BIG SPECIAL have released a surprise new album NATIONAL AVERAGE., out today on SO Recordings. It arrives after days of the band teasing projections of the album’s artwork across London landmarks.

The Black Country duo of Joe Hicklin and Callum Moloney have wasted no time in following up last year’s acclaimed UK Top 40 debut album POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES, and are also sharing a video for the new album’s lead single ‘GOD SAVE THE PONY’, along with a big run of UK instore performances which begin tonight.

When BIG SPECIAL first emerged, their contorted mix of existential bellowing, vehement poetic polemics and soulful, sky-scraping vocals and hard-hitting punk instantly set them apart. Huge tours and festival headline spots followed, and somewhere in amongst the chaos of the ensuing year, the pair found time to write new album NATIONAL AVERAGE. It’s a record on which the band lose none of that early fire or potency, and instead expand their sound to incorporate elements of funk, lavishing it with their characteristic darkness and black humour, honestly representing their lives in the only way they know how. It focusses on brotherhood, pressing on through the changes in their lives, big and small.

Commenting on the new single, lead singer Joe Hicklin says: “‘GOD SAVE THE PONY.’ Is about the stones we carry. The different things that pull people down; the invisible weights that they have to drag through their everyday. On the personal level, it’s about reckoning with change. Reflecting on the moral obligations we have to ourselves and others and the mixture of the failures and successes in sticking to those. The weight of following a personal moral line is heavy on everyone’s shoulders. The song is a recognition of this strain in ourselves and others, and a well wish to keep going, whatever you have that drags behind.”

Continuing about the album, he says: “‘NATIONAL AVERAGE.’ Is an album about the multitudes of a normal life as it begins to change. It’s about the stages of reflection on an average life as it moves further away. It’s about personal and political problems remaining the same as a life changes around them and they all begin to weave together.”

Where POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES was about desperation and hope, NATIONAL AVERAGE. takes those feelings forward and confidently charges through the confusion with gritted teeth behind a snarky smile. It goes down an emotional descent of picking oneself and society apart, whilst recognising the links of struggle that hang in every person, regardless of time and experience.

BIG SPECIAL – UK instore performances

04 Jul – Rough Trade East, London (Instore) – 7pm
05 Jul – Rough Trade, Bristol (Instore) – 1pm
06 Jul – Banquet, Kingston upon Thames (Instore) – 6pm
09 Jul – Eclipse Records, Walsall (Instore) – 1pm
14 Jul – Resident, Brighton (Instore) – 6.30pm
15 Jul – Rough Trade Nottingham (Instore) – 6pm
16 Jul – Rough Trade, Liverpool (Instore) – 7pm

Tickets are on sale now HERE.

BIG SPECIAL tour dates 2025

09 Jul – KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton, UK
10 Jul – 2000 Trees Festival, UK
12 Jul – Cactus Festival, Bruges, BE
25-28 Jul – Deer Shed Festival, Thirsk, UK
08 Oct – Cactus Café, Bruges, BE
09 Oct – Trix Bar, Antwerp, BE
10 Oct – Rotown, Rotterdam, NL
11 Oct – Bitterzoet, Amsterdam, NL
12 Oct – Hall of Fame, Tilburg, NL
14 Oct – Loppen, Copenhagen, DK
15 Oct – Lux, Hannover, DE
16 Oct – Kantine, Berlin, DE
17 Oct – Chmury, Warsaw, PL
18 Oct – Café V lese, Prague, CZ
22 Oct – Arena, Vienna, AUT
23 Oct – Santeria, Milan, IT
24 Oct – Exil, Zurich, CH
25 Oct – Orangehouse, Munich, DE
28 Oct – MTC, Cologne, DE
29 Oct – La Boule Noire, Paris, FR
31 Oct – Razzmatazz 3, Barcelona, ESP
01 Nov – El Sol, Madrid, ESP

BIG SPECIAL UK & Ireland 2026 headline tour dates

13 Feb – The Waterfront, Norwich, UK +
14 Feb – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK +
15 Feb – Digital, Newcastle, UK +
18 Feb – University Stylus, Leeds, UK +
19 Feb – SWG3 Warehouse, Glasgow, UK +
20 Feb – New Century Hall, Manchester, UK +
21 Feb – O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK +
24 Feb – Electric Bristol, Bristol, UK +
25 Feb – The 1865, Southampton, UK +
27 Feb – Roundhouse, London, UK ^ + △
06 Mar – The Workman’s Club, Dublin, IE
07 Mar – Ulster Sports Club, Belfast, UK

+ = Support from GANS
^ = Support from Liz Lawrence
△ = Support from Good Health Good Wealth