Venue:
Hackney Empire
Date: 02/11/2019
After the previous night of the band’s Grand Tour, a train back from Newport to London, the RWC Final on the radio and a great meal in our favourite fish restaurant we finally arrived at The Old Ship in Hackney for the Passengers meet-up. Loud, friendly and beery, the band’s followers are a lovely bunch, even rolling out a birthday cake for one of the Italian travellers (fans had also flown in from Seattle, Vancouver and Auckland for these rare gigs by BBT.)
It was our first time at The Empire and it is a beautiful old theatre. The excellent merch desk was doing a roaring trade, as was the main bar.
Support act was Sweet Billy Pilgrim and, both nights, they were fun, quirky and tuneful.
So, to the reason we are all here.
Regular readers will know that I adore Big Big Train so, when I say that Saturday night was one of the best gigs I have been to, in 48 years of gig-going, you may not be surprised. But it really was. And the sound. I grabbed the band’s producer and live engineer, Rob Aubrey, as we left and told him I’d never heard a better sounding drum kit as Nick d’Virgilio’s.
The setlist featured most of this year’s Grand Tour album plus some old favourites like Brave Captain, Hedgerow, East Coast Racer and Wassail. As usual, the band were joined by their 5-piece brass section who make an awesome noise. When all 13 musicians are roaring together, the power they generate is truly wonderful.
The audience:
Quiet and respectful during the songs but roaring their approval at the end of each track, standing ovations, applause for solos and brass parts. The racket at the end of the show was deafening.
It made me think..
Big Big Train are one of the best British bands out there. Their music is emotional and melodic and is played by musicians at the very top of their game.
Chrisf says
Great review as always Niall and I wish I could have been there. I was seriously contemplating flying over for these concerts from Singapore (which I have only done for Kate Bush before) but they timing just wasn’t right.
Just when I have free time to be able to do this – it was bang in the middle of younger boys O-levels and elder boys IB exams ! (and as an aside, I also had the opportunity for tickets for the RWC final in Japan which I had to pass on).
Hopefully this touring lark will become a regular thing with BBT and I will get the opportunity in future (although I don’t expect them to play Singapore).
Martin S says
I’ve been a fan for a few years now and was at the Hackney gig too. Unfortunately for me and anyone who was sat on either side of the stalls, the experience was a poor one. Bloody great speaker stacks positioned at floor level obscured the view of the drummer, bass player and guitarist but more importantly the screen show which was clearly an integral part of the experience. Likewise peope on the left of the audirorium couldn’t see the younger more energetic members of the band. The sound in those areas was all bottom end which rendered the vocals inaudible (particularly between song banter).
Great shame as I was accompanied by my better half who was experiencing BBT for the first time. Dreadful experience for her but at least she had the presence of mind to switch off and redesign the kitchen in her head.
There’s plenty of people on the forum who had similar poor experiences on Saturday. Someone clearly didn’t do the research properly when selecting venues!
Last time I saw BBT in London there was a similar poor experience which led to one guy leaving his seat in the upper circle, making his way to the stage and shouting at David Longdon “all we can hear up there is the fucking drums!” I think I’ll give up on the concept of them as a live band!
niallb says
Martin, our seats were on the far right of the stalls too. We got in as the doors opened and headed to the bar, behind the mixing desk. There was 2 chairs and a little table so we sat there. I went down to the seats and came back saying, “we’re staying here.’ We asked a lady (venue manager) and she was quite happy.
The sound was immaculate. Glen & Tobbe joined us as they had similar issues.
Shame it spoiled a great show for you.
Martin S says
Glad you had the presence of mind to shake things up! I think I’m now getting too old for all this sort of thing!
niallb says
I had Wishbone Ash in Milton Keynes last Wednesday (drove over from work in Wellingborough) then train down to Newport on Friday for BBT, train back to London for BBT Saturday, home to Berkshire on Sunday, then back into London last night for Dawes. Got home around midnight and the alarm went off at 5.30am for me to drive to Wellingborough for work.
I am DEFINITELY too old for this!
retropath2 says
Blimey, Niall, kudos, that’s attention to obsession worthy of an AW oscar. (Or Heppo, as they are now, seemingly, to be called, if anyone can be arsed to suggest such a programme.)