In August and September 2023, multi-national progressive rockers Big Big Train undertook their longest ever tour to date, performing 17 shows over 21 days across nine countries in the UK and Europe, and concluding with two triumphant concerts at London’s prestigious Cadogan Hall. Those two concerts are now immortalised as A Flare On The Lens, released on September 13 2024 via InsideOutMusic.
Today, the band are pleased to launch a live video for the track “Love Is The Light”, taken from their most recent studio album The Likes Of Us.
Bassist Gregory Spawton comments: “Before last year’s tour we had already recorded Love Is The Light in the studio and were confident that it would translate well to live performance. What we underestimated was just how well it would come across at our shows, despite being a song that no one had previously heard before the tour.”
Lead vocalist Alberto Bravin adds: “When I put forward Love Is The Light for The Likes Of Us studio album, I told the rest of the band that it was an intensely personal song about a challenging period in my life. I am so pleased about how the fans have embraced it and the way that it has connected with people – after all, the song’s message is universal.”
Drummer Nick D’Virgilio says: “I knew we were onto something significant when Alberto first shared his demo of Love Is The Light with the rest of the band. The song just seems to keep evolving and it’s super cool to have the audience participate acapella every night. It was one of the real high points of the show.”
This new concert film package includes every song performed by the band over those two evenings and is available as a Limited 3CD+Blu-ray media book, with the concert film audio mixed in 5.1 surround sound and stereo. A gatefold 180g 2LP vinyl version is also available, which features a carefully selected range of material from the Cadogan Hall shows.
Pre-order A Flare On The Lens and stream “A Boy In Darkness” & “Love Is The Light” here.
A Flare On The Lens features the band’s full show at Cadogan Hall from the second of their two nights there last year and also includes seven songs which were played only on the first night.
As such, the Blu-ray film runs to around 3 hours and contains no fewer than 17 songs, including both back catalogue favourites such as “East Coast Racer”, “Hedgerow”, “Folklore”, “Judas Unrepentant”, “Curator Of Butterflies” and “Victorian Brickwork”, live instrumental tour de force “Apollo” and future classics “Love Is The Light” and “Oblivion”, plus a 3 song acoustic medley. “Love Is The Light” and “Oblivion” have subsequently been available on the band’s acclaimed studio album, The Likes Of Us, released in March this year.
Tracklisting:
“Folklore”*
“The Connection Plan”*
“Curator Of Butterflies”*
“Summoned By Bells”*
“Drums & Brass 2023”*
“Love Is The Light”*
“A Boy In Darkness”*
“Apollo”*
“Acoustic Medley”
“East Coast Racer”*
“Victorian Brickwork”*
“Oblivion”
“Swan Hunter”
“Keeper Of Abbeys”
“Brooklands”
“Hedgerow”
“Telling The Bees”
“Judas Unrepentant”
*included on 2LP vinyl release
“Love Is The Light” video:
“A Boy In Darkness”:
A Flare On The Lens is the sight and sound of Big Big Train back on an upwards curve and re-establishing itself as one of the rock music scene’s most compelling live bands.
BBT will undertake their own headline tour in September and October, before returning to co-headline Cruise To The Edge in April next year.
Dates:
September
17 – Swindon, UK – Wyvern Theatre
18 – Newport, UK – The Riverfront
19 – Whitley Bay, UK – Playhouse Theatre
21 – Edinburgh, UK – Queens Hall
22 – Newark, UK – Palace Theatre
24 – Milton Keynes, UK – Stables Theatre
25 – Manchester, UK – The Stoller Hall
27 – Weinheim, Germany – Stadthalle
28 – Zoetermeer, Netherlands – Boerderij
29 – Zoetermeer, Netherlands – Boerderij
October
1 – Oslo, Norway – Cosmopolite
2 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Viften
5 – London, UK – Cadogan Hall