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ABOUT 'FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA'
From the River is a document from the very earliest days of BIG BIG TRAIN. The band was formed by Andy Poole, Ian Cooper and Gregory Spawton in 1990. Greg's first band in the early 1980's was called EQUUS, which also featured Phil Hogg, the drummer on 'Bard'. Andy was in a band called ARCSHINE, a synth based project, with Ian Cooper. After leaving university, Greg moved to Bournemouth where he met Andy. They were both big IQ fans and started to work on some music. At the same time, ARCSHINE continued in a separate parallel existence.
From memory, Least Peculiar Thing was the first song worked at by me and Andy prior to the band being formed with Ian. Jas was also an early song, and another track from the pre-band days, called Twelve, was absorbed into Kingmaker which was released on the 'Infant Hercules' demo.
As a three piece, with Ian on keyboards and Andy on bass, we worked up most of the material that appeared on From the River. We didn't have a singer, so pretty much everything started out as an instrumental, with words and melodies added at a later stage when Martin joined the band.
In April 1991, with Steve now also in tow, work began on recording a demo. Originally, From the River was intended to be a tape release only. After gaining some good reviews, it was suggested that we press it as a CD and so we recorded two additional tracks in early 1992, did some overdubs and re-released it in its current format.
From the River kicks off with a track called To the Sea, which sets the musical theme of the album, heavily influenced by IT BITES.
Returning to the Fold was one of the two newer songs recorded for the CD version, similar in tone to the previous track. Jas and Full Head of Steam were a bit more ambitious but, like much of the album, awkwardly arranged.
The next section is a lot more interesting, however, and lays down a marker for our more developed material. Indian Souls was a Martin Read composition, a simple acoustic guitar lament with some nice keyboards from Ian. This segued directly into an acoustic guitar instrumental, River. These two tracks, and the thematic link between them were a direct precursor to 'Goodbye to the Age of Steam'. Friend Inside was an awkward beast, a BBT version of an ARCSHINE song. Stolen Glances was, if anything, even more clumsy in its execution, and the nadir of our IT BITES obsession.
Less Is More was a kind of jazzy pop song whilst Downhilling was the biggest progressive beast on the album, sounding a bit like Mama period GENESIS.
The penultimate track was a sweet ballad, Along Came Sarah, and the closing song was Least Peculiar Thing, the very first BIG BIG TRAIN song.
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