Time & Tide: The Songs of Big Big Train.

Author:Andrew Wild and Dr. R Douglas Helvering

Wow. At 540 pages, this weighty tome is a huge undertaking for both author and audience. Andrew Wild’s research is both detailed and comprehensive, while Dr. R. Douglas Helvering provides the musical expertise, as well as an invaluable list of the musical theory terms which will crop up in the text.

Next up are some lovely essays by the current band, plus Andy Poole, Ian Cooper and Rob Aubrey, culminating in a beautiful piece by Sarah Ewing about David Longdon.

Then, we’re into the meat of the book; four chronological sections that take us through the recorded works of Big Big Train, from the very first demos through to an incredibly detailed examination of Woodcut, the band’s most recent album.

Each section is packed with interviews, photographs and ephemera from the time, all of which are a joy to discover. Yes, even Bard and Scop are included in this dissection, something I know that The Passengers, the band’s devoted fans, will appreciate, nay, expect.

To give you an idea of how each album is approached, here is a brief summary of the chapter on the album, English Electric Part Two.

The chapter opens with a brief overview of the background to the album and how it flowed/followed on from EE Part One. Then, the reader is taken into Track One, East Coast Racer, probably the band’s most well known song amongst the Prog cognoscenti.

There is a full description of the background story that the song describes, followed by interviews with the musicians involved in writing and shaping the epic song. There is some detail about the music itself, with Oskar Holdorff taking you through the difficulty of the piano sections and Clare Lindley detailing the violin parts. That’s it; seven pages on the first track on the album.

Swan Hunter is up next; a lovely section as it includes some words from David Longdon, the singer and co-writer of the song. There is also some history of the shipbuilding industry and how that came to shape the song’s themes.

Each track is detailed in a similar way. Worked Out has a comprehensive history of the mining industry and how its decline affected the writing of the song. The section on Leopards includes an interview with Louis Phillipe about his string arrangement, plus more words from David Longdon. Keeper of Abbeys includes an interview with Rachel Hall about her violin part and how she had to shape it around Danny Manners’ ‘insane double bass playing.’

The description of the song, Permanent Way, made me go back and listen to it six times, back to back, no hardship as it is my favourite track on the album. Andrew Wild pulls together all of the musical themes, and their origins, a few of which had completely passed me by, even though I must have listened to them a hundred times. There is also a lovely ‘reveal’ from Gregory that was news to me as well.

Curator of Butterflies is, for many people, the song they would play to someone who wanted to know what Big Big Train was all about. Well, if you’re one of those fans, then you will love the section on this song. Andrew goes through the background to how Gregory found the inspiration to the song, how it was written and how much everyone who worked on it, loved it. The authors then break the track down, musically, a process that is a joy to read while you play the song back. It is this analysis of the song which is a real feature of the book, as it is repeated for more than 40 other songs, opening your eyes and ears to things you might not have heard before.

Although it is not essential, having the music playing while you read each chapter adds so much depth and richness to the experience.

That is just a brief summary of how each album is approached in this captivating book.

The memorabilia and ephemera that are scattered throughout are a great idea, bringing an intimacy and personality to the stories.

Time & Tide is a triumph. As a way for new fans to catch up, it is essential. For The Passengers, it’s a no-brainer, a must-have addition to their already huge collections of albums, merchandise, memorabilia and memories.

For new listeners, it gives an invaluable perspective on the history and inspiration of Britain’s premier prog-rock band.

Length of Read:Long

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

An album or a show by this singular band.

One thing you’ve learned

Having the music playing while the authors analyse the songs makes for a much more enriching experience.

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