BIG SPECIAL HEADLINE DOT-TO-DOT FESTIVAL WARM UP

LIVE REVIEW | BIG SPECIAL w/ Good Health Good Wealth | OSLO, HACKNEY 5th May 2025 by Tom Jenkinson

This year’s Dot-To-Dot Festival kicked off with a special warm-up show from Midlands-based duo BIG SPECIAL at Hackney’s independent venue, Oslo. The multi-venue festival promotes the best in new music whilst simultaneously supporting grassroots venues across Nottingham and Bristol. This year’s edition is supported by Spanish beer partners Son Estrella Galicia, whose independent status makes them a fine bedfellow for this year’s offering.

Support comes from London’s very own Good Health Good Wealth, a cheeky cockney counterpoint to the bleak, post-industrial sound of BIG SPECIAL. Their set is fun and funky, and songs “Love Hangover” and “Eating Good” instantly hit for anyone not familiar with their sound. There is a clear nod to influences like The Streets or Blur (think Phil Daniel’s contribution to Parklife) with their spoken-word musings on love, money, drugs, and old school East-End gangsterism but there is also an earnest side to the duo, with set opener “Guinness” showing a tenderness to their music and lyrics.

The pair, comprising of London born and bred Bruce Breakey (vocals) and Lithuanian guitarist/producer (and model, believably, according to the band’s website) Simon Kuzmickas, met in a pub a decade before, with their current sound developing by coming away from the traditional band setup and working together on their music during the COVID lockdown. A video on their YouTube titled, “If Del Boy and Rodney dedicated their time to music” is probably a fair assessment of their dynamic. The band have announced a UK tour and appearances at the litany of UK festivals they are set to play should not be missed.

The small upper room in Oslo swells in size in anticipation for the Black Country duo BIG SPECIAL. There is a heightened energy for the duo, perhaps brought on by unseasonably warm start to May, causing a sweaty fervour amongst attendees. The band, comprising of Joe Hicklin and Callum Moloney, set the tone of their set from the off: throwing slices of bread to the crowd telling them that by the end of the night ‘that will be toast’, and encouraging everyone to put their thumbs up. This is a band about duality, showing the misery of modern living and finding fun in its absurdity (“I mock joggers because I’m insecure about my weight/I should be out running/but I’m always running away or running late”).

BIG SPECIAL have impressed tastemakers with their debut album POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES and live, tracks “DESPERATE BREAKFAST” and “BLACK DOG / WHITE HORSE” show a beautiful interplay between lyrical poeticism and a drum-heavy, angry sound. In the loft bar, Hicklin brings with him an air of gothic preacher holding sermon, while Moloney beats the drums with the kind of fanaticism you would expect from the most fervent of congregants. There is a refined, polished sound to their set, likely coming from their recent dedication to writing and recording their sole major release, but also from the tightness between every lyric sung, and every drumbeat played. With only two members, it seems that they understand that there is little room to hide on stage.

BIG SPECIAL are on tour with Pixies on their Sold Out UK tour this month, while Good Health Good Wealth head on a UK/Ireland headline tour this November, with tickets on sale now.

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Tom Jenkinson

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