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UID:383c0aab-04bb-4453-b7be-80a42e66db8e@360exp.net
SEQUENCE:29842540
DTSTAMP:20260928T084158Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260927T234043Z
DTSTART:20261126T190000Z
DTEND:20261126T230000Z
SUMMARY:Big Special
LOCATION:Arts Club
DESCRIPTION:Words are not to be taken for granted. Especially when they’r
 e being bellowed\, full blast\, by a broad-shouldered poet with the brimst
 one fire of a preacher and the honesty and wisdom of a layman\, over groun
 d-shaking live beats and between anthemic blasts of melody and rousing rif
 fage. Words matter. History matters. People matter. And BIG SPECIAL matter
 . A duo who are louder than bombs\, BIG SPECIAL write about desperation an
 d struggle\, about a Britain in decline\, about finding pride in your dark
 est moments\, about how the real class war in the UK is always punching do
 wnwards. Theirs are songs of hope\, and despair\, and more hope\, because
 \, ultimately\, good people win. Songs that channel that voice you hear wh
 en you look in the mirror and see your true self – fight songs for a wor
 ld gone wrong. For Joe Hicklin\, the dream started early\, when he first h
 eard ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. “I was six years old\,” he grins. “Fre
 ddie singing about shooting someone in the head? Shocking! That began my l
 ove of lyrics\, of people saying stuff in a creative way.” Joe later dis
 covered Jimi Hendrix (“an underrated lyricist”)\, and followed this pa
 th all the way back to Delta blues legends like Son House\, Charley Patton
  and Robert Johnson\, and country mavericks like William Elliott Whitmore.
  “Whitmore grew up on a farm and all his songs are about death and strug
 gle and hard work\,” Joe says\, about this music that spoke to him like 
 no other had. “I’d been working as a labourer since I was 12\, working
  with my brother and my dad during school holidays. My mum’s side of the
  family were all miners. So when I started listening to all those work son
 gs\, they made a lot of sense to me. I’d never heard people singing abou
 t digging the earth before\, which was exactly what I was doing. I loved i
 t.” Music wasn’t Joe’s only love. He didn’t read a book until he w
 as 17\, but once he lost himself within Kerouac’s On The Road\, there wa
 s no turning back. “Then I got into Charles Bukowski – his work was da
 rker\, more honest. I could relate to this bloke in his 40s who was doing 
 a day job and drinking and writing poems through the night.” Kerouac and
  Bukowski’s words lighting a fire within Joe\, he began writing poems of
  his own. He was reluctant at first to take them to the stage\, however. 
 “Like a lot of people who come from working class towns\, I grew up asha
 med of my accent.” But within that accent\, within his own personal expe
 rience\, he found his voice: honest\, emotional\, funny and true. Joe bega
 n working as a singer/songwriter\, but after some time found his muse pull
 ing him in a new direction. “I was used to standing there singing with m
 y acoustic guitar\, and trying to make everything melodic\,” he says. 
 “But I fell out of love with it. I just wanted to shout my poems – to 
 write my song-y songs\, but fuse spoken word into it as well.” He reache
 d out to Callum Moloney\, his erstwhile bandmate from his college days\, w
 ho was now playing in function bands and session drumming. “I’d finall
 y got a taste of okay money from music\,” Callum says. “I didn’t kno
 w if I could get back in the van and join a band that wasn’t doing anyth
 ing yet.” But then he heard Joe’s early demos. Among those early sketc
 hes was ‘This Here Ain’t Water’\, perhaps the most fiery of the grou
 p’s first batch of anthems. “It wasn’t what I was expecting\,” gri
 ns Callum. “I was like\, ‘Fuck everything else off – this is the thi
 ng I need to be playing on.’” The reunited duo woodshedded new materia
 l with their producer\, Michael Clarke\, taking these nascent song ideas t
 o the stage\, and then working on them some more. “There was this extra 
 layer of aggression and energy we’d discovered from playing live that wa
 nted to inject back into the studio tracks\,” continues Joe. “Lockdown
  allowed us the time to really develop this material. We’re coming into 
 it with a big box of songs and ideas we’ve been able to crack on with.
 ” They’ve honed that early burst of inspiration into a killer setlist
 \, and developed a sound like no other\, drawing disparate influences like
  Sleaford Mods’ bleakly hilarious bark\, the intense power of Tom Waits-
 esque gospel\, the healing power of soul and the electric charge of rock i
 nto something new. Something ecstatic\, painful\, truthful and real. ‘Th
 is Here Ain’t Water’ is\, Joe says\, “about mental health\, and addi
 ction\, and the way the media criticises the working class\, and the way a
 ll this stuff is forced on people. It’s thinking about how everything’
 s shit\, and using that to egg yourself on.” Their rousing anthem ‘Shi
 thouse’\, meanwhile\, is “a self-lament. It’s about a breakdown. It
 ’s addressed to myself – or to the sky\, I suppose – like\, ‘I tho
 ught I was getting better!’” But there’s a wider theme there\, too\,
  “relating this personal depression I’ve experienced to what this coun
 try is going through. We’re all so divided right now\, at odds\, depress
 ed with each other. As well as an economic depression\, Britain is going t
 hrough a social depression. And ‘Shithouse’ ties that personal depress
 ion into the social depression.” Then there’s new single ‘Desperate 
 Breakfast’. “It’s about getting up and going to work and having to f
 orce a meal down before you go and spend a day doing something you don’t
  want to do for someone who doesn’t respect you\,” Joe grins. “We’
 re not one of those bands who deals in false hope. It’s an emotional rea
 ction to a situation that is shit. This song is about it being shit. They
 ’ll tell us it’s ‘character building’. But that doesn’t make it 
 right.” “We’re not into sloganeering\,” says Callum. “That sort 
 of thing cheapens everything.” Joe nods in agreement. “We’re trying 
 to explore the universal through the personal\,” he adds. “People are 
 still blind to class issues. Really\, these are human issues. I’m not sa
 ying I have any answers – our songs are reactive. They’re loud\, and t
 hey’re fun\, and they’re honest and emotional.” This is serious stuf
 f\, but it’s delivered with searing focus and a sense of song that sends
  this music skywards\, that lifts us all up. BIG SPECIAL are a band who si
 ng the truth – a radical proposition in 2023\, perhaps\, but that’s th
 e game they’re playing. You can’t always get what you want – but BIG
  SPECIAL are delivering what you need. “I just wanted to make something 
 pure\, honest\, with real heart\,” says Joe\, finally. Thus far the duo 
 can call “Mission Accomplished” on that aim. All that’s left now is 
 to win over the hearts and minds of a nation starving for what BIG SPECIAL
  have in store. Listen to these tunes\, look into their eyes\, feel the fi
 re burning within this music: the doubters don’t have a chance.\n\nBolet
 os: https://www.fatsoma.com/e/g3aq2bbv/big-special
URL;VALUE=URI:https://360exp.net/events/383c0aab-04bb-4453-b7be-80a42e66db8
 e
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