Big Big Train - Victorian Brickwork (live in London 2015)

[ChrisXymphonia]

The band had promised to post the first video of the recent London gigs as soon as possible but I didn't expect it so quickly. And although this was shot on the 3rd gig on Sunday afternoon (I was at the Friday and Saturday night gigs) it made me totally relive these concerts. For me personally this was one of the many many highlights in the set. David Longdon's voice is as good live as on record, the brass section (up on the balcony) just adds even more drama / melancholy to the sound, and Beardfish's Rikard Sjoblom just fits in very very nicely and delivers a great solo in this one besides adding acoustic guitar, vocal harmonies and keyboards. Dave Gregory adds his own emotional guitar solo in the end section. The rest of the band (Andy Pool and Danny Manners on keyboards, Greg Spawton on bass, Rachel Hall on violin and vocals) are delivering the goods in equal measure all spurred on by Nick D'Virgillio.

[PeterG]

Fan-bloody-tastic!!!!!

I need to go home and listen to my Anthony Phillips albums now

[Interstellar]

Thanks for posting this. This is the song that made me believe in BBT.
It is a pleasure to watch and hear.
(Greg Spawton and Andy Poole almost disappear in the background, but I guess they are more comfortable that way.)

[the illusionist]

Talk about chills... When I first heard this I got chills and tears.
One of my favorite songs, ever.
My son majored in music, specializing on the trumpet.
For some reason the horn break reminded of his final solo for his final grade
It was a beautiful solo, hence the tears...

[Progtastic]

I was at this gig, I'm right next to the brass section in the circle. Great performance.

[Zalmoxe]

Superb song! BBT is one of the contemporary bands that really get me excited about music.

[polmico]

They can have my money in exchange for more of that. I mean, not all my money. But certainly some of it.

I was hoping to spy an accordion in Rikard's area of the stage. Figured "Uncle Jack" would be a good one to try live ...

[tallliman]

^^They did play it!

[polmico]

Did Rikard play accordion?

[Progtastic]

No accordion was played by anyone. However the Banjo was.

[Sunlight Caller]

So good to relive what was one of the events of the year. I think they should release this in full one day, once all of the impending projects have been realised. The gigs were too special to just leave in the can.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[arturs]

wow... 13 minutes of pure prog awesomeness. Sorry I'm on the wrong side of the pond to see that live!

[dpt3]

[bobert]

I missed this when it was first posted , that was great , thanks for sharing!

[progfan915]

Will there be a DVD or blu Ray release soon?

I need stuff to add to my Xmas list

[Sunlight Caller]

There is a DVD release but it has been delayed until after Christmas, it is called Stone & Steel and has the live in the studio session from Real World, plus certain songs from the Kings Place run. It's going to be something special so worth a little extra wait.

[Sunlight Caller]

From the Big Big Train Facebook Page

Stone and Steel
This will be a Blu-Ray and high-definition download release. It will consist of live-in-the studio performances of a number of songs plus some documentary footage and film of four live songs from the Kings Place gigs. Bonus material will be available online and may include interviews and drum-cam footage. Release date is March 7th 2016.

Folklore
This is the next studio album and will be released on May 27th 2016. It will be a single CD and download plus double vinyl release. There will be a launch event at Real World studios on 21st May 2016 where there will be a playback of the album recording. We expect to be able to make around 40 places available for passengers at this event. More news on this soon.

Station Masters
This is a three-CD collection of music which is intended to provide an overview of Big Big Train music. Older songs will be re-recorded by the current line-up and there will be some previously unreleased material. The aim is to get this finished and released in 2017.

Concept album
Sometimes referred to as 'the big big thing' we have been working on a concept album for quite some time and we hope to get the story fully together in the next few months. A lot of music has already been composed and some has been recorded so it is a work which is well in progress. Likely to be a 2017 or 2018 release.

Gigs
We will be playing more gigs, but not until 2017. In the meantime, we may do the odd acoustic performance (the first such performance being in Cumbria on October 24th.)

Live Album
All of the Kings Place gigs were recorded on multi-track and we will aim to release a live album from the shows in late 2016. Video footage of two songs with mixed audio will be made available for free viewing online before Christmas 2015. Video footage of other songs will be available for sale (at an affordable price) on Vimeo at some stage in 2016.

[Jondon4]

I've been hearing about the DVD "Stone and Steel" now for almost a year. First in was going to be released mid October, then early Dec., now after Xmas. I understand that the group is meticulous and have taken their time in assembling this ensemble and the results are very impressive, but I will be in my grave before they ever reach the momentum they need to be financially viable. A train seems to be having trouble getting out of the station. Is that the strategy?

[ChrisXymphonia]

I've been hearing about the DVD "Stone and Steel" now for almost a year. First in was going to be released mid October, then early Dec., now after Xmas. I understand that the group is meticulous and have taken their time in assembling this ensemble and the results are very impressive, but I will be in my grave before they ever reach the momentum they need to be financially viable. A train seems to be having trouble getting out of the station. Is that the strategy?

Stone And Steel has AFAIK always been slated for a late release in 2015. Remember also that this is NOT a full time band, all of its UK members have other careers as well. And yes, from what I can tell they are indeed quite meticulous. Also, the contents of the whole Stone And Steel set has changed considerably now with the addition of performances from Kings Place. Here is Greg's post on the BBT Facebook Group page:

"Stone and Steel announcement.
Two bits of news about the Stone and Steel release (neither of which are likely to be popular with everyone.) The first piece of news concerns the release date. We have been aiming for a November release. However, this is not now possible. We have decided to include four songs from the Kings Place shows and this has added additional work (video editing and sound mixing). Furthermore, we have decided to mix all the performances in 5.1 (the performances from both Real World and Kings Place) and this has again added to the time needed to finish things off. Finally, there is a fair bit of bureaucracy around the licensing of a Blu-Ray release for various markets which has also slowed things down considerably. Taking all this into account and to ensure we have enough time to send advance review copies out, Stone and Steel will now be released on 7th March 2016. The second piece of news is that we have abandoned a DVD release and will now only be releasing Stone and Steel on Blu-Ray and on download (via Vimeo). We are not at all keen on DVD as a video format and so have decided to stick to high-definition releases. I have updated the pinned post on this page to include the release info for Stone and Steel."

[Gerhard]

The two videos from King's Place they've released online (VB and JU) are both fabulous, so I can't wait to see more. It makes me wonder why they don't just release a compilation of the complete setlist made up of the best performances from the three nights. I would buy that, for sure. But, then, I'll buy pretty much anything BBT releases anymore, so bring it on.

On the whole, I think these guys have been pretty good about releasing stuff when they say they will. Sure, there are exceptions, but they're more reliable than a lot of other part-time bands (and even many full-time bands/musicians - e.g,. P. Gabriel, J. Anderson, ao). I like that BBT have long-term strategic plans, and that they share them with their fans. Gives us something to look forward to.

[polmico]

I received this this morning:

A Happy New Year to everyone!

"Stone & Steel" documents Big Big Train's return to live performance after many years as a writing and recording band. Released on Blu-Ray and high-definition download, "Stone & Steel" features performances of nine songs recorded live at Real World Studios in August 2014 and four songs recorded live at the band's London gigs in August 2015, alongside interview and documentary footage. All live performances are presented in 5.1 and stereo. Running time is approximately three hours. The Blu-Ray release includes a 64 page photo album booklet. Extras include drum cam footage of "Master James", and footage of the drum recording session for "Wassail".

The release date is March 14th, with Blu-Ray pre-orders being taken from January 1st and downloads being available from Vimeo in March.

You can view a short promo for "Stone & Steel" here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPmsFoWU-UE
and pre-order the Blu-ray here:
http://www.bigbigtrain.com/main/shop/stone_and_steel

Wishing you a good 2016
Andy, Danny, Dave, David, Greg, Nick, Rachel & Rikard
Big Big Train

[wilsoib]

Ordered this morning. March isn't too far away now.

[progeezer]

OK, BBT, now that you know you actually can play this stuff live with your imo beyond staggering all-star lineup, it's time for the US tour. If necessary, we'll work out staging so that Greg & Dave can be heard but barely seen (I kid).

Seriously, that was chill-inducing in spots. Longdon's voice live can be described imo as "better than in the studio", which is the exception, not the rule, and impressed the hell out of me. I even like the incongruity between the music and DL's immersion into an 80s new wave stage persona imo. YMMV of course

[JKL2000]

Thanks for the update, Polmico. Preordered! God, I love PayPal. It makes ordering things so easy.

[TheH]

Track list for Stone & Steel



1. Setting Up
2. The First Rebreather
3. Master James of St George
4. Organ Failure
5. Judas Unrepentant
6. Kingmaker
7. Brass & Brund
8. The Underfall Yard
9. Lacewings & Ladybirds
10. Uncle Jack
11. Wind Distorted Pioneers
12. Guitar Talk
13. Victorian Brickwork
14. Summoned by Bells
15. Summing Up

Live at Kings Place 2015
16. Wassail
17. Curator of Butterflies
18. Victorian Brickwork
19. East Coast Racer