Menu
Welcome to the official David Longdon website.
This site is a celebration of David’s life and work. It’s not a place for sadness or tears, rather a place to explore the wonderful musical gifts David left us.
Over the coming months we’ll be expanding the site with additional unreleased music and videos, along with tributes and stories about David’s life.
If you would like to keep up to date with these changes, we encourage to join the David Longdon mailing list HERE.
David’s posthumous album Door One is out now as is the remix of David’s debut solo album Wild River.
David had a long career with Big Big Train and you can find more about Big Big Train on their website HERE.
David’s much sought after first solo album has been remixed, remastered and expanded.
Released 20th October 2023, available on Double CD, Double LP and Download.
The first single Always is available now on streaming services. Watch the video here
‘Wild River’, the first solo album from David Longdon has been re-mixed, re-mastered and expanded and will be released on 20th October. It is preceded by a single ‘Always’, which is available now.
‘Wild River’ was originally self-released in 2004 and at that time only a minimal quantity of CDs were produced. Whilst it was briefly available via the Big Big Train website, it has long been out of print. David had always intended to remix and repackage it. However, his sudden death in November 2021 meant that his plan never came to fruition. In a final act of remembrance by his long-time colleague Rob Aubrey, Big Big Train’s engineer since 1994, David’s wishes have now been fulfilled. The album packaging has also been re-designed by Longdon’s friend and collaborator Steve Vantsis.
Sarah Ewing, David’s partner, recalls why he was so keen to revisit ‘Wild River’. “David was really proud of those songs,” she says. “He produced and engineered the album himself, but always felt that the recording, the production and the mix never quite met his expectations. Over the years he became much more skilled at his craft, and had he been alive now, he would have been able to deliver the album the way he always wanted it to be. He’d also always wanted to improve the cover art, but at the time he’d spent all his money on the recording and mixing.”
‘Wild River’ represented a transitional period for David, both artistically and emotionally. His father, Eric, had passed away in 1994, he had been through a divorce, and he’d auditioned to be the lead singer of Genesis following the departure of Phil Collins. However, after a protracted audition-cum-rehearsal process, he was immensely disappointed to lose out on the role. Which, with hindsight, was a blessing in disguise.
Around this time, XTC guitarist Dave Gregory was playing a session where he first met David. Between XTC projects, Gregory had been recording a version of the Genesis epic ‘Supper’s Ready’ and David, a big XTC fan, offered to sing on it, adding, “I really need to do this.” Gregory was astonished at how quickly David recorded the vocal parts: “Soup to nuts in an afternoon and an evening.” Rather than accepting payment for the session, David invited Gregory to play guitar and Mellotron on the work-in-progress ‘Wild River’. Gregory recalls, “The Genesis experience galvanised him. He was saying, ‘Look, this is what I can do. And I’m gonna f*cking show you’. That was a huge motivation for him. He felt rejected, so had to work a lot harder.”
Big Big Train’s sound engineer and David’s friend Rob Aubrey was asked to remix the album earlier this year. “It still fills me with sadness that he’s gone, but ‘Wild River’ needed to be made available again as it is such a strong album.” The last word on ‘Wild River’ goes to Sarah: “I don’t think it sounds like an album that’s 20 years old; it sounds very immediate and contemporary and that speaks of David’s talent,” says Ewing. “It’s hard for me to be objective, but I hear the younger David and in that regard it’s a beautiful time capsule.”
SIDE ONE
Into The Icehouse
Watch It Burn
There’s No Ghost Like An Old Ghost
The Singer And The Song
Forgive (But Not Forget)
SIDE TWO
Sangfroid
The Letting Go
Love Is All
Door One, David Longdon’s posthumous solo album, was released on 14th October 2022 on CD and white and black vinyl editions. The album is also available to download and on all digital streaming platforms.
David had been accumulating musical and lyrical ideas for Door One over the past few years. He had been recording since April 2021, following the completion of Big Big Train’s Common Ground album. On the night of David’s tragic accident, which resulted in his untimely death on 20th November 2021, he had just returned home to Nottingham from a recording session at Playpen Studios in Bristol with his co-producer and engineer Patrick Phillips.
At the time of his death, the album was 90% finished. However, David’s partner Sarah and all the key protagonists involved in its creation agreed that David would want the world to hear the album.
Door One was recorded with a core of four musicians: drummer Jeremy Stacey (King Crimson, Noel Gallagher, Sheryl Crow, The Finn Brothers), bassist Steve Vantsis (best known for his work with Fish), saxophonist Theo Travis (Steven Wilson, Soft Machine, Gong) and David’s longstanding friend and former 1990s Gifthorse band mate Gary Bromham (Bjork, Sheryl Crow, George Michael) who contributed guitar, backing vocals, keyboard parts and textures.
SIDE ONE
Into The Icehouse
Watch It Burn
There’s No Ghost Like An Old Ghost
The Singer And The Song
Forgive (But Not Forget)
SIDE TWO
Sangfroid
The Letting Go
Love Is All
A few words about the man that I love…
David was absolutely full of music. Full up to the brim with it – bursting, spilling over. There is no doubt in my mind that he was put on this earth to be a musician. He could never have been anything else. There were a few times in his life when he tried to be other things, but he became disillusioned and unhappy very quickly. David was here to create music and that is quite simply a fact. Music was not only his passion, it defined who he was. He loved listening to it, reading about it, going to see it, writing it and performing it. He never lost his love and excitement for new music. Music was David and David was music.
I would accompany David to recording sessions as often as I possibly could. He liked me to be there. I was a bit of a comfort blanket I guess. One Saturday, recording at the Playpen Studios in Bristol, Patrick Phillips (David’s engineer and our dear friend, who we would refer to as our “little brother”) was asking him about his favourite pieces of equipment and instruments. David enthusiastically waxed lyrical about the wonders of his electric blue Rickenbacker, his mandolin, the bespoke guitar he had had hand crafted to his own specifications by luthier Colin Keefe, his brand new Ox Box attenuator etc etc. At the end of the conversation Patrick turned to him and said “Okay then, so if this studio suddenly caught fire right now, what’s the one thing you would save?” And without hesitation (and to my surprise), David replied “Sarah”.
About romance, we often use the phrase “falling in love/to fall in love”. But as I always told him, I never fell in love with David. I rose up in love. Because he made me stand tall, feel confident, know that I was loved without condition or agenda – for just being me. He made me rise not fall – and I never hesitated for a moment to love him. David made everything better.
David was one of the most real people I have ever met. Yes he was a performer; but he also understood what was truly important beyond the glitz and glamour of his musical life. David cared about people and friendship. He adored his bandmates – all of them. As an only child, David had often longed for brothers. In Nick, Rikard, Danny, Dave Gregory, Rob and Gregory he found them. Especially Gregory. At difficult moments in his life, David would often turn to Greg for love and support. And he would always receive it. When they were in each other’s company, David shone. Greg was David’s brother, there is no question about that.
As my partner, David was loyal, loving, affectionate, generous to a fault, sensitive and gentle. When he asked me to marry him, saying “yes” was easy. There was no one else I would rather spend every moment with. With David I knew I had won the life lottery, he was my favourite person in the whole world and he told me every single day “I absolutely love you”.
David was also a fiercely proud father to his two daughters, Amelia and Eloise. He loved watching them experience life and grow up into the wonderful young women they are today. He would always proclaim “I am a feminist! Of course I am! I am the father of two girls and I want them to have the best of everything life has to offer.”
David could also be impish. He was naughty and silly, mischievous and daft. He had a brilliant sense of humour, was a tremendous mimic and delighted in making me laugh. The more I giggled, the more his eyes would light up and the more thrilled he became.
But for all of these things, David was most truly himself when he was on stage. Just watch the DVD of Empire – that is David at his truest. That is who he was. He was quite simply magnificent.
To hold David, cradling him in my arms, as he died was both the greatest tragedy and the greatest privilege of my life. And I had waited all my life for him. And if I could do it all again – even knowing that this devastating ending would be the outcome … I would do it in a heart beat.
Thank you my darling – for being my best friend, for asking me to be your wife, for allowing my soul to bond with yours – and for the extraordinary gift of your love.
Home was never a place, David – it was you. You were my beautiful, beautiful boy. And I will love you deeply and miss you terribly ’til the very end of my days.
Copyright 2022 David Longdon |Contact