Big Big Train

Since their sixth album, The Underfall Yard, which received critical acclaim from the progressive rock community,[2][3] a more stable line-up has been established, and the band performed their first live concerts in 17 years at Kings Place, London, in August 2015.

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.

Ingenious Devices, a compilation album of re-recorded material with David Longdon's original vocals and one live track with their new singer Alberto Brevin, was released on 30 June 2023.

The band embarked on a limited tour of the UK and Europe in late September/early October 2024, predominantly featuring tracks from their latest album, The Likes Of Us.

Together they wrote and recorded many memorable tracks including ‘Snowbound Children’, ‘Girl in a Liver Swap’ and ‘Bandits at 12 o’clock’.

Later in the 80s Andy Poole formed a songwriting partnership in Bournemouth, England, with his childhood friend, Ian Cooper.

Meanwhile, Poole and Cooper's band, Archshine, recorded a few demos and occasionally emerged from their home studio to play some gigs.

Shortly afterwards, he met Poole and they discovered that they shared a mutual appreciation of Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator and other progressive bands.

During this time, the band continued to perform live dates, gradually playing to larger crowds in higher profile venues.

Not long after the recording sessions were completed, the band were signed to the progressive rock label Giant Electric Pea.

After a few more live performances, the band's momentum was all but spent and Spawton and Poole retreated back to their studio to work on the next album.

Events had turned full circle; Poole and Spawton, with no particular goal in mind and without a band line-up, slowly began work on some demos, more out of habit than anything else.

The line-up of the band during the recording of Bard consisted of Spawton, Poole, Read, Müller, the returning Cooper, and drummer Phil Hogg.

The album featured guest appearances from future full-time member Nick D'Virgilio, and Dave Meros (both of Spock's Beard), as well as Pete Trewavas of Marillion.

In 2008, BBT appeared on the Classic Rock Magazine CD for issue 112, with the song Summer's Lease, which is also found on The Difference Machine.

Both Hughes and Filkins left the band in February 2009, and were replaced by then-Spock's Beard drummer and regular collaborator Nick D'Virgilio and vocalist and flute player David Longdon respectively.

The EP also includes the 17-minute track "The Wide Open Sea" – a story about the Belgian singer songwriter Jacques Brel which inspired the cover artwork by Jim Trainer.

The band's first album, Goodbye to the Age of Steam, was remixed from the original 2-inch, 24-track master tapes from January to July 2010 by Rob Aubrey and Andy Poole.

The original artwork was also replaced with new images by Jim Trainer inspired by the lyrical themes of the album, which was released in April 2011 in a digipack format.

[21] Three dates were announced, selling out within days, and the gigs were voted Event of the Year by the readers of Prog magazine.

The Second Brightest Star was released on 23 June 2017 as a companion album to Folklore and Grimspound, including 40 minutes of new tracks that "explore landscapes, rivers and meeting places and take the listener on voyages of discovery across the world and to the stars" in addition to 30 minutes of extended material from Folklore and Grimspound.

Preceding the announcement of the album, the band released the singles "The Connection Plan", "Lanterna", and "Made From Sunshine" as part of their Stay Tuned streaming series on 24 August 2021, 21 September 2021, and 19 October 2021 respectively.

Band founders Andy Poole (left) and Gregory Spawton in 1996
David Longdon and Dave Gregory both joined the band in 2009 and continued until 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Rachel Hall (left) and Rikard Sjöblom (far right) joined as touring members in 2014 and later joined the band for studio work.
Dave Foster replaced Dave Gregory as lead guitarist in 2020.
Touring line-up in 2019.