Door One

Product Information

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. David Longdon, Big Big Train’s lead vocalist since 2009, died on 20 th November 2021 in hospital in Nottingham in the UK following an accident at home. His funeral was held on 6th January 2022 in the Amber Valley in Derbyshire in the UK and was attended by David’s partner Sarah Ewing, very close friends and family. Alberto joined Big Big Train as the band’s lead vocalist in spring 2022 and performed his first shows with the band in September 2022. In 2015 Alberto joined PFM (alongside Marco Sfogli) as a singer and additional guitarist and keyboard player. With PFM he played around 200 shows, both in Italy and worldwide, and released two albums (2017’s Emotional Tattoos and 2021’s I Dreamed Of Electric Sheep).

We are in the early stages of planning an event for fans to be able to attend and celebrate David’s life. It is hoped that this event will take place before the summer and we hope to announce details later this spring.Giammetti, Mario (November 2010). "David Longdon exclusive interview for 'Dusk' ". Dusk.it . Retrieved 9 July 2019. 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. 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. Rikard started playing accordion at the age of 6, and guitar at 10. When he was 17 he bought a Hammond organ and formed the duo Bootcut with Petter Diamant. Bootcut released two CDs on their own called Hammond vs Drums (2002) and De Fluff (2005). A digital only release called Suspended Animation saw the light of day almost ten years later and a fourth album has been recorded.

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. And perhaps here it’s hardest to separate Door One– with all its heart, soul, love, vitriol, humour and wisdom – from its sad, posthumous circumstances. With that husky, timeless tone of his, David Longdon appeals to us to heed the words: ‘ Love is the only thing that matters, Love is all, love is all.’ Oskar has featured in a number of bands and productions during his relatively short career in music. His work has ranged from playing experimental prog in near empty clubs or traditional folk music to drowsy school children, to performing on prime time TV shows with some of Norway’s biggest pop artists. Born in St. Helens, Merseyside in north west England, Dave started playing guitar at the age of 6 and ‘found’ music when he was 12 years old after discovering a cassette copy of Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. 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.

Reviews

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.

Lewry, Fraser (20 November 2021). "Big Big Train singer David Longdon dead at 56". Louder . Retrieved 20 November 2021. The album’s stunning artwork is by Sarah Louise Ewing with graphic design by Steve Vantsis. Sarah’s cover portrait of David is from a photograph by Sophocles Alexiou. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.He started music college in 1997, initially in Liverpool for one year before moving onto the Leigh College of Music where he met the musicians who would then become Mr. So & So – Shaun McGowan (bass & vocals), Leon Parr (drums), Kieren Twist (keyboards) and Charlotte Evans (vocals). Bailie, Geoff (29 April 2019). "Big Big Train – 'Grand Tour' (Album Review)". The Prog Report . Retrieved 21 November 2021. Clare Lindley grew up in the 1970s in rural Aberdeenshire in Scotland, where a rich traditional music culture still sits happily amongst popular music. She learned classical viola at school and played in string quartets and orchestras. Her tenuous claim to fame is that she was in a string quartet at school with J.K. Rowling’s husband! The album’s eight songs are highly personal and follow a lyrical journey from darkness to enlightenment, from the intense and raw first single ‘Watch It Burn’, channelling David’s love of The Who, to the folk inflected ‘There’s No Ghost Like An Old Ghost’, which recalls David’s Dyble Longdon album with the late Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble, and ‘Love Is All’, the gorgeous ballad which closes the album. Moon, Grant (14 October 2022). "David Longdon – Door One: "a truly mesmerising posthumous release" ". Prog . Retrieved 18 October 2022– via Loudersound.

Following this album Mr. So & So disbanded and Dave subsequently formed Sleeping Giant in 2001 with Charlotte Evans (vocals), Leon Parr (drums), Simon Crumley (bass) and James Rimmer (keyboards). Sleeping Giant released two EPs (Primates and Embers) before disbanding in 2006. In 2016 Dave’s second solo album Dreamless was released. Having developed developed a great songwriting partnership with Dinet Poortman, this would ultimately form the basis for what would become the Dave Foster Band with the 2019 release of the album Nocebo. The Dave Foster Band played a number of live shows before the Covid pandemic brought activities to a halt. The Dave Foster Band’s next album Glimmer (featuring Queen bassist Neil Fairclough) will be released on 21 st April 2023. After this it took five years until the next solo album, Please Be Quiet, was released. On this album, the Gungfly moniker was first used. Gungfly is a Swedish word meaning unsecure ground and this band identity has featured on all of Rikard’s subsequent solo ventures. When Beardfish disbanded in 2016, Rikard signed as a solo artist (Rikard Sjöblom’s Gungfly) with InsideOut Music and has since released two albums with them and a 5 CD box set spanning the ten years leading up to his signing with the label. In 2013 after writing with Steve Rothery for a few months, the Steve Rothery Band was formed along with Leon Parr (drums), Yatim Halimi (bass) and Riccardo Romano (keyboards) with Martin Jakubski (vocals) added for the live shows. In 2014 Rothery released his first solo album The Ghosts Of Pripyat, which Dave co-wrote. With his father, Per Øystein Sørensen of Fra Lippo Lippi, Oskar has performed a televised show and recorded a live album with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, as well as playing several arena gigs in the Philippines, the earliest of which at the age of 19. Oskar is also a voice actor and piano teacher.

On The Go

Issue 125 of Prog contained the magazine’s Critics’ Choice for 2021, in which Common Ground was ranked the third highest album overall. Breaden, Craig (23 November 2012). "David Longdon's Wild River". Progarchy . Retrieved 21 November 2021. Rikard has always written and recorded music alongside his work with Beardfish, and these recordings eventually led to a self-released album under his own name in 2004 called Cyklonmannen, a musical (instrumental) interpretation of a novel by the Swedish beatnik author Sture Dahlström. Clare played in the duo Green for nine years and they released an album on Lochshore Records called Found On The Wave. They played folk clubs and Scottish folk festivals in the highlands and islands as well as gigging extensively all over Europe. Around this time Clare learned how to dance-call for ceilidhs, which were a popular feature of the Aberdeen music scene. She fronts a ceilidh band called Big Jessie, who have played all over Europe and have also gigged in Tanzania. The album closer, “Love Is All” feels like an emerging from the pain of Letting Go, and finding your place of calm. It’s a good thing to know that this album was 95% complete at the time of David’s passing and so what we are hearing is pretty much his complete vision for this set of songs. Given that we know that David found much happiness in his relationship in the later years of his life, I can think of no more fitting ending than: “Love is the only thing that matters – love is all”