British duo Big Special wear their hearts on their sleeves and throw a party that wants to change the world. From fundraising for food banks outside and raffles to support those bereaved by cancer to the spoken word poetry punctuating the evening, it’s so obvious that Big Special are beyond genuine in their desire to make their impact wherever their tour takes them.
Big Special @ Roundhouse
GANS prove a welcome surprise on support, with flute solos into sax solos sparking a bombastic, speeding retro grit on In Time. Just when you’ve got a handle on their sound, they veer into another intriguing direction, with long instrumentals taking us by the hand down urban alleyways from one song to the next. Laying on the synth for Nightwalking lets our euphoria surface before the riot that is I Think I Like You, everything they touch powered by an irrepressible sense of innovation and motion. Drummer Euan Woodman jumps into the crowd for last song, his vocals echoing under the blue light, samples rattling as a raving whirlpool ripples from him, ensuring that GANS leave a lasting impression in our minds.
Striding out, Big Special offer roses to the crowd, endearing themselves to us before they even blast a note. Black Country Gothic provides a rowdy start, jolting between rousing polemic and that gorgeous blues voice, endlessly driven onwards by the drumbeat. They’re the definition of grassroots minimalism used to create the maximum sound. Joe Hicklin’s everyman monologue for Hug A Bastard makes Big Special feel gentler and more authentic than their contemporaries but with a firm rein on what makes the mundane great.
The first lightning moment arrives via This Here Ain’t Water, the sound of the apocalypse brewing over the Midlands, swooping through iconic singalong lines and spoken word like a harbinger, before the stage virtually crackles with power for Black Dog White Horse. These songs alone make for a masterful performance that grasps and shakes you, but the way that Sluglife burns in the night, with a roar and a plea which demands through its rises and falls and a drifting loveliness just cements the feeling that we’re watching a band who are, for want of a better word, something ‘Special’. It’s hard to believe that Big Special have only existed as a band for four years, but as Hicklin takes a single spotlight for Dragged Up A Hill (And Thrown Down The Other Side), adding crashes and clashing corners to the verses with a tense, vulnerable growl that creeps into his vocals with each mighty wail, their progress and impact is undeniable.
Of course, it’s not all emotional rawness, though Big Special aren’t afraid to lay it all out. Shop Music turns the party back on, turning cynicism into solidarity, and Yesboss sees pits forming of folk unreservedly jumping for joy. The warmth of Shithouse, a song to scream into the void of disaffection with a smile on your face, brightens the final slice of the show, and it feels like the afterparty blending into the present as Hicklin parades through the crowd on Trees, kickstarting a wholesome whole crowd jump that’s bigger than all of us.
Tonight is the kind of night to restore any lost faith in humanity through warmth and celebration of what makes daily life a miracle. As Big Special only grow in force, it’ll be a delight to see how they sustain themselves as a force for good.
Review of Big Special live at Roundhouse, London on 27th February 2026 by Kate Allvey, photography by Louise Phillips
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