Posthumous Solo Record from BIG BIG TRAIN Late Front-man "Door One" to Arrive This October, Listen to Second Single "Love Is All" Now

“Love Is All” is the second track to be taken from “Door One”, David Longdon’s posthumous solo album, which will be released on October 14th, 2022 on CD via Big Big Train’s label English Electric Recordings and white and black vinyl editions via their vinyl partner Plane Groovy. The album will also be available on all digital streaming platforms.

Pre-order “Door One” HERE.

“Door One,” borrowing the nickname for a recreation ground in Nottingham near where David grew up, has a musical personality that is distinct from his work within Big Big Train, even though Gregory Spawton plays acoustic guitar on ‘Love Is All’.

Gregory Spawton says: “I sat in on some of the sessions for the album and heard Jeremy Stacey record drums for ‘Love Is All.’ As the session came to an end, David turned to me and said he wanted some 12-string guitar. David was aware of my passion for the instrument and I recorded my parts for the song a few days after David died. Although he was gone, it felt like it was one last precious moment of making music together.”

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 David’s death, the album was 90% finished. However, David’s partner Sarah, his manager Nick Shilton, Big Big Train founder Gregory Spawton and all the key protagonists involved in its creation agreed that David would want the world to hear the album.

The album’s eight songs are highly personal and follow a lyrical journey from darkness to enlightenment, from the intense and raw sound of the first single ‘Watch It Burn’, channeling 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.

“Door One” Album Artwork

“Door One” was recorded with a core of four musicians: drummer Jeremy Stacey (King Crimson, Eric Clapton, 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.

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.