What a moment.
It’s tough enough replacing a beloved frontman whose tragic death still tugs at the hearts of both band and audience. But to do it in what had become “his house,” site of a series of spectacular, well-documented live performances that helped take the group in question to the next level?
Daunting is an understatement.
That’s the history UK-based progressive rock collective Big Big Train confronted when they played two nights at London’s Cadogan Hall in fall 2023. Frontman David Longdon’s sudden passing in November 2021 had sent the band to the brink, but the remaining core of Greg Spawton (founder/songwriter/bassist), Nick D’Virgilio (a.k.a. NDV, longtime drummer/vocalist) and Rikard Sjöblom (longtime guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist), along with more recent additions Dave Foster (guitar), Carly Bryant (keyboards/vocals) and Clare Lindley (violin/vocals), resolved to forge onward, recruiting Alberto Bravin of Italian prog stalwarts PFM to take over as lead vocalist.
A trio of shows in fall 2022 provided an initial proof of concept, but the longer run of shows scheduled for fall 2023 would test the band’s ability to not just persevere, but forge a new path forward while continuing to honor its past. In meantime, the band’s lineup had continued its seeming perpetual evolution, with keyboardist/vocalist Oskar Holldorff of Dim Gray replacing Bryant, and Italian guitarist Maria Barbieri sitting in for Foster, absent due to prior commitments with the Steve Rothery Band.
The band chose the Sept. 12-13, 2023 two-night stand at Cadogan—the grand finale of their longest tour to date, 17 shows in 21 days across seven countries—to record and film a triple-CD and BluRay. For a band in the midst of a substantial transition, A Flare On The Lens accomplishes exactly what one imagines it was designed to: it provides proof positive that the new lineup can both produce thrilling new music (see March 2024’s The Likes Of Us) and deliver superb performances of songs drawn from the group’s extensive back catalog.
The charged atmosphere is present from the opening notes of “Folklore,” whose pre-recorded string overture cues up the four-person brass section led by Dave Desmond, whose fanfare announces the emergence of the band itself from the wings. The sense of anticipation in the room is palpable as Alberto Bravin prepares to sing his first line, tackling one of David Longdon’s signature songs. The beauty of Bravin’s performance here and throughout is that he doesn’t try to be anyone but himself; he respects the familiar melodic template of the song while singing in his own natural, powerful, expressive voice. And while the song’s core is rendered faithfully by the band, little flourishes and enhancements are evident from virtually every player; this is Big Big Train, but a new iteration of it that is, in these very grooves, constructing its own identity.
From there the setlist mixes the old, the new, and the never-before-played-live, a smorgasbord of everything a devoted fan might crave. “The Connection Plan” is a percussive, playful D’Virgilio number from 2022’s never-toured Welcome To The Planet that plays well live, lit up by a fierce Sjöblom solo. Bravin gives the billowing “Curator Of Butterflies” a more theatrical reading than Longdon, but every choice he makes works and continues to honor the essence of one of the band’s most emotional numbers.
“Summoned By Bells”—among several peak moments of the March 2024 shows I was privileged to witness—puts the focus on Holldorf’s superb piano work as he nails the rippling piano melody that forms the backbone of the tune. As is the case throughout this set, none of the new players strictly mimics their predecessors, but their performances capture the essence of the original recordings while breathing fresh new life into the songs. And the foundations remain: the rhythm section is intact, as are the memorable NDV/Sjöblom background vocals (“Woo-hoo-HOO!”), with Lindley and Holldorff’s voices adding further depth and dimension. Compliments are due here too to Sjöblom and Barbieri, who tackle Dave Gregory’s lead guitar lines on song after song with power and grace while adding their own flair.
From there, highlight follows highlight. “Drums & Brass 2023” features NDV and the brass section having a blast, including a drum solo and an affectionate nod to Yes’s “Heart of the Sunrise.” One of two then-unreleased songs played on the tour, Bravin’s “Love Is The Light” is simply gorgeous and when the audience sings back “whoa-oh-oh-OH-oh,” it’s clear this new lineup has climbed the mountain. The never-before-played-live “A Boy In Darkness” is spectacular; when NDV kicks off the ferocious mid-song jam and the entire audience begins clapping along, it’s an absolutely thrilling moment. His adventurous jazz-prog-fusion instrumental “Apollo” follows, a churning, pumping dynamo of sound.
As a special treat for the closing-night Cadogan audience, NDV, Sjöblom, Holldorff and Lindley worked up an acoustic medley covering two songs that had never been played live before, while transforming a third. “Leopards / Meadowland / Wassail” is played as a tribute to Longdon, with NDV and Sjöblom trading off on lead vocals and both brass and audience joining in on a closing jam that earns rapturous applause. The crowd’s response to the opening notes of the band’s signature tune “East Coast Racer” is equally explosive, and the entire group rides that adrenalin through a superb rendition that establishes this lineup’s bona fides once and for all.
The run order on A Flare follows the closing night’s setlist all the way through final encore “Victorian Brickwork,” a genuinely stupendous performance with the group’s five-person vocal chorus fully deployed, a gorgeous moment that closes out the tour to ecstatic applause.
Because BBT is nothing if not kind to its fans, A Flare then goes back and picks up recordings of each of the seven songs that were unique to the first night’s setlist. The other then-unreleased song “Oblivion” spotlights Holldorff’s synths, Lindley’s violin, NDV’s busy drums and Spawton’s busier bass as they deliver tremendous dynamics. Then “Swan Hunter” dampens the eyes with its melancholy ode to an age gone by—possibly the moment where Bravin won over any first-night doubters, judging by the waves of applause.
“Keeper Of Abbeys,” another song making its live debut on this tour, features Lindley and Holldorff taking the lead before the rhythm section and guitar kick in. The multi-part vocal harmonies must be tough to pull off live, but you’d never know it here, and the violin-bass interplay on bridge is terrific, with Barbieri delivering a soaring guitar solo to close it out. The nostalgic “Brooklands” offers a strong rendition of this expansive epic, and then we get to “Hedgerow.” Only two players remain in the band from its original 2012 recording—Spawton and NDV—but you’d never know it was a mostly different band; Lindley even nails her predecessor Rachel Hall’s plucked violin notes, and her solo at the bridge is chef’s kiss, capturing the spirit of the original beautifully while adding her own personality.
Throughout the rest of the tour, and on night one at Cadogan, NDV and Sjöblom paid tribute to David Longdon with a gentle, pretty cover of his “Telling The Bees.” Finally, we finish up with a run at “Judas Unrepentant,” where the biggest evolution has been in Spawton’s more assertive approach on the bass. He sounds great, they all sound great, and the audience responds accordingly.
While this is far from the band’s first live album, it’s the first to feature the new lineup that only a select subset of listeners have been privileged to see play live to date. A Flare On The Lens offers Big Big Train’s wider audience a chance to witness what this new lineup is capable of, and the answer is pretty much anything it dares to take on. This album is both a celebration of the band’s history and an affirmation of its decision to continue the journey, making abundantly clear that this train has many miles of track left in front of it.