Big Special / Stylus / Leeds
Having been unavailable on the night they visited Nottingham, this was a tour we simply couldn’t miss, so we headed up the M1 to Leeds and the Stylus in the University Campus to check out fast rising stars Big Special on their ‘National Average’ UK tour.
First up on stage are Good Health Good Wealth, an alternative singer songwriter duo consisting of London vocalist, songwriter and producer Bruce Breakey and Lithuanian guitarist, producer and model Simon Kuzmickas. They have released one album so far, 2025’s “This Time Next Year We’ll Be Millionaires” and they’ve made an impact with airtime on BBC Introducing, 6 Music and Radio 1.
Their songs focus on treating a path through life looking for happiness, dipping into subjects such as love, money, sex, stereotypes, and all the colourful schemes and situations dealt with by everyday people. It’s not overtly political, it’s more about unity and spreading positivity in our bleak modern world.
And they do it brilliantly. Bruce, with his left arm in a sling, sporting a Big Special scarf has been in the wars, but does a stellar job on vocals, and spent every moment between songs interacting with the crowd and explaining what the songs are about. Simon on guitar moved fluidly around the stage. Their sound is a delightful blend of garage, indie rock, and electronic beats with vocals sung and sometimes delivered in a more spoken word fashion.
Good Health Good Wealth were energetic, fun and enjoyable, a great start to the night.
Next up are GANS a two-piece from the West Midlands. They are Thomas Rhodes (bass & vocals) and Euan Woodman (drums & vocals) who met whilst at college studying music. They released their debut album “Good for the Soul” last year, which tackled subjects such as body image, self-acceptance and self-destruction.
They are joined by Tommy Lawther on sax for these shows. GANS are high energy and deliver a solid set of songs about love and hate, influenced by their working class foundations and family roots. These experiences have helped shape their style and sound that spans harsh reality and escapism.
Euan is a force of nature, thrashing out a ferocious beat on the drums, shouting and encouraging the crowd to get involved at every opportunity. Later in the set, he steps out from behind the drums and instructs the crowd to open up a circle pit, before climbing down off the stage and joining in the chaos. He is lifted high above their heads and transferred on a sea of hands back up onto the stage.
High intensity from start to finish, GANS deliver a headliner of a set, perhaps the highlight for me being a great version of I Think I Like You.
If the Stylus crowd needed any hyping up to be ready for Big Special, then GANS were happy to oblige.
We had already enjoyed two great duo’s and yet there is one more to come, in the form of tonight’s headliners Big Special, are a musical duo from Walsall in the Black Country. They are Joe Hicklin (vocals) and Callum Moloney (drums). They dropped their debut album “Postindustrial Hometown Blues” in 2024, and followed that with “National Average” in late 2025.
Big Special have been building a strong and loyal fanbase, but perhaps came to a wider audience late in 2025 when they guested alongside Gwendoline Christie, on the Sleaford Mods single Good Life, from their latest album “The Demise of Planet X”.
The stage is bare, with a simple small riser in the back right corner for Callum’s drums, the rest of the stage bare, to allow Joe to wander as he sings. As they step out into the spotlight, the Leeds crowd go wild. Stylus was packed, and their was a fantastic buzz, and energy around the room. Big Special write with a great sense of dark humour, but with a subtle intensity and truth to their lyrics, which Joe delivers with a unique vocal style, that conveys emotion and yet has a fun element to it as well.
The set was packed with fan favourites from both “Postindustrial Hometown Blues” and “National Average”. Older tracks such as Shithouse with it’s more raw edge, go down an absolute blast alongside more recent hits such as Hug a Bastard and YesBoss from the new album.
And Big Special make a big sound, like many other duo’s such as The Meffs and Virginmary’s, their sound seems to far outweigh their numbers, their beats bouncing off the Stylus walls. At every opportunity Joe and Callum and chatting with the crowd, and joking, and the big, broad grins never leave their faces for a second.
For me, the highlights were the fan favourite Black Dog / White Horse that has the crowd singing along in unison, and the most recent singles Sluglife and Dragged Up a Hill (and Thrown Down the Other Side).
Big Special are just that…… a big sound and very very special. With great support from both Good Health Good Wealth and GANS, Big Special delivered a fun packed set to send the Leeds faithful home happy
Big Special look to have a great future ahead of them, and if you haven’t seen Big Special live yet ? you need to fix that as soon as you can.
