Big Big Train

Big Big Train are an English progressive rock band formed in Bournemouth in 1990. The current line-up consists of band founder Greg Spawton (bass, guitars and keyboards), along with Nick D'Virgilio (drums), Dave Gregory (guitars), Rachel Hall (violin and vocals), David Longdon (vocals, flute, keyboards and guitars), Danny Manners (keyboards and bass), and Rikard Sjöblom (keyboards and guitars). Robin Armstrong (guitars and keyboards) joins the group for live performances. Until 2009, the band were active as a predominantly-studio project led by Spawton and co-founder Andy Poole (guitars, bass and keyboards), who departed the band in 2018, with changing line-ups and guest musicians. They have released twelve studio albums and three EPs. After starting out as an independent band, Big Big Train were signed to Giant Electric Pea from 1993 to 1998 and distributed their releases through their own website. Since their sixth album The Underfall Yard, which received critical acclaim from the progressive rock community, a more stable lineup has been established, and the band performed their first live concerts in 17 years at Kings Place, London, in August 2015. The gigs were voted Event Of The Year by the readers of Prog magazine. Stone & Steel, a Blu-ray featuring the 2014 rehearsals at Real World Studios and four of the songs performed at Kings Place, was released on 21 March 2016. Big Big Train were the winners of the Breakthrough Award at the Progressive Music Awards held at Kew Gardens, London on 3 September 2013, and have been nominated in several other categories in recent years. The band's latest studio albums, Grimspound and The Second Brightest Star, were released April and June 2017 respectively. Big Big Train's most recent live performances were at Cadogan Hall, London, in September/October 2017, and as headliners at The Night Of The Prog festival in Lorelei, Germany, on 13 July 2018.