Big Big Train - Between The Lines: The Story Of A Rock Band (Book by Grant Moon)
Written by music journalist Grant Moon, this book documents the entire career of Big Big Train to date. Completed in early 2022, to address David Longdon’s tragic death in November 2021, Moon interviewed 30+ musicians and other individuals connected with Big Big Train and their story. These included Tony Banks of Genesis, who provides significant insight into David Longdon’s audition to replace Phil Collins in Genesis.
This 270-page coffee table-style hardback book contains more than 180 photographs and illustrations, many of which have never been previously published, documenting the band’s career and the early lives of band members.
It starts with the band’s humble beginnings in Bournemouth on the UK’s south coast and its slow progress through the 1990s. Classic Rock and Prog magazine writer, Grant Moon, then covers Big Big Train’s endurance through the 2000s before charting the arrival of drummer Nick D’Virgilio in 2007 and their breakthrough 2009 album The Underfall Yard, their first with vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Longdon.
The book goes on to explore the band’s steady rise to greater commercial and critical success during the 2010s, including their return to live performance in 2015 and triumphant headline show at the Night Of The Prog festival at Loreley, Germany in July 2018.
Big Big Train - Between The Lines concludes by bringing the band’s story fully up to date, detailing 2021's Common Ground and 2022’s Welcome To The Planet albums and how the band have persisted despite numerous challenges, including the turmoil of the Covid-19 pandemic.