Big Special –Interview - 29 April 2025

Unruly West Midlands duo Big Special return to Leeds just over 12 months after tearing Key Club a new one, courtesy of a thunderous set, expertly capturing the raw anger and quiet desperation of debut long player ‘Post Industrial Hometown Blues’. 

Taking much needed time out of their busy schedule for a quick chin wag ahead of yet more dates, Joe Hicklin and Callum Moloney bring us up to speed on where they are now. Recently, the pair played a rapturously received performance at Brudenell as part of January’s Independent Venue Week, Hicklin endorsing the Hyde Park locale “One of the best venues in the country,” adding, “I couldn’t believe how good that gig was. Leeds is probably our second most gigged city outside Birmingham. Coming back and seeing people returning for that same cathartic experience of our live show is really encouraging, and it makes us want to do this more.” 

 

‘Post Industrial Hometown Blues’ has also benefited from a lavish makeover, version 2.0 augmented by demos and live tracks as well as killer new mixes by Sleaford Mods and Public Service Broadcasting. We’re also treated to the splendid collaboration with John Grant, the American chanteur’s signature baritone wrapped around Hicklin’s Black Country call to arms verses in ‘Stay Down Lazarus.’ 

 

Venue sizes have also stepped up into the four-figure ballpark, a late March sell-out show at Kentish Town’s 2000-odd capacity Forum being the highlight, Hicklin corroborating the fact it was the first time they “Felt Like a Proper Band”, declaring “We’ve been lucky to play a few big venues as a support, but when it’s your own fans that are there, it’s a whole different animal, it scared the living shit out of both of us!”. The John Grant collaboration also extended to further live support slots, the band’s one and only bus tour, yet another milestone, having admitted to being fans of Grant for many years, welcomed on tour with open arms. Replete with a taste for the bigger audience, the boys are supporting none other than Boston college rock gods The Pixies on their Spring UK dates, appearing at Leeds Academy on 17^thMay, ideal preparation before an appearance at Dot-to-Dot Festival.  

Unsurprisingly, the lads’ ebullience is tempered by humility, humbled to be on such an upward curve to the point of being able to quit their respective day jobs, a far cry from their first meeting at a Birmingham college a decade and a half ago, not forgetting many a hometown gig where only a handful of punters turned up. These days it’s markedly different, Moloney elaborating “Now we’ve announced we’re playing with the Pixies in our hometown, we’ve had about five hundred fuckers messaging us for free tickets”, the natural response to that being “Where were you when we were playing gigs to four people, dickhead?” Sarcasm aside, the drummer is obviously thrilled “Actually it is lovely, the support we’ve been getting from the hometown crowds, it feels like a real good moment, we’ve got a legit career, we’ve actually got a job now, we were right all along.”

 

Hicklin’s musical inspiration is rooted in North American roots music, songs of toil, blood sweat and tears, you could say just about managing. Big Special have seemingly mined this rich seam, overlaying raw emotion, punky beat poetry and a heaped spoonful of West Midlands gallows humour, you can practically smell the damp concrete as you listen, yet what you hear is supremely relatable to many and that’s where the connection is forged. As Hicklin puts it “All art is born of desperation, we’re simply acknowledging this shit situation - that in itself.” He is also to spell out what the band are not, “We’re don’t want to write a political manifesto, although fair play to those that want to do that.” 

 

Naturally, the subject turns to new material, the pair keen to prove their debut was no fluke, intimating something new may appear later this year. “The pressure of writing a second album, it’s scary because people are going to compare it to the first, that in itself is what the real pressure is, us wanting to do better.” Cognoscent of the fact they are in a vastly different place to when they cut their first LP, keeping it real seems the way forward for Hicklin and Moloney. “Moving forward as artists, we’ve just got to be honest about our lives, that’s what we’re going to do. You can’t write a song for someone else because they liked you. You aren’t owed an audience, and they don’t have to like whatever you are doing.”

 

Sound as a pound! 

Words by Michael Price

Big Special official

Live dates supporting Pixies, plus Dot To Dot Festivals

 

13-May Aberdeen P&J Live Arena

14-May Edinburgh  O2 Academy Edinburgh

16-May London O2 Academy Brixton

17-May London O2 Academy Brixton

19-May Leeds O2 Academy Leeds

20-May Birmingham O2 Academy Birmingham

21-May Cardiff Utilita Arena

23-May Newcastle Upon Tyne O2 City Hall

24-May Bristol  Dot To Dot Festival

24-May Manchester O2 Apollo

25-May Nottingham Dot To Dot Festival