Lots of news in the world of Big Big Train. The group are releasing a new live-album titled Empire, which will be released through English Electric on November 27. The Blu-Ray/2cd set, recorded at Londons Hackney Empire on November 2 on last year’s UK tour, features 12 tracks and clocks in at almost 2 hours. The band have released a video for the track “Winkie” from the album which you can see here:
The band have announced that keyboard player Danny Manners and violin player Rachel Hall have both left the band. This follows the departure of guitar player Dave Gregory who announced he was leaving earlier this year. It leaves the band as a core quartet of vocalist David Longdon, bass player Greg Spawton, drummer Nick D’Virgilio and guitarist and keyboard player Rikard Sjöblom. The remaining members are working on new music to be released in the near future.
The band shared this news on their Facebook page:
“Dear Passengers
A copy of the BBT newsletter which is being sent out later today is posted below.
However, we wanted to write a more personal note about the last few months.
This has, of course, been a tough year for everyone. People have lost family, friends and livelihoods. Activities that we all took for granted have been impossible. The music industry has been one of many that have suffered from the restrictions on normal life.
In the last few months, BBT has lost two tours. Alongside the loss of the tours, three valued band members have chosen to leave BBT. At times it has felt that the most sensible approach would be to accept that we had reached the end of the line and to call an end to the band.
However, we believe that we have lots of music left in us and we have decided to accept the changing circumstances and work hard to sustain BBT and to try to maintain the progress that we have made in recent years.
We are looking forward to forming close musical partnerships with our exceptionally talented new live band members Carly and Dave, and we can’t wait to perform some shows as soon as circumstances permit. In the meantime, ahead of live performances, we will be recording a new album and releasing a newly re-mixed re-issue of The Underfall Yard album (with plenty of bonus tracks.)
Thank you for sticking with us.
Best wishes
David, Greg, Nick and Rikard”
Pre-order Empire here: https://burningshed.com/store/bigbigtrain/big-big-train_empire_2cd_blu-ray
