The Florentine

I will never forget the impact this song had on me the first time I heard it. Not only does it tell the story of a true genius (Leonardo da Vinci), it masterfully weaves a mix of beautiful melodies and brilliantly selected lyrics. How many other songwriters do you know that manage to include such words and phrases as ‘paradigm’, ‘polymath’, ‘monstrous diluvian waves’ in their songs with total ease, as David Longdon did? David’s own genius in story-telling through song was such a rare talent and one that made me want to explore, in detail, the person / subject-matter he chose to write about. This gift of educating, whilst entwining his cleverly written lyrics with beautiful musicality, is all part of the legacy he left us with. Add to the story-telling, clever writing both musically and lyrically, the voice of an angel and you will know why this song in particular resonates with me.

Sue Heather

Brave Captain

On a lovely summer’s day in September 2021, I found myself in the grounds of Nottingham Castle staring up at the memorial to Capt. Albert Ball. As I looked around me, almost everyone in that fairly busy park walked past with barely a glance, and I realised that I had a bit more knowledge of this man than perhaps 98% of those who pass him everyday. And that knowledge is down to one man. Although he chose to pursue his career as a professional musician, the desire to educate, inform and encourage people never really left David Longdon. Whether the topic was history, nature, current affairs, customs and rituals, or simply the joys of being alive, David’s words and music took the listener on exciting journeys, bringing life to people, places and things that we may not have previously been aware of. I realised this as I stood in front of that monument in Nottingham, and that’s why Brave Captain will always hold a special place in my heart.

Glenn Codere

A Boy In Darkness

Selecting for the purposes of this memorial website just one song written by the late, truly great David Longdon is in many respects an invidious task. Candidly my choice of song could be different from one day to the next. And with such an embarrassment of riches, where to start? David was an extraordinarily gifted and imaginative songwriter, possessing amazing range in terms of both the lyrics and music that he wrote.

David could pen a four minute gem, such as Uncle Jack, Leopards, Alive and Common Ground for Big Big Train, or Watch It Burn and Love Is All for his marvellous posthumous solo album Door One, or indeed Between A Breath & A Breath for the Dyble Longdon album. And there are gems on his first solo album Wild River too. (Also I may be in the minority but will make a strong defence for BBT’s often maligned Make Some Noise.)

He was equally capable of crafting a compelling epic, with BBT’s Brave Captain and Ariel and Dyble Longdon’s France each genuinely requiring all of their 11 to 15 minute durations to unfold and tell their extravagant respective tales in full.

But in between the short and succinct on the one hand and the more long form material on the other, David also wrote a series of songs which needed more time than the four minute gems, but not as much time as the epics.

Take, for example (and in no particular order of personal preference), The Florentine, Judas Unrepentant, The Second Brightest Star, The Ivy Gate, Folklore, Winkie and Telling The Bees. None are epics per se, but all need more space to build and be done full musical and lyrical justice than four minutes might afford them.

Into this last ‘in between’ category falls the song I’ve decided to choose, for today at least, for this website, namely A Boy In Darkness.

At first sight it might not be the most obvious choice – perhaps because it has a lower profile than some songs, having to date not been performed live by Big Big Train. However, I believe its 8 minutes contain many of the elements that made David such a consummate writer and performer; elements which he deployed to such masterful effect on pretty much everything that he wrote.

Musically the opening of A Boy In Darkness is – to these ears – both beautiful and somewhat ominous. David recounts the tale of one Godfrey Fletcher. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Godfrey is an 11 year old, poorly educated boy who is toiling away down a Derbyshire coal mine, not far from where David himself grew up over a hundred years later.

The atmospheric, musically minimalist verses are juxtaposed with the richness of the lyrics. And then the grandiose, powerful orchestrated chorus arrives with a string arrangement for a quartet by David’s old friend and sometime collaborator Louis Philippe, on top of which David’s voice sits perfectly.

There’s a telling, anguished vocal change at the end of the second chorus which presages a truly exhilarating, breath-taking two minute instrumental section denoting the passage of time, with frenetic strings, organ (The Tangent’s Andy Tillison guesting), a signature Dave Gregory guitar solo or two, David’s own spirited flute solo, Gregory Spawton’s bass gymnastics and Nick D’Virgilio’s drums clattering away. It’s a thrilling musical maelstrom before being stripped back to make way again for David’s vocal, acoustic guitar and violin.

The second part of the song focuses on the horrors of child abuse and specifically the appalling so called “Baby P” case which shocked the UK in the late 2000s. An extraordinary songwriting brain was at work to combine Godfrey Fletcher and Baby P into one song and to make it so brilliantly cohesive.

There’s some spectacular playing on A Boy In Darkness but none of it feels gratuitous – all the virtuosity serves the song and illustrates the stories that David wanted to tell. Musically the song packs an amazing amount into 8 minutes and feels like an epic without outstaying its welcome by a millisecond.

Lyrically, A Boy In Darkness is extraordinarily vivid, hugely articulate and epitomises David’s mastery of language, searing two ostensibly unrelated stories into the listener’s consciousness and cleverly linking them. And with that voice, how brilliantly David told those stories.

As he wrote in the sleeve notes to the Full Power version of English Electric:

“The message of this song is this: Don’t be afraid to shine bright light into dark corners.”

With A Boy In Darkness, David mostly certainly accomplished that goal.

But for all its wonders, A Boy In Darkness is just one of many examples of a songwriting genius of course.

Nick Shilton

Telling The Bees

My favourite David Longdon song is Telling The Bees. It’s a song about life and how we through the bees pass the memory of loved ones on. The melody tells me so much of where David’s main musical inspirations came from and has one fabulous singalong chorus! What’s not to love?

Tobbe Janson

Ariel

Picking a favorite song by David Longdon is like picking your favorite child! But on a moment’s reflection I realize I know exactly which track it is. On an album with multiple standout tracks that vie for attention, Ariel waits patiently to be let in and to unfold into the mind of the listener. Once that happens, the combination of the musical arrangements, the imagery, and the imaginative storytelling reveal the sheer magic of this masterpiece. Once I let this song in I was hooked and it became one of my all time favorite BBT tracks. On a personal level, my mother was a student of the English language with a focus on Shakespeare and the English poets. She was also a great lover of music. The last time I saw her before she passed away in 2020, I told her the story of this amazing track and then played it for her. Although she couldn’t hear well, the whole idea of the song absolutely delighted her! David’s beautiful song is special on its own, but it has added meaning to me now as it always brings my mom near whenever I hear it. Just another example of how David’s music could touch so many lives.

Carol Rogers

Uncle Jack/Hedgerow

Back in 2019, prior to Big Big Train’s ‘Grand Tour’, I was delighted to have a piece I had written accepted for inclusion in the ‘Grand Tour’ programme. The song I had chosen to write about was ‘Uncle Jack’, the first of the two songs I have selected here. At the time I wrote that the reason I had chosen ‘Uncle Jack’ was twofold: my interest in nature and nature writing; and my personal experience of growing up with ‘Uncle Jack’-type characters.

Both songs originally appeared on ‘English Electric’, and in ‘English Electric-Full Power’, David wrote about the background to the songs. The first was a very personal piece about his own Uncle Jack, John Henry Herring. He was a collier in Derbyshire who, when he wasn’t working underground, spent his time immersed in nature whilst out in the countryside with his dog, Peg. This resonated with my own upbringing: I had a fairly rural childhood with hours spent roaming the fields around my village and being taken on fishing trips with two of my friends’ dads. One was an engineer who spent his working life travelling around Britain on various projects, the other worked shifts in the local steelworks. Both saw their jobs as a means to an end and lived for the times they could get out into the countryside with happy hours spent on a riverbank, fishing the days away. Both of these men left me with an abiding interest in wildlife and nature.

When I became aware of the music of Big Big Train, the first album I purchased was ‘A Stone’s Throw From The Line’, the live album taken from the Kings Place concerts in August 2015. This album contained both ‘Uncle Jack’ and ‘Hedgerow’. My interest in the band was such that I sought out as many of the albums as I could find and this included anything available on video. At the time, the Kings Place live material was available via Vimeo. This was also purchased and watched over and over again.

‘Hedgerow’ was written as a companion piece to ‘Uncle Jack’, although rather than just a David Longdon composition, it was based on an idea by Greg Spawton and is credited to David, Greg and Andy Poole. It continued the theme around David’s Uncle Jack and in live performance was accompanied by a video of his dog, Peg, running around woods. David would interact with the video, calling on Peg as if to come to heel: “That’ll do Peg,” he would say up to the video screen. It was very touching and displayed the personal connection that David had to the song. I was delighted when ‘Hedgerow’ was performed on the ‘Grand Tour’ in 2019 with Rachel Hall, BBT’s quiet violinist, stepping up front with the chorus including:

‘Song Thrush

Yellowhammer

Lacewings

Ladybirds’

performed to an appreciative audience. The roar that heralded her performance was a sign of how surprised and delighted we all were to see Rachel step forward and take over the song’s performance. A smiling David took a step back and let Rachel have her moment.

What I love about these songs is how David could take a piece of his personal history and make it universal, finding resonance within his audience. These songs echo David’s family history, but find common ground with my own history.

David was a remarkable storyteller, and his tales continue to resonate after his passing. Long may the ‘song of the hedgerow’ sound out.

Forbes Smith