Gregory Spawton

Gregory Spawton (born 17 May 1965) is an English musician and songwriter, best known as the bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and founder of English progressive rock band Big Big Train.

Early life Spawton was brought up in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. The first prog album he heard was Selling England by the Pound by Genesis, which belonged to his brother Nigel, when he was 12.

Career

Spawton moved to Bournemouth in 1987 who also played acoustic guitar.

Their debut album, Goodbye to the Age of Steam, was released in 1994, with Spawton writing or co-writing all the tracks. He also filled the role of keyboardist after the departure of Cooper for sessions of 1997's English Boy Wonders, before Tony Müller joined as Cooper's replacement for a rare live show at the Astoria, London. and Mike Holmes of IQ also having some involvement.

In 2009, the band had a fresh start with Sean Filkins and Steve Hughes leaving and being replaced by David Longdon and Nick D'Virgilio. The album also featured Dave Gregory of XTC on guitars, sitar, Mellotron, with Jem Godfrey playing a synth solo and Francis Dunnery playing a guitar solo on the titular track. The album also featured a four-piece brass section and Jon Foyle on cello. This line-up continued and released Folklore (2016), Grimspound (2017) and The Second Brightest Star (2017) before Poole departed in January 2018, with Robin Armstrong joining on tour in his place. Spawton has played bass on Armstrong's album, The Man Left In Space with Cosmograf. They released Grand Tour in 2019, which was the last for Hall, Manners and Gregory who all departed in 2020.

Spawton played bass and bass pedals on Between A Breath And A Breath by Judy Dyble and David Longdon in 2020.

The band was rebuilt with Dave Foster (guitars), Carly Bryant (vocals & keyboards) and new violinist Clare Lindley (also ex Stackridge). The former two had performed on Common Ground (2021) and all performed on Welcome to the Planet (2022) which was the last of new material to feature David Longdon, who died in November 2021.

The band has since continued with lead vocalist Alberto Bravin, whom Spawton had seen performing with Premiata Forneria Marconi in 2015 in Camden Town, London.

Outside of Big Big Train, Spawton has played bass on Butterfly Mind (2022) by Tim Bowness. He also played 12-string guitar on David Longdon's posthumous album Door One.

Personal life Spawton has two children — Ellie (born in 1994) and John (born in 1996). He married his wife, Kathryn, in April 2015.

Spawton has written songs about his childhood and many historical events and people.

He worked as a specialist on homelessness until 2016, when Big Big Train's success made him able to become a full-time musician.

Discography