Big River are back! – live at The 100 Club, London 25 February 2025

Review by Tim Marcus with photos from Sam Conquest Photography

Big River are back! We saw them for the first time just as the world was beginning to return to normal after Covid when they opened proceedings on the main stage for the final day of the 2021 A New Day Festival. With then new singer Adam Baron (ex Mick Ralphs Band) on board, from this point, things started to take off for these Medway based heavy blues rockers as word spread of their talent and their name began to appear on an increasing number of festival billings and the gig diary grew.

A further change in line up early the following year saw Simon Gardiner taking over the bass playing duties from Ant Wellman and along with drummer Joe Martin and band founder Damo Fawsett (lead guitar), this line up continued the bands upward trajectory over the next three years as they also came to the attention of established promoters such as Solid Entertainments. This in turn saw their name appearing on some of the line ups of the regular weekend blues festivals put on around the country by Solid Entertainments as well as appearances at some of their regular Tuesday Night Blues events put on at the iconic 100 Club (our location for this evening) and some great support slots with the likes of Brave Rival and GA-20 to name but two.

However, just three days before they were scheduled to play their biggest festival to date, having been one of two local bands to win a public vote to fill the final two places on the Firestarter Stage at last year’s Maid of Stone Festival in Kent, front man Adam found himself being admitted to hospital following a visit to A&E after experiencing chest pains and a shortness of breath whilst at work that day.

After a series of blood tests, x-rays, ECGs and scans, it turned out that Adam had blood clots on both lungs! Fortunately Adam is made of strong stuff (or maybe it’s just the high levels of rum and coke in his bloodstream!) and whilst it was a long road to recovery, towards the end of 2024, thankfully, Adam was fit enough to gig again. Also, at around this time, drummer and main stay of the band Joe Martin and his wife, moved house to be closer to their family and as a result, it was mutually agreed that it was no longer practical for Joe to remain in the band.

This meant that after just one gig in about seven months due to Adam’s illness, Big River now found themselves without a drummer. Joe’s parting gift to the band however was to recommend his replacement and that recommendation came in the shape of Becky Scott. Becky had “stood in” for Joe at their only gig since Adam’s illness, when they played at The Ship in Gillingham at the end of November and whilst unfortunately we weren’t there to witness it, she clearly passed the audition

So back to tonight, and raring to go, Big River are opening proceedings here at The 100 Club for one of its regular Tuesday Night Blues sessions for joint headliners Grainne Duffy and Stevie Nimmo. As always these Tuesday night sessions put on by Solid Entertainments are excellent value for money, and more often than not, as is the case this evening, you get to hear three excellent artists or bands for less than twenty quid! And tonight, whilst playing first, Big River are in luck as joint headliner Stevie Nimmo has a

relatively short solo acoustic set this evening, meaning that Big River get to play for 45 minutes rather than the 30 minutes normally allocated to the opening band at these events.

So it’s Becky’s first gig as a fully fledged member of the band tonight and there are no real surprises in the set list; it’s pretty much what the band had been playing before Adam was hospitalised last year. They kick things off with some hard rocking blues in the shape of “Hometown Hustler” and follow up swiftly “The Long Way”, a single release from 2022. Adam then picks up his ukulele and briefly re-tells the story of how at a previous show here at the 100 Club, he’d forgotten to bring his uke with him (you just had one thing to bring!) so to save the day, his wife had to dash out to one of London’s priciest music stores on Denmark Street to buy the only ukulele they had left in stock so that Adam could play it at the show an hour later! With uke in hand, Adam strums the opening chords and we hear the ever popular “Don’t Hold Out”, a song that Adam wrote, not particularly with the band in mind however when he played it to them they loved it and it’s now an integral part of their set. The hard rocking “Devil’s Whiskey” follows as we then pay homage to their multi talented ex drummer, Joe, with one of his songs, “Why Should I?” Two more tracks from their 2022 “Beautiful Trauma” EP then follow; “Slow Burn” and then the title track.

There’s usually a cover or two in a full Big River set and whilst I said earlier that there were no surprises, this came in the form of one I don’t think I’ve heard them play before, Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground”. Not that I’m a great Stevie Wonder fan but Big River’s take on this particular song, it has to be said, fitted into the set seamlessly. The set is finished off tonight with two songs composed by bass man Simon Gardiner, the first a new one I’ve not heard before, “Rattlesnake Love” and the second, a song that seems to have established itself over the past year or so as their regular set closer, the beautiful “Wings”.

What can I say? It’s been absolutely fantastic to see these great guys back in action again. It was a confident and powerful “debut” performance from Becky behind the drums, Damo’s playing was as mesmerizing as usual, Adam was as charismatic as ever and Simon’s solid bass lines held the whole thing together . My only “disappointment” (if it’s actually possible to be disappointed at a Big River gig) was that two of my personal favourites weren’t played tonight however I appreciate that there are only so many songs you can fit into a 45 minute set! (“Dancing with the Devil” and “Tennessee Whiskey” next time please guys?). The overall take on tonight however is simply how wonderful it is to see these guys back on stage where they belong and enjoying themselves so much doing what they do best.

If you’ve not seen Big River before then keep an eye out for them. The good news is that the good folks at the Maid of Stone Festival and Emerging Rock Bands (who support the Firestarter Stage at the festival) have held the

spot for them that they unfortunately had to miss last year so they will be playing at this year’s festival on Saturday 19th July, and don’t be at all surprised to see their name pop up elsewhere as the year progresses.