Big Big Train will release a six track digital download only E.P. titled Scop on March 21st, 2025. Scop is a companion release to accompany the re-issue of the band’s third studio album Bard on the same date.
Scop – the old English word for ‘bard’ – consists of five demos from the Bard recording sessions plus The Sundial. This song was written and demoed in 2001 but has been newly recorded by three members of the band’s current line-up – Alberto Bravin (lead vocals), Gregory Spawton (guitars, keyboards, bass) and Nick D’Virgilio (drums) – and mixed by Rob Aubrey, the band’s longstanding engineer, who has also completely re-mixed Bard.
Four of the five Scop demos – The Last English King, Her Words, This Isn’t Rocket Science and Blacksmithing – are being released for the first time, while the demo of British Racing Green was made available to members of the band’s Passengers Club in 2021.
All four demos on Scop feature the band’s first singer Martin Read on lead vocals, while the Bard studio versions of The Last English King and Blacksmithing were sung by keyboardist Tony Müller. Her Words does not feature on Bard, while This Isn’t Rocket Science went on to become a section of the song For Winter on the album. Finally, British Racing Green did not emerge until the band’s 2010 Far Skies Deep Time E.P. and was sung by the late David Longdon.
“Re-visiting the Bard era after so many years has been fascinating,” comments Andy Poole, the band’s former bassist and Bard’s producer. “With the release of Scop, the picture of that period is now complete. While the demos of The Last English King, Blacksmithing and This Isn’t Rocket Science show some of the technical limitations we were working under at the time, it’s interesting to hear the songs at an earlier stage before they evolved into the final studio versions. Many years later, The Last English King has really come into its own as a live song and has therefore been included on the re-issue of Bard.
“When we were finalising Bard back in 2002, Her Words didn’t make the cut for reasons lost to the mists of time,” Andy continues. “British Racing Green had been written for the band’s previous album, English Boy Wonders, but was demoed for Bard. Back then I found it just too depressing. Subsequently of course David completely transformed the song with his brilliant arrangement and production ideas.”
“With Big Big Train my outlook is to celebrate the past, live in the present and look to the future,” says lead vocalist Alberto Bravin. “On this occasion and as a break from working on our next studio album, it was fun to help to dig back into the ancient past and create a new recording of The Sundial.”
Scop will be released exclusively as a digital download only via Bandcamp: https://bigbigtrain.bandcamp.com
Bard will be released via the band’s own label English Electric Recordings on CD and 2LP and via Bandcamp high resolution download. The CD and vinyl versions will be strictly limited editions and Bard will not be made available on streaming or other download platforms. The 2LP version of the album will be available as 180 gram “shark” blue vinyl (exclusive to Burning Shed and The Bandwagon USA) and 180 gram black vinyl.
The CD/2LP versions of Bard will include extensive 4,000 word liner notes by Andy Stuart (author of the book A View From The Embankment, A View From The Line, which documented the band’s 2023 tour) using material from a new interview with Gregory Spawton.
An audio teaser for Bard is available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDq7aImDSGc
Bard can be pre-ordered at:
https://burningshed.com/store/bigbigtrain
Big Big Train
https://bigbigtrain.bandcamp.com
SCOP
1. The Last English King (Demo)
2. Her Words (Demo)
3. Blacksmithing (Demo)
4. This Isn’t Rocket Science (Demo)
5. British Racing Green (Demo)
6. The Sundial
BARD
1. The Last English King
2. Broken English
3. This is Where We Came In
4. Harold Rex Interfectus Est
5. Blacksmithing
6. Malfosse
7. Love Is Her Thing
8. How The Earth From This Place Has Power Over Fire
9. A Short Visit To Earth
10. For Winter
11. A Long Finish
12. Headlands
13. The Last English King (Live 2024 version)
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