Biography

If you want the short biography for press purposes please click here.

Also click here to check out the festivals we have done, large and small!.

Also in this section you have our discography and past gigs pages to check out.

Instead of a biography, we've decided it would be fun to put together more of a band history. While we dredge up the drunken memories and make up what we can't remember, here are the first 2 chapters to get you started. Keep an eye out for frequent updates.

Chapter 1 -– Anarchy In The West Country

The BiG officially formed in The Ram Bar at Exeter University in March 1998. Jim staggered up to Dave and slurred "Dave, you play guitar don't you?" Before Dave had replied "Yes", Jim carried on "Well you play bass now!"

Confused, Dave turned back to the bar and overheard Jim calling out in the distance "I've found the man..."

A few weeks earlier, Jim had met Ed on a park bench drinking Special Brew, and they began talking about music. Shortly afterwards, Jim filled in on drums with Ed's first Exeter band -“Itch-” after an all day drinking session at The Bowling Green. The set even included some early versions of The BiG's songs. They realised that they drank and played (!) very well together and decided to start a band.

In the early days the set was very ska, folk and punk influenced, played by a young, drunk and aggressive 3 piece. At our first gig a punter came up and said that he loved the music but asked if we needed a singer. Oh well...

Gary Beckley. Gary is a school friend of Ed's, and plays the trumpet. We'd invited him along to a few gigs to try and get him on board, but he obviously had no real interest in the band. In fact you might say he hated it. Still, eventually he reluctantly joined to form the first of the many brass sections.

The uncompromising delivery and diverse material quickly gained us a following, and soon we were playing the town's main venue, The Cavern.

Back on campus, it became clear that Exeter's mainly public school population loved being called cunts, and we began getting offered the black tie balls. This is where we got our first taste of playing with big names like Jools Holland, and sound checking through the Jazz Orchestra's set which was always a pleasure.

The BiG entered the studio for the first time in March 2000. We spent 3 days in a small farmhouse recording room. The resulting disc was an energetic but rough recording, but at last we had something to sell. All of the sudden the band felt more real. Some of the songs such as Big Time and PS are still in the set today. One song which was recorded but didn't make the disc (the take wasn't up to it) is on our latest 2006 release Whatever Makes You Happy.

The gigging and drinking continued, and we got a trombone player Chico. I'm sure he could play, but the 2 things I remember most about him were when he tried to clean his trombone out with Old Bastard Ale and having to sit out the rest of the set and having a full blown row with his girlfriend during a gig, from the stage. Them were days...

Time at university was nearing it's end, but we'd actually become quite goods friends and sort of musically dependent on each other. With the following we'd got, we were confident we could carry on the band in the big wide world.

Chapter 2 -– The Harsh Reality

We'd spent our first 2 years playing to captive audiences. We knew the crowds, we knew the promoters, we knew the crew, we knew all the other bands. We'd become accustomed to playing to large, forgiving, pissed crowds and every gig was a stormer. How naÃ¯ve we were.

Playing to real people is difficult. We quickly learnt that the discerning audience was a lot harder to convince. We were still confident in what we had, but going out and playing and gaining a following was not going to be easy.

That's not to say there weren't scenes. The Southend scene was good with the Kingpin bands, and the Chelmsford Army and Navy (RIP) scene was rocking. Our main disappointment was the lack of a scene in London, and the complete unwillingness of promoters to do any promoting.

Our first London gig was at the Rock Garden. They lied to us about the number through the door and refused to pay us. We've not been back funnily enough.

Soon after, Chico stopped being in touch and fell by the way side. The first of many trombonists to not hang around too long. The next time we saw him he said it was a shame we'd split up. Half an hour later he saw us on stage. He was dressed as a shepherd and spent the next hour conducting the band with his shepherd's crook. That was the last time we saw him.

I've always thought that the reason our brass section was so changeable in the early days was because Gary is impossible to work with. Just a passing thought...

Ellie, a long time fan and friend soon joined on tenor sax, and with Gary we at last had a brass section that would be constant for over 2 years, and would feature far more on our next record.

to be continued...

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