BIG SPECIAL | Good Health Good Wealth
Oslo, Hackney
5th May 2025
Photography by Alex Amorós
Emma Harrison
Aspiring journalist who is fond of music and writing about it. You can probably find me in a crowd with a lukewarm pint of cider.
As a warm-up for Dot To Dot Festival 2025, BIG SPECIAL took to Hackney’s Oslo with support from Good Health Good Wealth
We spent the first May Bank Holiday of 2025 in style with a headline show from BIG SPECIAL at Hackney’s trendy, low-lit small music venue, Oslo. The black country punk duo took to Oslo’s stage for a warm up show put on by SON Estrella Galicia and Dot to Dot Festival, which is set to take over Bristol and Nottingham in the last weekend of May.
With beers in hand, the crowd gathered to watch the support act, Good Health Good Wealth, an alternative singer songwriter duo from London who couldn’t be better matched to the headliners. They sauntered onto the stage, introducing themselves to the crowd: “Good Health Good Wealth is the name and good fun is the game”. With a laptop full of samples and some unusual dance moves, good fun is undeniably what they provided.
Good Health Good Wealth’s songs echo the sonics and lyrical storytelling of The Streets, making similar, candid observations of modern life with witty and relatable lyrics. Their song ‘Moonlight’ exposes their experience of bad nights out, tunefully telling the audience that “every single trip to the bar feels like an armed robbery”, a feeling that the London crowd are no doubt far too familiar with. After their thirty minute set, Good Health Good Wealth had well and truly warmed up the audience, ready for BIG SPECIAL’s entrance.
BIG SPECIAL hit the stage at 9pm armed with a load of energy and, weirdly enough, a loaf of bread. The duo threw slices of bread into the unsuspecting audience who, as if on impulse, reached out only to find the feeling of dough between their fingers. The drummer, Callum Moloney, announced that the “buffet is open” and they began their set with ‘BLACK COUNTRY GOTHIC’, the first track of their debut album, ‘POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES’, which dropped last year and hurtled them into success.
With boundless energy, the duo continued through their discography, playing ‘I MOCK JOGGERS’ followed by ‘DESPERATE BREAKFAST’. Joe Hicklin swung the microphone around and sang wide eyed whilst Callum Moloney played the drums with force and dabbled in backing vocals, littering the songs with animated shouts.
The band wiggled their fingers at the audience, urging the crowd to also get their “serious fingers” out for ‘BLACK DOG / WHITE HORSE’– indisputably their most vulnerable song. The track is a strikingly honest retelling of Hicklin’s experience with depression and what seems like its never-ending cycle. Their performance of this song was powerful, with Hicklin’s soulful vocals leaving the audience in awe.
After this track, Moloney gushed about how lucky they are that playing these songs has become their job, recalling a time where they played Oslo two years ago when he was working as a van driver and Hicklin a labourer. He states that they are now “contracted to entertain” for the evening, and entertain they did, surprising the audience with a new, spirited song called ‘Professionals’.
The energy remained at mountainous heights throughout their performance as BIG SPECIAL continued onto ‘THIS HERE AINT WATER‘. Hicklin showed off his incredible versatility in this tune, bouncing between punky bellows and bluesy, soulful vocals.
The set ended with ‘SHITHOUSE’, a track about Hicklin’s experience with poor mental health and his frustration towards the way it follows him around. Despite the sombre topic, the song is fast-paced and angry, the perfect opportunity for the crowd to mosh with an intensity that made it feel like the venue’s foundation was shaking.
Not yet satiated, the crowd called for an encore and BIG SPECIAL obliged, coming back to play three more tracks. Dragging a cymbal that was branded in tape as the “party cymbal” into the crowd, the duo played ‘TREES’ up close and personal with their fans who sang along with them. Slowing down the last ten minutes of the set, Moloney took a break from his drum kit and played a twinkling, synth track whilst Hicklin took a piece of folded paper out of his pocket and stood behind the mic.
Hicklin shows that he isn’t just the vocalist for a punk band, but also a poet, with most of his lyrics having their origins in poetry. He sang, or rather recited, ‘FOR THE BIRDS’, doused in a pale yellow light and with immense emotion and sincerity.
BIG SPECIAL ended their headline gig at Oslo with ‘DiG!’, took a bow and left the stage, more than prepared for a lively and unforgettable performance at Dot to Dot Festival in a few weeks.
Dot To Dot Festival will take place in Bristol on 24th May and Nottingham on 25th May.
Photography by Alex Amorós
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