The Second Brightest Star

The Second Brightest Star Grimlore:

Haymaking Brooklands sequence
THIS PAGE WILL BE GLUED TO THE INSIDE
RIGHT HAND PANEL OF THE SOFTPACK Skylon (i) On the Racing Line
London Stone (ii) Brooklands
The Passing Widow London Plane sequence
The Leaden Stour (i) Turner on the Thames
Terra Australis Incognita (ii) London Plane
The Gentlemen’s Reprise
English Electric Recordings 2017
www.bigbigtrain.com
The Second Brightest Star Skylon
I drove through mist, from the brook To love and to be loved After the fire Looking up at Skylon
In the low moonlight And if we only have love after the storm lost in a dream
Thank you all, you made me feel It’s more than enough post-war London of impossible things
So welcome here tonight To see the second brightest star six years on. a brave new world to come.
We speak a while of the old days Depends on where we are At the side of the Thames: Underneath the Skylon
Years ago in times so far Depends on where we are Skylon. colours in a grey world,
To see the second brightest star Broken walls a pick-me-up for the nation,
Depends on where you are an end to all good things the work of Giants
Depends on where you are open skies here in London town.
Of all those songs that stir the soul seen through roofless houses. Bells fall silent
The poetry and art But down by the Thames thrown to the ground,
Help us forget we’re quite alone 300 feet above the river books are burning
A canopy of stars soaring higher than fired at low tide.
We plot celestial heavens the church spires: But down by the Thames
With telescopes and charts Skylon. mighty marvels will arise,
To see the second brightest star Rising up before me science lighting up the dark nights:
So we know where we are floating in mid air Skylon.
We know just where we are I lost myself in wonder A vision of the future
Rain rains down it was something from Dan Dare. rising at the water’s edge.
England is dreaming A vision of the future The turning wheels of industry,
The change of the seasons a beacon in the night sky invention and makers of wonders.
The song of the hedgerow a promise of much better days We’ll be the New Elizabethans
a new Jerusalem. explorers of distant land,
make ourselves a better place,
a new Jerusalem.
The Passing Widow Skylon
The Leaden Stour
She made plans of things to do Through the thick and thin she runs Down by the leaden Stour Black waters rise,
When he was healed, they’d get through to ease the pain. the miller’s tale is at an end. one hundred years have passed,
They planned to sail the oceans blue Just a wagon, pulled by rope In a wood at the water’s edge black waters rise again.
To dreams they’d hold.  In which to rest and dream and hope rooks are nesting overhead. By a curve of the river
A life that meant the world to her that she would find the strength to cope Here, beneath the clouds, at the end of the road
Was taken by what might occur and bring home her campaign.   black waters rise again. black waters rise again.
In any living skin or fur Give a hand to the passing widow Down by the leaden Stour
The young and old.  She runs, far from her home fog is settling on the fields,
So she gathered up her pack Going strong, as beautiful as ever,  pathways disappear,
Attached a little sleeping shack to show the world they’re not alone footfalls led astray.
To jog around the world and back By the riverside,
A statement of her love. Now her bones are crumbling too a penny for the ferry,
Used to find a brighter view new stones for the churchyard.
What had she embarked upon? of life without the one she knew A hundred years have passed,
Through rugged hills and roads so long and loved so well.  black waters rise again.
Perhaps he would be cheering on She bears a message to us all Down by the leaden Stour
From a world above.  We hold the net to catch our fall hawks are circling overhead.
Give a hand to the passing widow Keeping strong and standing tall A sundial by the yew trees,
She runs, far from her home in deeds and words we tell.  a guinea for a life.
Going strong, as beautiful as ever,  By the riverside
to show the world they’re not alone So, give a hand to the passing widow there’s wood for the gallows
She runs, far from her home and food for the crows,
Winter ice and summer suns Going strong, as beautiful as ever the carriers of souls.
Bears and wolves and men with guns. She shows us all, we’re not alone
Introduction The song title is taken from the third line of the chorus of the song Grimspound which (as
I have already said in the Grimspound sleeve notes) concerns itself with a fantasy story of
The Second Brightest Star is a companion album to the Folklore and Grimspound releases. the crow, also called Grimspound, who graces the cover of Folklore. There is much folklore
The album features a number of new or previously unreleased songs and instrumentals and myth to do with crows in cultures throughout the world. They have been seen as
alongside some music from the Grimspound and Folklore albums which we have divine messengers, birds of ill omen, tricksters and the carriers of souls to the lands of the
presented here as extended sequences of music. dead among other things. In the song Grimspound, the crow’s fate is governed by the
constellation of Corvus.
The Second Brightest Star Throughout history, the ingenuity and resourcefulness of mankind has enabled us to use
stars to navigate. The notion of seeing the second brightest star literally depends where
This song is intended to be a drawing together of some of the themes running through and when you are observing from on the surface of the planet in relation to the stars
our albums dating back to The Underfall Yard. It is a song about the bonds of friendship themselves. It also depends which star you count as the brightest. Sirius is considered to
between people. be the brightest star in the night sky with Canopus being the second. If instead of Sirius
In 2015 I found myself returning back to my home town. Later on, thanks to the wonders being in first position the Sun was placed at number one, then Sirius would become the
of social media, I met up again with an old school friend of mine called Richard Harvey. second brightest.
One day, Richard wrote to me and asked if I wanted to attend a school reunion. I had never Sarah Ewing’s cover painting of Grimspound features the constellation of Corvus in
thought of attending one before, mainly because I had moved away from where I grew up relation to the Crow. The Second Brightest Star cover painting we decided would show
years ago and had inevitably lost touch with all but a few old friends. Sirius.
I was in two minds about going and I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea. In the end I bit I wrote this song on the piano and I used the rhythm of the words ‘Twinkle twinkle little
the bullet and decided to take the plunge. The drive over to the country pub was striking. star’ as a starting point. The middle section deliberately invokes the spirit of the
The moon was huge and yellow, seeming very close to the earth, and there was a mist improvised end section of The Underfall Yard. The coda is a return to the chorus.
from the brook gathering in the hollows of the landscape. It was eerie and beautiful.
The rain still falls on England. DL
When I arrived, I found it was strange and yet comfortingly familiar to see old friends after
all this time. Two of them, Steven Brunt and Shane Easom, I had not seen for forty years. Haymaking
We recognised ourselves and amazingly the friendship and comradery still remained even
after all that time. It was quite extraordinary and moving. As sure as the stars enable the Haymaking to me is reminiscent of childhood: rushing through the fields on a bike, riding
traveller to get their bearings and find their way back home, people and places do the down country lanes, on muddy paths and bridleways laden with beachy stones that throw
same. I just had to write a song about it. the tyres off course, playfully bumping along under the shade of leafy trees through which
the sun makes patterns on the ground until, out into the open, it warms us with its light.
The title for this track was suggested by David, and it perfectly describes the essence In 1951, Britain was still suffering from the after-effects of World War Two. Some food
of this tune’s playfulness and sense of fearlessness, not to mention the image of riding stuffs were rationed and much of the national infrastructure lay in ruins. Recovery and
through the fields during the haymaking season. Incidentally, there just happens to be an rebuilding was slow and the country seemed worn out. The Festival was intended to bring
off-road bike called The Haymaker 1500. RH people together and was described variously as a ‘tonic for the nation’ and a ‘beacon for
change’.
I went for a walk one afternoon, eventually ending up in a churchyard. I sat on a bench
and looked out over the rows of headstones at the fields beyond. I saw a tourist On the South Bank, two major buildings were constructed, the Royal Festival Hall and the
information board and it mentioned ‘Haymaking’. I thought that it would make a good Dome of Discovery alongside other smaller exhibition sites. The most striking feature of
song title. the whole Festival, though, was Skylon. This slender, 300 foot high object, made of steel
and supported by cables, appeared to float above the ground. It looked like something
2016 and 2017 have been productive years for BBT, seeing the release of the Stone & Steel from a science fiction film. It towered over the exhibition.
blu-ray, Folklore, Grimspound and our live album A Stone’s Throw From The Line. These
times may be remembered as our halcyon period. But it would be foolish to think that it Like many other great architectural features which were lost in the decades after the War,
will always remain so. None of us are getting any younger. All things must pass and time Skylon was doomed and ended up, after the exhibition, being sold for scrap metal. It was
moves ever onward. a terrible decision and a great loss.
When Rachel delivered her cheerful and uplifting instrumental, I thought that ‘Haymaking’ The Big Big Train song, Skylon, which seeks to commemorate this beautiful construction
would suit it well, and Rachel graciously accepted it as the title. The idea of haymaking has (seen, in the song, through the eyes of a young child), was originally intended to be
become something of a mission statement for BBT at this time in the band’s career. We are included on the Folkore album. However, we couldn’t quite get the arrangement right
writing and performing well as a band, and we are making progress in getting our music and set the song aside to be finished at a later date and to feature as the title track of
out to the world. It is wise to make hay while the sun shines, making the best music that an EP. As the planned EP grew into the album called Grimspound, Skylon once again lost
we possibly can, whilst we are able to do so. DL its place to other tracks. With the addition of an endpiece from Rikard and eerie guitar
from Dave, the song finally began to sound how we wanted it to and now finds a home
Skylon on The Second Brightest Star. GS

During the later years of the Second World War suggestions were made that Britain should
celebrate the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851. After the war ended, plans began
to be made for a festival to take place in 1951 which would focus on the arts, architecture,
heritage, science and technology of Britain. This exhibition was to be called The Festival of
Britain and, whilst there were events throughout the land and some touring exhibitions,
the centerpiece of the Festival was on the South Bank of the Thames.
London Stone this subject I found myself drawn to the experiences of the runner, sailor and inspirational
speaker Rosie Swale Pope MBE.
There are many London stones. The most famous is a block of limestone, currently housed This has become a song about Rosie’s journey as she ran over 20,000 miles, solo around
in the Museum of London, which appears to have been a feature of the cityscape for many the world in extreme conditions from her home town Tenby back to where she set off the
centuries, possibly as far back as the late Roman or early English period. This London Stone year after the loss of her husband Clive and his battle with prostate cancer in 2002.
is first mentioned in historical records in the late eleventh century when it was referred to, The song intends to capture her brave adventure and the message she sent to people
in Old English, as ‘Lundene Stane’. The purpose of the Stone is unknown and it has become all over the world.
a part of folklore. Other, less well known London Stones were placed beside the River
Thames as boundary markers. The one which still stands at Chalkwell is known as The story begins with her grief at the loss of her husband. It tells of her decision to set off
Crowstone. on her run, her encounters along the way and the endurance she shows. The contrast of
intense struggle and loneliness, and the incredible support and warmth that she receives
The short piece of music called London Stone was originally composed by Rikard as an from family, friends and complete strangers is huge. As she tells in her book Just a Little
introduction to the song London Plane on the Folklore album. However, the acoustic Run Around the World, her run becomes much bigger than its original purpose. It
guitar was slightly out of tune and Rikard did not have time to re-record the guitar parts becomes everyone’s journey as if all the people she meets along the way are so
in order for the song to make the Folklore mixing period. Rikard then decided to develop embedded into its cause that she becomes driven by all of their stories and by humanity
some of the musical themes in London Stone into a long piece of music called A Mead itself. 32 miles from the finish Rosie’s hip is fractured and it is a miracle she is released from
Hall in Winter, which featured on the Grimspound album. In the meantime, thinking that hospital in time to arrive on foot on August 25th 2008 completing her 5 year journey.
London Stone would be fully incorporated into A Mead Hall in Winter, Greg had written an
alternative introductory piece to London Plane and this piece also features on The Second Rosie is still running now at the age of 70, raising awareness of cancer, recently taking a
Brightest Star album as Turner on the Thames. Little Run Across America. She continues to give motivational talks whenever she can,
inspiring others to achieve their goals. RH
With a newly recorded guitar part, this version of London Stone is exactly how it would
have appeared on the Folklore album except that it now stands alone rather than as an The Leaden Stour
introduction to London Plane. GS
For the last 25 years or so I have lived a few hundred yards from the River Stour. The Stour
The Passing Widow is no Severn or Thames, it is not a mighty river or a famous one, but, with a length of 61
miles, it is the longest in Dorset.
The ideas that came to the surface during the writing of The Passing Widow suggested
strength in the face of adversity. It was about a woman prevailing after the death of her The river’s source is actually in a different county, Wiltshire, at a place called Stourhead
husband, finding strength to keep going for her family and the people around her. On which is famous for its beautiful gardens. By the time the river reaches Bournemouth it is
an old meandering water course, with a wide flood plain. Some of the land alongside the The two main stories in the song took place in 1803-4 and in 1908. In December 1803,
river in Bournemouth is picturesque, other sections more like edgeland. Jonathan Harben paid a guinea to an associate known as John Gubben to assist in the
killing of his father, William Harben. The murder took place in a stable near the river at
Before Bournemouth became a town in the 19th century, some of the earliest settlements Parley. The murderers were tried and convicted and then hanged at Winchester in 1804.
in the area nestled close by the river. These include Muscliff, Muccleshell, Throop, West After execution, the bodies were returned in chains to Parley Common and placed on a
Parley and the hamlet at Blackwater. At Throop, there is an abandoned Victorian water mill. gibbet where they were hung for several months. The gibbets remained on the Common
The very first line-up of Big Big Train had its first promotional pictures taken near the mill for 30 years. In the Churchyard of All Saints Church at West Parley is a sundial, mounted
in 1990. When David joined the band in 2009 and visited Dorset to work on The Underfall on wood from the gibbet. It is said that the sundial never tells the right time.
Yard album we again walked down to the mill for the first photographs of the beginnings
of our current line-up. In January 1908, Elsie and Sybil Green, two young sisters from the parish of West Parley,
took the small boat ferry across the river and travelled into Bournemouth where they
Many years ago I was looking at a map of the local area and noticed the name of a small bought two straw hats. On their return in the early evening, a thick fog descended on the
offshoot of the Stour near Throop Mill. This short stretch of river was called Leaden Stour. river. The sisters took the ferry back across to West Parley (where they were both assistant
Local histories mention that the Priors of Christchurch had dug a canal near their rest teachers in the village school) and then walked across the fields towards their home.
house to breed and keep fish for Fridays. A section of Leaden Stour is artificially straight Instead of reaching home, they became disorientated due to the fog and fell into the river,
and runs just south of the site of the rest house and I wonder if this was the Priors’ canal. which was said to be running fast. Their bodies were recovered from the water the next
Whatever the origins and history of Leaden Stour, I was struck by the mysterious name day. The graves of the sisters can be found in All Saints Churchyard. A thousand mourners
(What did it mean? Was this small river particularly slow-running, or was it a leaden attended their funeral.
colour? And why was there no definite article?) I liked it as a song title (choosing, though, Whilst The Leaden Stour is primarily about historic events which took place in the early
to add the definite article) and thought I would write a song about some of the stories 19th and 20th centuries, a further terrible tragedy occurred in 2011 when Flight
associated with the River Stour. Lieutenant Jon Egging’s Red Arrow came down in a field next to the river. GS
Many of the melodies in the song came to me on a walk near the Mill. (This sort of on-
location songwriting requires me to ‘sing’ into an iPhone, something I try to do when Terra Australis Incognita
no-one is nearby.)
This piece of music is Danny’s development of the end theme from the song Experimental
After working on a chord sequence to fit the melody, I started researching some local Gentlemen on the Grimspound album. Terra Australis Incognita means ‘unknown land
history and found some rather sad stories which happened alongside the stretch of the of the south’. The belief that there was a ‘balancing’ undiscovered continental land mass
Stour close to where I live. The tragic events seem to happen roughly every hundred years in the extreme south dates as far back as classical times. One of the purposes of Captain
or so. Cook’s first and second voyages was to locate this continent. In the end, Terra Australis
was found to consist only of two small continents, Antarctica and Australia. GS
Big Big Train The Second Brightest Star
Words and music by David Longdon
Haymaking
The Passing Widow
Nick D’Virgilio drums, percussion and backing vocals Words and music by Rachel Hall
London Stone
Danny Manners keyboards and double bass Music by Rikard Sjöblom and Danny Manners Skylon
Rikard Sjöblom guitars, keyboards on The Second Brightest Star and backing vocals Words and music by David Longdon,
Rachel Hall violin, viola, cello and backing vocals The Leaden Stour Greg Spawton and Rikard Sjöblom
Greg Spawton bass guitar, bass pedals and backing vocals Brooklands
David Longdon lead and backing vocals, flute, electric guitar, synthesisers, percussion Turner on the Thames Terra Australis Incognita
Dave Gregory electric 6 and 12 string guitars London Plane On the Racing Line
Andy Poole acoustic guitar, keyboards and backing vocals The Gentlemen’s Reprise Music by Greg Spawton and Danny Manners
Words and music by Greg Spawton
Additional musicians:
Dave Desmond trombone Lucy Curnow violin
Ben Godfrey trumpet and cornet Keith Hobday viola Produced by Big Big Train
Nick Stones French horn Evie Anderson cello Recorded at English Electric Studios
John Storey euphonium Philip Trzebiatowski cello Vocals and double bass recorded at Aubitt Studios by Rob Aubrey
Jon Truscott tuba
Drums recorded at Sweetwater Studios by Mark Hornsby
and at Real World Studios by Rob Aubrey
Strings recorded at Aubitt Studios by Rob Aubrey
Arrangements by Big Big Train and at Ashwood Studios by Sotos Yiasimi
String arrangements by Rachel Hall Brass recorded at Southampton Solent University by Rob Aubrey
Brass arrangements by Dave Desmond with Greg Spawton and David Longdon Mixed and mastered at Aubitt Studios by Rob Aubrey
Website: bigbigtrain.com Cover painting by Sarah Louise Ewing
Join our forum at: www.facebook.com/groups/bigbigtrain Photograph by Simon Hogg
Cover and booklet design by Andy Poole
Big Big Train would like to thank: Dave Gregory would like to thank:
Rob Aubrey at Aubitt Studios; Mark Hornsby at Sweetwater Studios; Patrick Phillips, Oli Jacobs, Lisa Murton, Jerome Boulve, Claire and All of my musical friends for their support and inspiration - Mark Kilminster, Doug Mussard, Andy Neve, Daniel Steinhardt, Steve Tilling,
Maggie at Real World Studios; Sotos Yiasimi at Ashwood Studios, Toni Diaz at Southampton Solent University, Sarah Louise Ewing, Nick Johnny Warman, Rich Willoughby; and my esteemed bandmates aboard this extraordinary vehicle. Long overdue thanks to Terry Jackson
Shilton, Nellie Pitts at The Merch Desk, Tim Bowness and Pete Morgan at Burning Shed, Mike Holmes and Anne Fox at GEP, Chris Topham for enabling my computer-dependent mastering system. Steve Warren and Paul Mabberley for the Road To Tokyo; Simon Hogg, Lou Young,
at Plane Groovy, Marc Oliver, Jo Bailey, Tiffany D’Virgilio, Sophie Kelly, Lisa Marklund, Amy Mumford, Wlady Porczynska, Kathy Spawton, Dan Coggins, Allan Rogan (get well soon), Rob Wells at Knight Guitars for fixing the Wandré, Mike Po at Chicago Stompworks for the
Yvonne Wootton, Robert Zimmer, Johan Reitsma, Bob Harris; Jerry Ewing, Dom Lawson, Dave Ling, Jo Kendall and their colleagues at Double Dave! Doctors and staff at the Fracture Unit at GW Hospital Swindon, and my lovely Yvonne for nursing care, love and more than I
Prog and Classic Rock magazines; Paolo Carnelli and colleagues at Prog Italia; Mario Giammetti and colleagues at Classic Rock Italia, David deserve.
Robinson and colleagues at the Classic Rock Society, John Collinge at Progression, Clemens Väth and Nicole Väth at Just For Kicks Music, Danny Manners would like to thank:
Sue Heather, Tobbe Janson and Dr Geoff Parks.
Sophie, Jake and Joe; my bandmates, for the good times and the good time; Rob Aubrey; and everyone out there listening.
Nick D’Virgilio would like to thank:
Andy Poole would like to thank:
My family for their unwavering support. Robbo, Sweetwater, Mark Hornsby, and everyone involved in the making of this record. My BBT
bandmates and the BBT Passengers. The Train family, the Poole family, Dr Wlady Porczynska, special friends and all our Passengers.
Rachel Hall would like to thank: Rikard Sjöblom would like to thank:
Andy, Greg, Rikard, Danny, David, Nick, Dave and Rob, Sotos at Ashwood Studios, the Folklore string quartet; Lucy, Evie and Keith, the brass Lisa. Greg, Andy, Dave, David, Danny, Rachel, Nick, the entire Big Big Train Family and the Passengers - all aboard - Thank you!
boys (Dave, Ben, Nick, John and Jon), cellist Philip Trzebiatowski and Rosie Swale Pope. A special thank you to friends and colleagues for Greg Spawton would like to thank:
your support (you know who you are!) to Sarah Coleman, all BBT Passengers and to Mum, Dad, Jeff and Nan. My bandmates and brass bandmates and their families for their friendship and support; my beautiful wife and best friend Kathy; my
David Longdon would like to thank: family Doreen, Will, Ellie, John, Nigel, Janet, Alex, Jez, Tom, Carolyn and John; colleagues and friends in the world of sound and vision
including Rob Aubrey, Mark Hornsby, Sarah Ewing, Nellie Pitts, Chris Topham, Nick Shilton, Tim Bowness, Pete Morgan, Zab Reichhuber,
Amy, Amelia, Eloise, Vera and all my family. My friends and bandmates aboard Big Big Train and their families. A special thank you to
Robert Zimmer, Johan Reitsma, Marc Oliver, Russell Mann, Patrick Phillips, Joe Lewis-Brown, Niall Hayden, Anthony Haikney, Ryan Bentley,
Christiana Vasiliou for your help. Rob and Jo, Joe and Mark at Aubitt, Dave Desmond and the brass lads. Sarah Ewing, Judy Dyble and Betty.
Mike Holmes, Anne Fox, Simon Hogg, Peter Callow, Emily Yarrow, Steve French, Dr Geoff Parks, Tomoo Homma, Willem Klopper, Kain Dear,
Simon and Jo Withers, Lorraine Poole for the photographs, Mini and Darren Kingman, Rog, Margi, Richard and Andy Lymn, Cameron
Martin Reijman, Lorraine Poole, Neil Palfreyman, Sotos Yiasimi, Judy Dyble, Dr Tony Pollard, Mark Benton, Mark Buckingham, Tim
Furnival, Jared and Cait. Garry Foster, Alison and Martin Reijman, Jerry Ewing, Russell Fairbrother, Hannah May Kilroy, Jo Kendall, Dave
Elsenberg, Miles Myerscough-Harris, Sue Heather, Tobbe Janson, Angus Prune and Mini Kingman. A special mention to Bob Harris, Jerry
Ling, Dave Everly, Simon Hogg, Pete and Emily Callow, Steve and Jo French, Nellie Pitts (Mrs Merch), Grant Moon, Natasha Scharf, Phil
Ewing, Jo Kendall, Dave Ling, Dom Lawson, Hannah May Kilroy, Russell Fairbrother, Grant Moon, Natasha Scharf, Philip Wilding, Geoff
Wilding and all at Prog Magazine, Steve and Jo Hackett, Bob Harris. Chris and Alex Topham and Plane Groovy, Rosie Platts, Francis
Barton, Mario Giammetti, Paolo Carnelli, Garry Foster, Jean-Marie Lanoë, Rich Wilson, Professor Brad Birzer, John Collinge, Roie Avin,
Dunnery, Fay Dunnery, Phil and Dom Beaumont, Gary Gerson, David Elliott, Patrick, Ollie, Claire, Beth, Lisa and all staff at Real World. Lisa
Alison Reijman, Jordan Blum, Darren Redik, Jason Warburg, Matt Spall, Cyrille Delanlssays, Didier Gonzalez, Paul Grunill, Phil Meek, Thierry
Wetton, Stephen Jon and Richard, Ian Mosley, Steve Rothery, Steve Hogarth, Joe Payne, Jason Hart, Peter and Kimberley Jones, Dave Sturt,
Istace, Paul Gleason, Steve Blomerth, Martin Hutchinson, Sami Wakim, Martyn Coppack and all the other broadcasters, journalists and
Kavus Torabi, Rob Reed, Christina Booth, Chris Fry, Mark Benton, Angus Prune, Sue Heather, Tobbe, Geoff and Beth Parks, Nick Shilton, Neil
writers who do so much to spread the word about rock music. Lastly, I would like to thank all the listeners who support the band by buying
Silverman and Newtone Strings. Martyn and Brian. Richard Harvey, Angela Lings, Bridget Fahey, Steven Brunt, Shane Easom for the
our music and merchandise and by helping to spread the word about Big Big Train. We couldn’t do what we do without you.
inspiration behind the title track of this release.