Big Big Train crash into the midweek album chart at No. 9!

UK prog rockers Big Big Train have crashed into the midweek album charts at No. 9 with their brand new album Common Ground.

The news prompted the Official Chat Company to tweet "A fantastic start to the chart week for Big Big Train! Their new album Common Ground could be their first to enter the Official Albums Chart Top 10."

As with many album-centric acts who rely heavily on pre-sales, that position is likely to fall come Friday's official chart announcement, but it inspires hope that the new album may emulate or better 2019's Grand Tour which reached No. 35 in the album chart.

Big Big Train's Greg Spawton commented: "This extraordinary position is likely to be highly misleading as our sales are slanted very much towards pre-orders. So, by the end of the week, when the charts are finally calculated, we will be lucky to retain a Top 40 position (which would still be very exciting for us as we have only had one Top 40 album previously.)

"Are the charts important? Well, the charts are nothing like the old days and we won't be ordering any Rolls Royces on the back of a Top 40 album. BUT, chart positions help bands because newspapers, magazines, festivals, tv and radio stations take them very seriously. Therefore, a chart place will help open doors for Big Big Train."

When put in perspective however, the band's feat appears all the more remarkable (remember Steven Wilson's midweek for The Future Bites was No. 3). This is a band releasing their 19th album, in their 31st year of existence, who get little or no mainstream media coverage.

Whichever way you look at it, this is pretty good news for both Big Big Train and progressive music as a whole.

Get Common Ground.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.