Big Big Train are an English progressive rock band formed in Bournemouth in 1990. The current line-up includes band founder Gregory Spawton , along with Nick D’Virgilio and Rikard Sjöblom . Until 2009, the band were active as a predominantly studio project led by Spawton and co-founder Andy Poole , who departed the band in 2018, with changing line-ups and guest musicians. They have released fourteen studio albums and six EPs. After starting out as an independent band, Big Big Train were signed to Giant Electric Pea from 1993 to 1998 and distributed their releases through their own website. Since their sixth album, The Underfall Yard, which received critical acclaim from the progressive rock community, a more stable line-up has been established, and the band performed their first live concerts in 17 years at Kings Place, London, in August 2015. The gigs were voted Event of the Year by the readers of Prog magazine. Stone & Steel, a Blu-ray featuring the 2014 rehearsals at Real World Studios and four of the songs performed at Kings Place, was released on 21 March 2016. Big Big Train were the winners of the Breakthrough Award at the Progressive Music Awards held at Kew Gardens, London on 3 September 2013, and have been nominated in several other categories in recent years. The band’s latest studio album, Welcome to the Planet, was released in January 2022. Their previous studio album, Common Ground, was released in July 2021. Big Big Train embarked on their first UK tour in October 2019. Scheduled dates for the band’s first ever North American and European tours in 2020 were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
