Big Big Train

PROG AROUND THE WORLD

The British retro-prog outfit Big Big Train will be coming to Pratteln in autumn 2026. In October 2025, the band released the comprehensive concert recording “Are We Nearly There Yet? – Live Around The World”, a thrilling document of their most recent tours. On their upcoming European tour, the band will once again present us with songs from every phase of their three-and-a-half-decade career.

Even after 35 years, Big Big Train continue to demonstrate an extraordinary level of productivity: for the past 10 years, they have released at least one studio and/or live album every year. Quantity has done nothing to diminish the quality. The musicians’ creativity remains undiminished. Founded in Bournemouth in 1990, Big Big Train have become internationally successful protagonists of the progressive rock genre, with 17 studio albums as well as numerous EPs and live releases. They can look back on high international chart positions (#1 in the British rock charts), various prestigious awards (four-time winners of the Progressive Music Awards) and countless sold-out concerts. Big Big Train remain true to their roots while also exploring new paths. They incorporate influences from a wide range of genres and have established themselves as accomplished musical border-crossers between pop, rock and prog, in the style of English bands from the early 1970s. In September 2023, Big Big Train last visited us at Z7 with their “The Journey Continues Tour”. The team at diebuehrers.com wrote about the live spectacle: “The seven-piece band and their additional brass section showed right from the start why they rightly storm the charts. The multi-talented international band from Great Britain, the USA, Italy, Sweden and Norway consisted of lead vocalist Alberto Bravin (PFM), drummer Nick D’Virgilio (Genesis, Spock’s Beard, Tears For Fears), guitarist/keyboardist Rikard Sjöblom (Beardfish, Gungfly), violinist Clare Lindley (Stackridge), bassist Gregory Spawton, keyboardist Oskar Holldorff (Dim Gray) and rising guitar star Maria Barbieri. With a varied setlist, the band offered a great selection of classics and, of course, songs from their new album ‘Ingenious Devices’. It was one mighty rolling prog train.” In 2024, another studio album, “The Likes Of Us”, was added to their catalogue. In October 2025, the live recording “Are We Nearly There Yet? – Live Around The World” followed, documenting the Britons’ fantastic concerts of recent years. For this release, Gregory Spawton and exceptional vocalist Alberto Bravin selected the best recordings from their past tours, including Big Big Train favourites and current tracks captured in front of enthusiastic fans in the USA, the UK and Europe.