"Apollo" is the second track to be taken from Big Big Train’s forthcoming album ‘Common Ground’ due out on July 30, 2021 on English Electric Recordings. The new album, recorded during the worldwide pandemic, sees the band continue their tradition of dramatic narratives but also tackles issues much closer to home, such as the Covid lockdowns, the separation of loved ones, the passage of time, deaths of people close to the band and the hope that springs from a new love. 

"Apollo" is a seven-minute plus instrumental written by Big Big Train drummer Nick D’Virgilio and will be an undoubted highlight when the band tour in 2022. "When the time came to start coming up with ideas for the next BBT album, I felt very strongly that we should include a quintessential instrumental track. I wanted to write the band’s version of Genesis’s Los Endos and to make a track that really showed off the talent of all the amazing musicians in this band. I knew that the team could totally play anything I threw at them, and boy, did they prove me right! I thought about the unique instrumentation of BBT. We have so many wonderful ‘voices’ to play with and I wanted every one of them in this song. In the big end bit, I can totally envisage the crowd with their hands in the air going back n forth, all of the lights and haze on the stage, the band just absolutely slamming, the crowd singing along with the melody the BBT brass ensemble is playing, until we reach a glorious end.”

Common Ground sees the band taking in wider musical and lyrical inspiration from artists such as Elbow, Pete Townshend, Tears For Fears, Elton John and XTC, as well as acknowledging their more progressive roots. As ever, Big Big Train will take listeners on a journey, be it waiting for the UK 5 PM pandemic press conferences (“The Strangest Times”) to the library of Alexandria (“Black With Ink”) to the bottom of the ocean (“Atlantic Cable”).

For the Common Ground tour, which will be their most extensive to date and which will culminate in the UK with a show at the prestigious London Palladium, Greg Spawton (bass), David Longdon (lead vocals, flute), Nick D’Virgilio (drums, vocals) and Rikard Sjöblom (guitars, keyboards, vocals) will be joined by Carly Bryant (keyboards, guitars, vocals), who contributes vocals to ‘Common Ground’, Dave Foster (guitars), who plays on two tracks on the new album, Clare Lindley (violin, vocals) and by a five piece brass ensemble. The band expect to announce North American tour dates shortly.

Big Big Train has taken lyrical and musical inspiration from periods of history that are recognised as great leaps forward. Now with Common Ground, they are making such a surge themselves. Preorders available on Bandcamp.

Tracklisting:

“The Strangest Times”
“All The Love We Can Give”
“Black With Ink”
“Dandelion Clock”
“Headwaters”
“Apollo”
“Common Ground”
“Atlantic Cable”
“Endnotes”

“Common Ground” video:

UK Tour 2022:

March
15 – York – Barbican
16 – Cambridge – Corn Exchange
18 – Birmingham – Symphony Hall
19 – Bath – Forum
21 – Glasgow – Royal Concert Hall
22 – Manchester – Bridgewater Hall
23 – London – Palladium