Page 38 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

BIG BIG TRAIN
G
10 rand Tour ENGLISH ELECTRIC
Big Big Train are the
most unlikely band to
notch up a Top 40
album in 2019: a British
prog group whose roots
stret
ch back to the late
80s, playing a strain of literate, luxurious
music that was last in fashion when Peter
Gabriel was still a member of Genesis. But
their magisterial twelfth album proved that
there’s still a place in the modern world for
old-fashioned craft and intelligence.
Where their more recent albums were
enveloped in the mists and mythology
of England, Grand Tour looked further
afield: the title referred to the physical and
cultural trans-European journeys taken by
moneyed 19th-century youths, and a sense
of forward motion imbued such musically
rich tracks as Alive and Voyager, the latter
inspired by the endless journey of the
famed space probe of the same name. For
BIG BIG TRAIN belonged to Big Big Train themselves. DE
all that, though, the biggest journey of all

Killer track: Alive

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

9 Western Stars COLUMBIA
We caught up with one of the most unlikely – but also one of the Like a living Mount
Rushmore statue, Bruce
most deserving – Top 40-hitters of 2019.
Springsteen carves
Interview: Philip Wilding himself into the rugged
American landscape
n ‘overnight success’ more than 25 years the last album, which is great, that’s another side. on this cinematic
in the making, the seven-piece Big Big We’re finding out more about ourselves as a band, nineteenth album. Ambitiously expanding
ATrain are now not only critical darlings and we’ve been doing this for a long time. his musical vocabulary as he turns 70, The
– something they’ve got used to over the past Boss takes a detour from his native New
few years – but also a band capable of making Many would say that Grand Tour is the band’s best Jersey to the mythic American West of
a commercial splash too. For those who might have and most complete record yet. one-horse towns, rhinestone cowboys,
missed it, this year’s Grand Tour album showcased DL: It’s the best we could do at the time. We try high-plains drifters and lonesome desert
their sublime, pastoral prog rock at its whimsical and do the best with what we’ve got at the time, highways. The widescreen orchestral
best. Full of great songs, it was a showcase for and then it’s all hands on deck, as it will be on the roots-rock arrangements on elegiac tracks
traditional prog reimagined for the modern age. next record. like Tucson Train and There Goes My Miracle
We had a few words with Nick D’Virgilio (drums, pay knowing tribute to the classic
backing vocals, percussion, guitars, keyboards ) and 2019 was also the year in which Big Big Train sumptuous analogue country-pop masters
David Longdon (vocals, flute, keyboards, guitars). finally became a fully functioning live band that like Jimmy Webb, Glen Campbell and
actually tours. Harry Nilsson. A chart-topper in Britain
Chart success, winning awards… 2019 has been DL: We’ve always wanted to go out and do a proper and across the globe, Western Stars is vintage
a good one for you. What was the highlight for you? tour. Getting that together, the logistics of it, it’s autumnal Bruce. SD
Nick D’Virgilio: Winning the Album Of The been a good year for that as well, learning how to Killer track: There Goes My Miracle
Year at the Prog Awards, that was pretty darn cool. do it. Just things like moving the sound-check along
You’re with a lot of folks from the same genre, that for so many people. It’s not like we’re a trio. The STRAY CATS
you’re fans of, and you know that fans vote for that problem with BBT is that there are so many of us in 8 40 SURFDOG
particular award. That was pretty great. the band, and with the crew that’s a lot of mouths Having gone a quarter
David Longdon: Our genre is all about the to feed and people to move around, so if we make of a century without
album, that’s our art form, so to get that and to be mistakes they can be extremely costly. So it’s been
releasing a studio
recognised in that way is a great honour, especially exciting planning all this. album, the reunited
when you consider how much music is out there. NDV: I think what really put us over the top was New York rockabilly
playing NightOf The Prog festival in Loreley in 2018. trio hit middle-age
In a year full of surprises, is there one that stood After something like that, you have to give it a go. without a pinch of flab or even a cursory
out particularly for you? nod to fashion. In uncertain times, it felt
NDV: Having a record in the top forty was a good How do you top a year like 2019? What does 2020 reassuring to be led into Brian Setzer, Lee
surprise. It proved that there was momentum and hold for the band? Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom’s largely
that each record we’re making is getting us a little NDV: They’re coming to the States, headlining fictitious hinterland of jukeboxes and
bit of notoriety. That was a nice surprise. Rosfest in Florida in May, and Ramblin’ Man in July bobbysoxers, as 40’s full-pelt track-listing
DL: And that the music within the band is and then mainland Europe around that. There’ll be took off like a souped-up Ford T-Bird.
diversifying, in terms that Nick’s been writing on US and Canadian dates too. This was a young man’s music – from SIMON HOGG/PRESS
the skittering Gretsch guitar licks to the

38 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM