-1 album got great reviews in the papers at the weekend. That was there, although the new Doves album isn't yet available.

I haven't even started to get my head around what Spotify will mean for the music industry and for independent bands like BBT. It certainly gives a lot more opportunity to legally sample the range of music on offer by bands. However, whether that will translate into sales is harder to assess. Some people may find that Spotify offers all the music and convenience they need. Others will use it to sample new music and better inform their purchases. So, from the industry perspective, I'm not too sure about Spotify.

Speaking as a fan and consumer of music, however, I'm all for it. I've already heard some music I'm going to go on and buy and other stuff that I've always wanted to hear but would never fork out for.

Do check it out.

We should get behind this...

The inestimable Classic Rock has announced that it will be publishing a quarterly journal of prog rock called, rather catchily, 'Prog'.

I'm not sure if Classic Rock are just taking a punt at a new launch to see how it goes, or if this is based on strong sales of the one or two prog special issues they've published in recent years (and therefore a genuine sign of rising fortunes for progressive rock) but, either way, prog fans should get behind this magazine.

Introducing David Longdon

Photograph by Kevin McGary

I would like to welcome David Longdon as Big Big Train's new vocalist.

David Longdon is a progressive rock singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist who was born in the city of Nottingham UK in 1965.

He formed several bands but it was his time with The Gifthorse that led to bigger things. David signed to Rondor Music and recorded for Epic records. They supported Kirsty MacColl, Blur and The Pogues amongst others.

David is also a long term member of the Louis Philippe band, appearing on Jackie Girl (1996), Azure (1998), A Kiss in the Funhouse (1999), My Favourite Part of You (2003) and The Wonder of it All (2004) culminating in the release of the Louis Philippe Live (2007) CD taken from their two concerts at The Bush Hall, Sheppard’s Bush along with The High Llamas. Musicians also performing on these albums include Daniel Manners (Cathal Coughlan), Dave Gregory (XTC, Dukes of Stratosphere) Sean O’Hagen (High Llamas, Microdisney), Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney, Fatima Mansions)

It was in the final days of The Gifthorse that David was invited to audition as a potential replacement for Phil Collins as lead singer in Genesis. He survived the auditioning process and worked with Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and producer Nick Davis from May to November 1996 on recordings that would become the Calling All Stations album. They were also working with Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson at the same time. Eventually they decided which one out of the two would get the job.

David’s first solo CD Wild River (2004) featured many musicians collectively known as The Magic Club. The CD contains guitar playing and Mellotron work of XTC’s Dave Gregory.

In 2008 Martin Orford (formerly of IQ) invited David to sing on his swan song album The Old Road. David sings lead vocals on Ray of Hope and Endgame.

David brings a superb singing voice to Big Big Train as well as considerable experience and expertise. We can't wait to start working with him on The Underfall Yard and on future releases.

Goodbye to Steve and Sean

We are now well into the recording sessions for the next album, The Underfall Yard and it's time that I mentioned some changes to the band's line-up for the forthcoming release.

With the exception of Bard, Steve Hughes has drummed on all of our albums so far. However, Steve is busy with other projects at the moment and we have decided to continue and develop our work with Nick D'Virgilio for The Underfall Yard and future releases.

Steve joined BBT when he was still at school and, in the early days, he bunked off many lessons to attend rehearsals . His fluid fusion-style playing was a significant feature of our developing music. We remain good friends with Steve and his playing will feature on the re-recorded versions of Downhilling and Kingmaker, two songs from our early demos which will be released at a later date.

Sean Filkins joined BBT as our vocalist for the Gathering Speed release and went on to feature on The Difference Machine. Sean provided some beautiful vocal performances at a time when I was developing a different style of writing for BBT (a more, if you will, 'progressive' sound) and I would like to thank him for his contribution to Big Big Train.

With The Underfall Yard, we are moving into a new era for BBT and we have decided to strengthen the band's line-up by recruiting a new singer who, we think, will help to further develop our sound.

I'll announce his name and provide some biographical details in the next few days.

The trouble with Prog

I've been writing a very promising song in the last couple of weeks. After a fair bit of work, the song had reached a point, about 4 minutes in, when it was a either a complete tune, or needed a twist or change to take it into a different direction so that the first 4 minutes became part of a longer piece.

Anyway, I got drawn into trying to write something a bit more substantial and I had found a possible way forward, a nice little change into a fast-paced bit in 5/4. Then, I got stuck. So, I let it stew for a bit and, last night, picked up my guitar, en passant, and played the chords for the 5/4 bit for a few minutes. Still nothing, then...something; I found a sweet chord, then another and another and started improvising some vocals and, even with my limited voice, I thought it was sounding pretty damn awesome. I ran to get my little Micro Track, pressed the red 'record' button and captured it (phew...I find it's important to get something down almost immediately as that is when the raw writing is still happening – a few minutes later on, after I've run through a new bit a few times, it will become sanitised; smoother and cleaner, but with the kinks straightened out. And there can be some interesting things lost from those uncertain early moments, when the chords and the melody are not quite settled.)

So, as I was getting to the end of my first recorded run-through of the new bit, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I reached the last chord in the sequence and was about to turn the recording function off to keep it tidy. Instead, I carried on improvising, and the guitar and voice found a common purpose and took the tune off soaring to new heights. Every new chord I played seemed to be the right one and the melody found a perfect course. I had written about three minutes of music in about three minutes. And I was recording while it happened! I love it when it’s like this.

After this improvisational burst, I spent a few minutes tidying the new sections up and then backed it up on the computer. Then, I made myself an espresso (have you tried the Nespresso machines? -they’re fab) sat back, and started to worry.

Thing is, this new bit is, I think, really strong. And so is the first four minutes of the song which I’d written previously. Both sections deserve to be heard. The question is; should they be together, as they were written, in a single seven or eight minute piece, with a great beginning and end? Or would they each get more attention if they were two separate shorter songs?

Prog fans (and I am, of course, a prog fan) often tend to gravitate towards the more epic material. We eulogise about Awaken or Firth of Fifth, not Wondrous Stories or I Know What I Like. Is it because those longer pieces are actually better, or simply more to our taste? Are we confusing the substantial (as in size, or, in this case length) with something substantive?

At the moment, I'm thinking of sticking with this new song as a single eight minute track. But I might try it both ways, just to be sure I'm not being a creature of habit.

Albums of the Year 2008

In no particular order, here are my faves of 2008:

The Cure
Robert Smith's miserabilists are back with a beautiful album; the right balance of intense, brooding epics and jangly pop. The Cure have been a big influence on Big Big Train, especially on English Boy Wonders.

Oceansize, Frames
I know this one was originally released in 2007, but the special edition was released in May 2008, so I'm not cheating in including it this year. And besides, it took me a long time to fully appreciate the album, which is a huge thing; complex, involving, beautiful music with superb melodies and a mighty sound. The special edition features a filmed performance of the album.

Sigur Ros, With a Buzz in Our Ears...
Not my favourite of their albums (too bouncy for my taste) but enough moments of glacial majesty to make it one of the best of the year. Their DVD, also released this year, has been acclaimed by MOJO as the best DVD of 2008. It is a film of astonishing beauty and a great introduction to Sigur Ros.

The Raconteurs
Consolers of the Lonely
Jack White's side-project takes centre-stage. Wonderful mix of traditional and alternative rock with awesome guitar playing from White. Great album title, great cover, great CD.

Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid
The fourth brilliant album from the melancholy Northerners. Contains the best musical moment of 2008 in the Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver, as the chords shift underneath the 'send up a prayer in my name' line.

Opeth, Watershed
Never thought I'd get into a band with death-metal vocals but Opeth are a group to be treasured, with genuine crossover appeal and heroic drumming. Another band in a similar genre which is worth a mention is one of my daughter's favourites - Draconian, from Sweden. On their album Turning Season Within, they make death-metal vocals sound very moving, and they write great songs. And while I'm talking about the heavier side of things, I can't wait to hear the new Mastodon album, due next year. Another frenzied metal band with a great drummer (who is heavily influenced by Phil Collins), Mastodon are going prog in 2009.

Frost*, Experiments in Mass Appeal
Frost* experiment with the prog format on EIMA, packing a lot of twists and changes into shorter tunes. It's a cracking album, with punchy songs interspersed with melancholy piano-led interludes. The standout track for me is Secret Song which closes the album in stunning fashion.

Genesis - Selling England By the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
These re-issues were the most eagerly-awaited releases of the year for me (in fact, of the last five years - it's been a long wait since the remix of The Lamb was first announced.) The box set as a whole is an important release with superb extras including lengthy interviews and the legendary Jackson Tapes. But the main draw is the 5.1 remixes of the classic Genesis albums showing the evolution of the definitive prog band. In truth, some of the songs on Trespass, Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot are now sounding a little like period pieces, but when they fully hit their stride on Selling England and The Lamb, they were a band of unbelievable creativity and power. These two albums contain material of jaw-dropping quality and they sound as contemporary today as they did in the 70's. We were lucky enough to spend an evening with Nick Davis recently and he kindly spent a few hours answering my incessant questions about his work with Genesis and XTC. Nick's favourite Genesis album from his days as a fan was Selling England and to get the chance to open up this box of jewels and polish them until they gleam...wow, what a thing to have done. Nick starts work on remixing the live recordings in January.

Finally, whilst I'm on Genesis, I should also mention this year's splendid re-issues of Anthony Phillips' The Geese and the Ghost and Wise After the Event. These are essential purchases for Genesis fans and they include comprehensive sleeve notes and bonus tracks. We've worked up a cover version of one of the demos (a previously unreleased song called Master of Time) which we'll be releasing as a free download in 2009.

I'm sure I've forgotten a few other releases that I've enjoyed in 2008, but these are the ones that spring to mind. Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Greg

Prog Will Find a Way

Just back from seeing Sigur Ros. They are an exceptionally brilliant but seemingly esoteric kind of band and, as they started the show with the lengthy and funereally-paced Svefn-g-englar, I did take a moment to look around and wonder how they had packed out such a large venue.

After a few minutes, however, it became clear that if you strip the music of some of its stylistic eccentricities, much of it would sit very comfortably in a Pink Floyd show. Indeed, the longer it went on, the more it felt like a prog gig.

And that's the great thing. While bands playing classic-style prog may be struggling to find a big audience, prog pops up in so many other places these days, from death metal bands like Opeth and Mastodon and heavy indie bands such as The Mars Volta and Oceansize, through to art-rock groups like Mew and Radiohead, and the post-rock of Sigur Ros.

Indeed, the very positive press reaction to the Gabriel-years Genesis box set, and the recent 'coming-out' of a number of celebrity Genesis fans suggests that even classic prog is no longer the music that dare not speak its name. Whatever it takes, prog, it seems, will find a way.

Summer's End Festival, Lydney

Lydney is an old-fashioned place. When I arrived on Sunday morning for the last day of the festival, I thought I'd walk up to the high street for a quick Costa, but I quickly realised it wasn't that sort of town. So, I drove up to Norchard, where there is a lovingly preserved branch-line station, and had a nice cup of tea whilst sat in an old train carriage.

Back in the town, the festival was based at the village hall, which worked well as a venue. Like the town, the hall had a slightly run-down, 1950's feel about it, but the organisation seemed generally good and the festival was very informal and friendly.

I enjoyed Abel Ganz and thought Thieves Kitchen were very interesting; they make life hard for themselves with continual changes and twists in their music, so sometimes it's hard to keep up with where each tune is headed, but I really like them.





Frost* put on an extraordinarily impressive show; they are a dynamic and powerful band and it suddenly felt like rural Gloucestershire had been invaded by some hot-shot rock stars. But Frost* don't take themselves too seriously; the top-notch musicianship and complicated music is leavened by a Pythonesque sense of humour, and the band seemed to have a great time.











I tried to find somewhere for a meal in the break before The Tangent, but ended up in a pub with a pint of John Smith's and a bag of pork scratchings, which seemed to fit the generally sepia-toned feel of the day.

Thankfully for the slightly progged-out, thinking-about-work-the-next-morning audience, The Tangent came on very promptly and, with Rob Aubrey in charge of mixing (as he was with Frost* and Thieves Kitchen) sounded very strong, despite the number of musicians competing for musical space. Again, there was plenty of spontaneous humour which the crowd enjoyed.
I didn't stay for the whole set but was impressed with what I heard.

I had a nice quick dash home to Bournemouth via the Old Severn Bridge - just a couple of hours on empty roads.

All in all, an excellent festival in an interesting, off-the-beaten-track location. It was good to see some old friends and to hear the diversity on the prog scene. Aside from a few young female Frosties, the audience was predominantly male and middle-aged which makes me wonder, as I always do, about how prog bands can reach a younger audience (difficult unless the band is coming from a heavy rock background such as Opeth, Oceansize, The Mars Volta.)

There was also a worrying tendency for many of the middle-aged men in the audience to wear three-quarter-length trousers. I don't think that's a good idea at all.


Next gig: Sigur Ros in November.

English Boy Wonders on sale now

Pre-orders for the English Boy Wonders re-release are now being taken on our website.

The pre-order price is £8 GBP which includes worldwide shipping. All CD's will arrive on or before the release date. From the 1st December the price will be £10 GBP.

English Boy Wonders is being released as a digipack with a 12 page booklet featuring new artwork from Jim Trainer. The CD is almost 80 minutes long and contains a bonus track which was recorded at the time of the original sessions but has been previously unavailable. The bonus track features new keyboard work from Martin Orford.

English Boy Wonders was previously released in a semi-complete state on the GEP label in 1997 and has been unavailable for many years. For the 2008 re-release, we have returned to the original master tapes and have re-recorded much of the album. Additional sections of music have also been recorded to complete the album as it was originally intended. The album has been entirely remixed and remastered by Rob Aubrey (IQ, Spock's Beard, Transatlantic, Pendragon etc.)

We have set up a mini website to provide more information on English Boy Wonders. On the website, you can listen to (or download and keep) three full length songs from the album in high quality audio, read an interview with me about English Boy Wonders and watch a slide show whilst listening to another song from the album.

We know that money is tight at the moment and, even if you don't want to buy, please visit englishboywonders.com and have a listen to the freely available songs.

Other Big Big Train news: We are currently working on a new album for release in 2009. This will be called The Underfall Yard. In 2010, we will be releasing When Everything Was Made of Wood, a retrospective of previously unreleased songs and re-recordings of some of the best songs from our early demos.

High IQ

One of the perks of being in a band is the occasional preview of other bands' music before it gets released. Last night, we got to hear four songs from the forthcoming IQ album.

I've been a fan of IQ since the release of the Seven Stories Into Eight demo tape (my copy had its own hand-made cover, with pieces of felt stuck on brown card) and saw the band at their first Marquee performance (a support slot to Twelfth Night). Andy's interest in IQ goes back even further; he used to roadie for the proto-IQ band, The Lens. So a chance for us to hear some of the new album was very interesting.

I don't want to say too much as it's not my place to do so, but I would just make two observations:

• to my ears, Mike and company have produced an album which harks back to the roots of the IQ sound. It's not that it's backward-looking, there are plenty of new ingredients in the formula, but it reminded me more of their earlier music than recent releases.
• it sounded absolutely brilliant. The songs were very strong, packed full of those all-important spine-tingling moments.

On the basis of the four tracks I heard, this could be IQ's best album so far.

Release date for English Boy Wonders

The release date for English Boy Wonders is 1st December. It'll be a digipack with a 12 page booklet.

We'll be taking pre-orders from the 1st October until the 30th November for a discounted price. CD's will be sent to arrive by the release date.

The video is a promotional slide show for the album, featuring the new version of Reaching For John Dowland. You can watch it here, or, if you scroll down a bit and click on the link to Big Big Train at YouTube on the right of this page and then select the 'watch in high quality' option, you'll get better quality audio.

Download of Albion Perfide from English Boy Wonders

The final free download from the re-mixed English Boy Wonders is now on line on our home page. The download is the first mix of Albion Perfide and it's available in high quality audio. The English Boy Wonders sessions are now finished and the album will be available very soon.

The short video shows us working on the Albion mix.

We Mix

Curt Smith - Late Late Show

Featuring NDV on backing vocals and, er, wooden crate.

I think this is a very good song. Some negative comments on YouTube about Curt's voice but I think it's a very heartfelt performance.

Boxgrove Man

The first mix of Boxgrove Man which will be featured on the remade English Boy Wonders is now freely available for download in high-quality audio on the main BBT site (follow the link to monthly download.)

Boxgrove Man has been extensively reworked, including a reinstated instrumental section which was lost from the original version.

Classic Rock

We have a track on the cover disc of the new issue of Classic Rock.

It's a very interesting compilation, although I'm not sure I'd describe many of the bands featured on it as prog (at least not based on the songs on the disc.) At times it sounds more like an AOR compilation.

The Pineapple Thief song is very good. Wish I'd written it.

More Age of Steam videos

For anyone interested in seeing more of us recording the Age of Steam album back in 1993, the final four films have been uploaded onto our YouTube channel.

Films 3a and 3b contain some snippets of live footage, a rare thing for Big Big Train.

Greg

Free audio download of first mix of The Shipping Forecast

The video in the post below this one shows us working on the new mix of The Shipping Forecast for the EBW re-release. The first audio mix of the song is now available for free audio download at:

http://www.bigbigtrain.com/main.html
(click on 'monthly download' when you get to the page.)

It can also be listened to (or downloaded) at our MySpace page.

The download will be replaced by the final mix of the song when it's finished and it may be slightly edited to tighten it up, so get this version while you can.

Mixing The Shipping Forecast

The Making of Goodbye to the Age of Steam (part 1a)

We've been putting together a short video blog on the re-making of English Boy Wonders which we'll upload as soon as possible. In the meantime, Andy found some old camcorder footage from 1993 of the recording of our first album, Goodbye to the Age of Steam which we'll be uploading onto the blog over the next few weeks.

Here is part one (divided into two short films, part 1a posted above and 1b below) which shows the early stages of the Age of Steam recording sessions ( guide backing tracks and drums.)

Looking at the footage, we come over as a bunch of complete tits but, in our defence, we were young then, and acting as young men do. The worrying thing is, looking at the film I've just recorded of the mixing sessions for the English Boy Wonders re-release, we're still acting the same now.

So, older yes, and fatter certainly, but not necessarily wiser.