David Longdon, Big Big Train’s lead vocalist since 2009, died on 20th 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.
On 22nd March 2022, Kingmaker Management and Big Big Train hosted a memorial evening at Kings Place in London to celebrate David’s life. David’s Big Big Train bandmates past and present, alongside the BBT team, welcomed over 100 guests from within the music industry – all of whom had worked with David in some way. The evening included a number of acoustic performances of music written by or closely associated with David, both within and outside Big Big Train, as well as spoken word tributes.
David made an extraordinary contribution to Big Big Train and enriched the lives of so many people with his music and his personality. We miss him deeply and will always remember him. His memory will live on forever through his music with Big Big Train, Dyble Longdon and his solo work.
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.
Over the coming months we will be building a section of the site where fans can remember David, along with some archive material from David’s wonderful career both in Big Big Train and before he joined the band.
The Times newspaper carried a full page obituary of David on 23rd December 2021 (available to Times subscribers here: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/david-longdon-obituary-wxjbb5ppg), while issue 297 of Classic Rock magazine and issue 126 of Prog magazine also carried obituaries for David, with Prog devoting four pages to celebrate his life and music.
The same issue of Prog magazine also included the magazine’s annual Readers’ Poll, in which David and Big Big Train feature prominently:
Band Of The Year – Big Big Train – 1st
Album Of The Year – Common Ground – 1st
Male Vocalist Of The Year – David – 1st
Guitarist Of The Year – Rikard – 9th
Bassist Of The Year – Greg – 3rd
Drummer Of The Year – Nick – 2nd
Person Of The Year – David – 1st
Issue 296 of Classic Rock carried the magazine’s review of 2021 and ranked the Common Ground album as number 11 in its Top 50 Albums of the Year. The same issue of the magazine contained a one page Big Big Train article, which resulted from one of David’s final press interviews.
Issue 125 of Prog contained the magazine’s Critics’ Choice for 2021, in which Common Ground was ranked the third highest album overall.
Additionally, the highly regarded Dutch Progressive Rock Pages website ranked Common Ground as their number 1 album of 2021. The full listing is available here: https://weekendprog.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-top-10-progressive-rock-albums-of.html
In Loving Memory of David Longdon – 1965 to 2021
