A Handstamp Interview with Big Special

Hi. Handstamp is a weekly music newsletter created by me, Josh Coyne. In each edition, I talk to a creative person about live performances that have meant something to them. Previous guests include Anna B Savage, Cassandra Jenkins, Chastity Belt, Chet Faker, Christian Lee Hutson, Courtney Marie Andrews, Craig Finn, Gold Panda, Holy Fuck, Idlewild, Jasmine.4.t, Jason Stewart, Madi Diaz, Mat Baynton, NoSo, Public Service Broadcasting, Richard Dawson, Rio Kosta, Searows, Uwade and We Are Scientists.

Joe: “I grew up on Greatest Hits compilations. We had the classics, from Michael Jackson, Prince, ABBA and Queen. Queen’s was my first big one, when it comes to music. Then when I was older, when I would visit my dad, he would show me more stuff from his era, like Jimi Hendrix and Free. Then you go off on your own and find your own stuff, which is when I got really into Red Hot Chili Peppers, which was the first band that I found and loved.”

Handstamp: Similar trajectory here. The Beatles was my entry point, then the Chili Peppers became an obsession as a teenager. What was your entry point to music, Callum?

Callum: “Mine was quite Midlands-centric actually, mainly through my dad’s record collection. Black Sabbath was a big one, of course. He was also a big Sex Pistols fan, Ramones too. Then I ventured out by finding Mike Skinner, the first record I loved outside of my dad’s collection was The Streets’ Original Pirate Material. I loved that it was from the Midlands and my dad hadn’t heard of it. I loved being able to show up my dad that way, cool moment. But over the years, as a drummer, I’ve tried to listen to as much as I can and find what I would be interested in playing. When I met Joe, he was the Midlands Bob Dylan, he was playing folk music and introduced me to so much great stuff - Townes Van Zandt and other….”

Joe: “…sad shit...”

Callum: “[laughs] yeah, sad shit.”

Handstamp: It’s good to have that balance. It’s great that he was able to bring a little bit of misery in your life, where needed.

Joe: “[laughs]..and I still do, to this day.”

“I never wanted it to be a conscious thing, I just wanted to break down the barrier so I naturally felt comfortable acting a way that I wouldn’t anywhere else.”

Handstamp: Did you meet in Birmingham?

Callum: “Yeah, at college. I’m from North Birmingham and Joe’s from Walsall, so we were about 10 miles apart, but we both did a BTEC in Music Performance at Matthew Boulton College in the city. We owe them a lot, to be honest. It was like a film on the first day of college, when the tutor said ‘you play drums, you play guitar, go make some tunes together.’ Heather Young was the tutor, so thanks to her.”

Handstamp: That’s great, but it’s something you wouldn’t find believable in a music biopic. Feels a bit on-the-nose.

Joe: “[laughs] absolutely.”

Handstamp: As you were both studying, I assume you threw yourself into the city’s live scene?

Callum: “I think we were in the prime era of gigs in Birmingham, before everything started closing. We had the Carling Academy, before it turned into the O2. That was amazing, because it was one of the multi-sized venues where you had 200-cap, 500-cap, 1000-cap. I went to see so many shows there. Then The Rainbow in Digbeth, where all the raves would happen.”

Joe: “Then there was Scruffy Murphy’s, the underground metal pub. There would be all sorts of gigs there. A place called Sound Bar, where we’d put gigs on sometimes. Then of course, the NEC, the arena for all the big deals that come to town.”

Callum: “It’s all turned into other things now, but it was very sceney at the time. The problem with the smaller places is that the industry eventually cottoned on to all the gigs being half full. Loads of gigs were happening but they weren’t always busy.”

Handstamp: That could be a Midlands thing. I’ve spent a lot of my time in Leicester and there are similar struggles, in terms of attracting touring bands, keeping DIY scenes alive due to fading public interest and a lack of funding. One example that always stands out to me was when I saw Albert Hammond JR from The Strokes play to about 6 people in Leicester and I’m pretty sure he’d played Jimmy Kimmel or something else that same week. Humbling.

Callum: “The mad thing is, you’ve got Nottingham round the corner and whenever we announce a tour, Nottingham is the first place to sell out, no matter the size of venue. They’re just hungry for it there and it’s just down the road.”

Handstamp: There is something different about Nottingham, compared to other Midlands cities. Rock City and Rescue Rooms right next to each other, excellent venues. Going back briefly, what was the first show you ever saw?

Joe: “My dad took me and a mate to see Red Hot Chili Peppers in Hyde Park around 2003. The bill was Chicks on Speed, James Brown and the Chili Peppers. I was a little fat kid, it was my first gig and there were 80,000 people there, it blew my mind. Seeing James Brown as well, pretty great.”

Handstamp: I went to that tour also and Chicks on Speed did not get a warm reception.

Joe: “Yeah, they were booed off stage at Hyde Park and ran off stage crying. It was a bad decision on the billing.”

Handstamp: As you said, seeing James Brown is a bucket list experience but half of the set was just his band chanting his name, I seem to remember.

Joe: “I don’t really remember that. I was just awestruck to be in the same space as people like James Brown. It was supposed to be Pixies supporting, which is why I started listening to Pixies, I got a burned CD of Doolittle in preparation for the show.”

Handstamp: There’s something about the Chili Peppers that really captured the imagination for our generation.

Joe: “Absolutely.”

Handstamp: What about you, Callum?

Callum: “Me and my sister went to see Busted at the NEC Arena. It blew my little mind. The first gig I remember really wanting to go to after that was Flogging Molly, who I was obsessed with at the time. I saw them at the Carling Academy when I was 13. It was my first sweaty standing gig and I remember thinking it was crazy. My first mosh pit.”

Handstamp: There have been a few people tell me their first gig was Busted, you know? In a recent interview, Chartreuse told me the same.

Callum: “We’re very coded in Busted in our band.”

Joe: “We wear our influences on our sleeves.”

Handstamp: I have to relisten after this call, to see if I can pick that up. Was there a specific gig that made you really want to perform?

Callum: “I was really lucky, because my neighbour Kyle was a drummer in a thrash metal band. He was a sort of older brother figure to me when I was 10, so I saw his band a lot when I was a kid. It was so loud and abrasive, I thought it was a crazy thing to do in front of people. I don’t remember the name of the band and couldn’t tell you a tune but I just remember watching him batter the kit. Every time he got off stage, I’d pester him to have a go. Then later on, I saw Chris Cornell perform with Soundgarden at Download, I think. I was really into grunge at the time and that gig just felt transformative. I remember thinking I wanted to be involved in live music from that night.”

Handstamp: Joe?

Joe: “There was an open mic night that a few of my friends would go to. We’d go there because we could get away with drinking underage, at about 15 or 16. I’d been playing in my room for a while and a few of my friends would get up to perform, but I didn’t have the confidence for it. One night though, we were drunk and I got up, got a really good reception playing one of the first songs I had ever written and a few covers. The old guy who ran the bar was well impressed and it was one of the first times I remember wanting to be involved. It was great to see so many people getting up to express themselves. I loved the atmosphere. I’d do that all the time, then I spread out, went to jam nights to play blues music and enjoyed it so much. I loved seeing other people perform, even when it was crap.”

“We didn’t want to have to round up a bunch of people in their thirties and expect them to be on the same wave length, you know?”

Handstamp: Having started Big Special during COVID, I guess you had a unique introduction into what live shows would look like for you as a band. Have you had to reverse-engineer yourself into the live setting?

Joe: “There was a lot of that, yeah. We knew we could do it throughout lockdown, because we trusted that connection that we used to have before. A couple of years before that, we got together to have a jam and I had recorded some stuff that Cal came and recorded drums on. There were so many pinpoint reminders for me throughout the previous decade that me and Cal just gelled doing this stuff. He was the only person I wanted to be involved when this got going. I was always confident that when we were in a room together, we’d be fine. In fact, I remember thinking that years before, when we were in a band together but he went off to uni, I thought that if he just stayed, we’d be able to make a go of it. But I’m glad he did go, because now we’ve had this chance. But yeah, after COVID it felt like starting again really. It was something totally new for us.”

Callum: “I also think we were writing stuff without thinking about how it was going to sound live, which influenced the music. We knew early on that we’d use a track, that just seemed obvious.”

Joe: “Yeah, we didn’t want to have to round up a bunch of people in their thirties and expect them to be on the same wave length, you know?”

Callum: “Yeah, it was always going to be the two of us. We always had an idea of what Big Special was going to be, because we’d worked on the ideas for so long over lockdown and we had about 23 songs by the time we played live.”

Joe: “..and there was a BIG hill of nerves for me to get over. I knew that I wanted to let loose, be a bit wild on stage, not play the guitar and be a vocalist doing spoken word stuff. I’d never really done that before and after the COVID break, for the first few gigs I was really anchored to the spot. Cal used to say I looked like they were taking me to the gallows. But Cal was in his natural habitat and his energy made me more comfortable in my skin, allowed me to start boogying about and be a bit more silly. I always wanted to have that type of cathartic, performative experience.”

Handstamp: It’s beautiful that he was able to unlock your confidence. A great testament of your friendship.

Joe: “I just had that wall of nerves. Drawing off of Cal just broke the wall down, bit by bit. I never wanted it to be a conscious thing, I just wanted to break down the barrier so I naturally felt comfortable acting a way that I wouldn’t anywhere else”

Callum: “Yeah, because there’s only two of us, I think it’s more potent. I think the fact that we’re just two mates of 15 or 16 years makes it a richer broth.”

The latest Big Special EP, O’JOY! was released in June 2026 via SO Recordings. Subscribe to Handstamp Substack for future interviews. Follow @itshandstamp on social media and just bloody listen to Chief Springs on your chosen platform, will you? Illustrations by Alice Bowsher.