Multi-national prog rockers Big Big Train have shared a brand new live clip of The Last English King.
The song features in both live and studio form on the band's upcoming reissue of their 2002 album Bard, which they will reissue through English Electric Recordings on March 21. At the same time the band will release a new EP, Scop, as a companion to Bard. The EP takes its title from the old English word for 'Bard', and will feature five demos from the Bard recording sessions plus The Sundial.
“On the tour last autumn and at our forthcoming shows in April and May, our focus is on playing songs from our most recent studio album The Likes Of Us,” lead vocalist Alberto Bravin explains. “But we also always want to celebrate the great Big Big Train back catalogue and so we decided to dust off The Last English King, a song that the band had never played live until last September.”
“It has been such a blast to delve into ancient history with The Last English King”, adds drummer Nick D’Virgilio. “I really dug the song the first time I heard it and knew that this line-up could do something very special with the arrangement. I love the way it starts out acoustically and then has a very psychedelic section before the huge, powerful ending.”
“The Last English King is great fun to perform," keyboardist Oskar Holldorff comments:. The extended keyboard solos gave me a chance to stretch out and play something slightly different every night. Hopefully we will play the song many more times in the future.”
Big Big Train kick off their forthcoming US April tour in Florida on April 2, and will co-headline at this year's Cruise To The Edge. The band will also make their very first live appearances in Canada and also perform in Portugal for the very first time at the beginning of May at the Gouveia Art Rock Festival.
Scop will be released exclusively as a digital download only via the Big Big Train Bandcamp page.
