| It’s been a good year for BBT. In the UK, we finally became a top 40 band, when our album Grand Tour reached 35 in the national album charts (and second in the national rock charts). In September, Grand Tour won ‘Album of the Year’ at the Progressive Music Awards. And in October, we embarked on our first ever British tour which ended in a sold-out show at London Hackney Empire. We’ve also done well in some of the end-of-year polls in print magazines: Classic Rock magazine has Grand Tour at number 10 in their albums of the year, and Prog magazine has placed Grand Tour at number two in their critics’ choice of the year’s releases. In the readers’ poll in Prog magazine, BBT was voted as Band of the Year and David as top Male Vocalist. Other band members did well in their respective categories and the BBT tour came second in Events of the Year, as did Grand Tour in the album category. Our colleague, Nellie Pitts, was voted top in the Unsung Hero category. Many online publications have placed Grand Tour in their lists of albums of the year. |
| Big Big Train in 2020 This year there will be a new album of songs from David Longdon and Judy Dyble and a new solo album from Nick D’Virgilio. And there will be a retrospective two CD release for the East Asian market which will act as an introduction to the music of Big Big Train. This release will likely feature a new track and some material previously unreleased on CD, alongside a selection of the band’s best known songs. In February, we will be launching The Passengers Club, which will give listeners an opportunity to get behind the scenes of Big Big Train. We will provide more information on the Club soon. Our touring plans are beginning to shape up for the new year. We’ll be playing for the first time in the States at Rosfest in Florida in May 2020 and we are working on some other shows in the States and Canada to follow on from Rosfest (although we don’t have a promoter and it is proving a challenge to secure venues.) Hopefully, we will have more news to share soon on shows in Canada and the States In July, we are playing at the legendary Friars in Aylesbury and then headlining the Prog stage at Ramblin’ Man Festival. We’re then heading out into mainland Europe for a show at Zoetermeer in the Netherlands and two shows in Germany at Essen and Karlsruhe. We are hoping to finish the tour with a couple of shows in Italy although we don’t yet have confirmed venues and dates. More news, hopefully, soon. Ticket links for all shows can be found on the Live page on our website. After the gigs in July, we are going to take a few months out to finish work on The Underfall Yard re-issue (which will be out in December 2020) and to write and record our next studio album. That’s about all the news we can mention for now. (There may be some other good things happening in 2020 but we’ll save that for another time.) Just a couple of things left to mention. Firstly, we said goodbye to our touring colleague, Robin Armstrong in 2019. Robin wishes to focus on his own band, Cosmograf, who are playing some shows of their own next year. We wish Robin every success in the future. Secondly, we have a New Year sale for a short time in our Bandcamp store. A 30% discount for all releases is available by using the following code at checkout: bbtnewyearsale Alongside the Bandcamp sale, The Merch Desk is also offering a sale of some BBT clothing items. Follow the link to the Merch Desk from our website Shop page. We wish all listeners a happy New Year. Best wishes, Danny, Dave, David, Greg, Nick, Rachel & Rikard Big Big Train |
The Rockin' Chair 