Big Special

In the organizer's words:

Presented by FUZE, VISIONS

In the beginning was a roar. "Shithouse", Big Special's first single, was released in the summer of 2023 - an angry, poetic, raw inventory of inner and outer neglect, delivered with the power of a punk and the urgency of a preacher. Joe Hicklin and Callum Moloney, two young men from the English Black Country, were headlining the Dublin Castle in Camden for the first time - a small club where legends are born or disappear forever.

Just twenty months later, the duo are performing at the sold-out O2 Forum Kentish Town, less than two kilometers from the venue of their first London gig. But the distance between these two stages can hardly be captured on a map. Over 2,000 people raise their arms in the air, singing, screaming and dancing to songs from their acclaimed debut "Postindustrial Hometown Blues". A work that combines British everyday despair with an almost sacred pathos - full of anger, full of humanity, deeply rooted in the post-industrial heart of England.

Big Special sound like an echo of the best moments of the Sleaford Mods, of the despair of early The Streets, coupled with the anthemic power of a working-class gospel. Their music is not beautiful in the classical sense - it is necessary. They speak of loneliness, of structural decay, of fractures and wounds, as felt by many in today's Europe. And that is precisely why they are touching. They accompany the Pixies on tour, play at major festivals, but remain true to their own, almost sacred mission: to give the truth a voice, in a language that doesn't sugarcoat anything.
"It's not a miracle, it's not a divine gift," says Hicklin. "We're just good at what we do. And we respect the audience." The second album is already finished - the focus is on the future. Because standing still is not an option for Big Special.

In the fall of 2025, the duo will be coming to Germany for a series of concerts. If you want to understand why music needs to be angry again - you should go.