Big Special - Digital Newcastle 15th Feb 26

Photo By Stephen Cobb

When a gig starts with airhorns announcing it would be 10 minuets until the headliner takes the stage, you know you’re in for a treat. That’s exactly what we got at Digital for BIG SPECIAL, with the soundcheck before the chaos being a hit of airhorns rippling through the room followed by a loud “BIG SPECIAL IN 10 MINS TIME” announcement.

The duo, consisting of vocalist Joe and drummer Callum took to the stage supporting a thumbs up each out to the crowd, who were more than happy to see them! A room full of fans all ready for what was coming next. What came next was a feature length showcase of unapologetic British punk! Not only that, BIG SPECIAL also have one of my personal favourite traits of a band (especially a two piece) in being that the drummer also does a large portion of vocals as well. I’m a huge fan of this dynamic and BIG SPECIAL pull it off effortlessly.

Photo By Stephen Cobb

The show started powerful and energetic with songs such as “BLACK COUNTRY GOTHIC” and “GOD SAVE THE PONY” which not only got the crowd moving, but there was every lyric being shouted back at the band. This was a true room of fans interacting with the artist. They didn’t keep this energy sky high the whole way through however, with rises and falls leaving space for the slower songs to have their time to shine. The most notable was “DRAGGED UP A HILL (and thrown down the other side) which was very vulnerably dedicated to a close friend of the band who had recently passed away from cancer. 

This message was interweaved throughout the whole show, with every band all mentioning the same two things. One being that they were all holding a raffle at the merch table with £2 tickets to win a signed drum skin and a package of merch with all proceeds going to the widow and children of their sadly passed friend. This gesture made the whole show feel all that more special, it gave it purpose outside of enjoying the music. The second was the chants of “Fuck Cancer” from both bands and crowd between every couple of songs, creating a real sense of togetherness.

My personal favourite parts of the show was BIG SPECIAL’s ability to segue between songs with an air of comedy and class. The most notable was to introduce and enter into their song “YESBOSS.”, drummer Callum Moloney was faking an argument with his manager off stage, talking to the crowd and then back to the off stage manager he exclaimed; “He gets paid for every song we play, ok ok ok we’ll hurry along no worries boss, yes boss, yes boss!”

Photo By Stephen Cobb

This message was then continued to go into their final song of the set before the encore, their 2023 single – “SHITHOUSE” which you could really tell was one that was highly anticipated from the crowd with an explosion of cheers and woos once the song started. They might have been 13 songs deep into the setlist at this point, but both BIG SPECIAL and Newcastle still had more to give each other, and give they did! 

The Newcastle crowd even came up with some new chants for the band, with vocalist Joe saying he would be writing that one down for the next show, and the one I will leave you with to sum up this evening of unapologetic, hip shaking punk.

“BIG SPECIAL, BIG SPECIAL, THEY’RE TAKING OFF THE ROOF!”

Photo By Stephen Cobb

Article & Photography by Stephen Cobb