The David Gilmour concert

[tenaya]

It was a superb night.

Last Thursday I went to a David Gilmour concert. He's the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter for Pink Floyd. Richard Wright, also of Pink Floyd, was on keyboards, and for a few songs, Graham Nash and David Crosby joined them on stage for the vocals. Nash was barefoot and obviously enjoying having an on stage vantage point of the music. It was a wonderful concert. They started out with Breathe and Home, then did most if not all of Gilmour's new solo album. I'm particularly fond of Take a Breath, but then I'm a sucker for those muscular type of songs. After the intermission, it was back to the Pink Floyd songs, including two songs from Division Bell, Shine on You Crazy Diamond and Comfortably numb.

Of all the different types of art forms, I've always thought that music gets a bum deal. It's considered so transitory and quickly dated. Poetry is timeless but songs are disposable, and so few songwriters are considered artists. Yeah, bands can make a ton of money but are they respected for their efforts? Of course, there are many bands that strive to be the flavor of the month; quick fame & quick money before the industry moves on to new blood.

I mention all that because I was so struck by the talent, the easy yet masterful way these men produced the most amazing music. At times, Gilmour was lit by white spot lights. Dressed all in black, the stark lighting highlighted his age, leaving no doubt his hair was snowy white and his skin thin and losing elasticity. Yet he stood relaxed and confident with small knowing smiles, moving easily between near a dozen instruments as he produced beautiful music of contentment and melancholy. There's a song on the new album that has a saxophone as the main instrument, and as I listened to the song on the cd, I was struck by how the sax hit the same emotional notes as Gilmour's guitar--alternating between sad regrets, peaceful tranquility and poignant longing. I really should have been able to figure out that it was Gilmour on the sax as well as the guitars. As is my other favorite musician, Ian Anderson, David Gilmour is skilled on many instruments.

I've never been a big keyboard fan, but Richard Wright brings a whole nuther dimension to it. There was one moment where a chord is played and it stretches on, allowing the audience to experience its low vibration not only through their hearing but through their bodies as the vibration rumbles inside the chest. With nothing else to distract one, the imagination begins to explore the primal sound. Was this what it sounded like when the Earth was formed from the ether, or was it an echo from the depths of the ocean, something you'd need to have the ears of a whale to hear? There's a lot to be said for music that commands the time it needs to express itself.

But a concert is not just the music, it's also the audience. The downside would be the constant leaving and returning people do. I just wish there was a section for people who just want to hear the music without disruption. Another astounding behavior is the people in the first few rows would get up, run to stand in front of the stage and have their pictures snapped by their cell phones. "And here I am with David Gilmour!" Words can not describe how idiotic I think THAT is. On the other side, it was actually pretty cool at the end when traditionally people lite their lighters and hold them up high, many more held up their cell phones. In a strange sort of flip of perspective, the warm golden glow of the lighters where held still (a must if you don't want to burn your fingers) but the cool blue light of the phones danced and bobbed about, looking like stars swaying in the night sky. Usually flames dance and the stars are still and they certainly don't sit side by side; the constrast between the ancient and futuristic hit some sort of 2001 vib. Or maybe they do go together? Since the beginning of man, starlight and campfires were our only companions at night.

Even though we were in the corner seats of the last row, we could still appreciate the lights. Genesis and Pink Floyd always had the best lighting. For this concert, the displays weren't as grand, but they certainly added to the content of the music. Songs of sunshine and smiles were fresh in green and yellow, while moody pieces were bathed in blues and purples, and sax solos were awash in golden light giving one the illusion of seeing what you were hearing. Of course, there were also moments of lasers and plusating spots that seemed to go past vision into somewhere else entirely. Our seats were not only at the edge of the ampitheater, they were also in the rafters...where smokes rises. In fact, there was so much smoke I had thought it was an effect but I soon realized the clouds of smoke was drifting onto the stage instead of from it. I don't know what that stuff costs nowadays, but it took me a good couple of days to be free of the effects.

Anyway, it was a wonderful night and the music was exquisite. A number of the songs were poignant reflections of loss and regrets, but others celebrated what small happinesses we find comfort in. It was an evening that emphasised that life is short, both sweet and sad and no matter who you are, one day you too will pass on. Like a perfect summer's day or a melancholy rainy afternoon, everything is reduced to being just a memory.

Comments

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm so jealous! *g* (in a good way *g*) I love David Gilmour so much. Thank you so much for taking the time to write about it here. *g*

I just read a long interview with David Gilmour in Mojo Magazine, in which this was said about his saxophone playing:

[About being at home with his family:] "'The first time around I wasn an ambitious rock musician,' he says. 'The consequence is you're often not there. I vowed that wasn't going to happen again.'

"Willingly, he took to early rising and the school-run routine. He picked up the saxophone, which he'd long fancied, to competitively encourage his son Charlie, now 16. Together they went to a village hall near his Sussex home to pass their Grade 4s before an examiner who had no idea who Gilmour was, or at least never let on."

I thought that was a rather cool story. Apparently On an Island is his debut of playing the sax on a recording. Amazing.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thank you for passing that information along. You can tell it's all true as his music speaks so eloquently of family and personal choices, things that are obviously important to him now. His music not only has deep lyrical content, the muscianship is outstanding, too. He's a master in the true sense of that word, and yet, obviously quite relaxed if not humble. Imagine teaching someone like him how to play the sax! I'm in awe that he's fairly recent to sax playing.

Did the magazine say anything about what his plans of the future are? Is Pink Floyd no more? Tickets for Roger Waters go on sale tomorrow and a couple of us are trying to get tickets. It seems odd that he'll be doing all of the Dark Side of the Moon.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Imagine teaching someone like him how to play the sax! I'm in awe that he's fairly recent to sax playing.

Me too! I thought that was fantastic. :-) I did a lot of things like that to encourage my kids, so it was kind of fun to hear that he did, too.

This was a fantastic interview. He talked in some detail about the legal troubles over using the name Pink Floyd and his relationships with Roger and the other musicians in the band--and also his friendship with Syd Barrett. (After the long interview with David Gilmour, there's a four-page article about Syd Barrett, too. The article and interview with David takes up 15 pages, including photos.)

He did say that he didn't think that he'd ever be doing Pink Floyd again. After talking about the Live 8 thing and how that all came about, the interviewer asked him this:

Interviewer: "Does this mean 'closure'?"

David: "Closure feels pretty good to me. It also convinced me that taking a backward step into Pink Floyd, doing a tour, which we've been offered--riding the gravy train--has no appeal for me whatsoever, it wouldn't make me a happier person than I am. The thought of making an album with the old line-up like that...I...couldn't do it."

Interviewer: "So no new Pink Floyd tour..."

David: "No new Pink Floyd tours or albums, no."

So...I'm guessing no. *g*

Before this part of the interview, the interviewer said he (David) had been "quite ruthless" with Nick and Rick, excluding them from the recording of A Momentary Lapse of Reason, but David replied that he didn't think he was ruthless. He said Nick was there and very involved in making the album and that Rick came in later. But he added: "Nick, we tried out some stuff and he just seemed to not really be able to play. This was a mental issue. I can only put it down to what I believe: that he had been...bullied by Roger to the point that he couldn't really function as a drummer. And the same with Rick on keyboards. There were some other drummers coming in to do stuff on the album and that must have been rather painful for Nick. But we got through that."

Interviewer: "Did you talk to Nick about it?"

David: "Probably not a lot in the studio. But on tour I was encouraging both of them, very consciously and deliberately praising them, trying to make them feel good about themselves and their confidence and ability came back. They were fine for The Division Bell."

Then they talked about the Pink Floyd performance at Live 8 and how that came about. Bob Geldof phoned him and then came to his house, even though David told him not to. *g* It was a very funny story. (Apparently David did an imitation of Bob G. that wasn't very good. *g*) And then Roger called him. I've read in other interviews, too, that he said this was the first time Roger had ever indicated that he might want to put the past behind them, and he (David) felt that he couldn't pass that up. He indicated the same here, too. He also said that over the years he'd made several (or a few *g*) overtures to Roger both personally and professionally and they'd been rejected. He said that Roger had been saying that he held onto "this stuff" too long and David said that he agreed that he did (the interviewer indicated that he said this with a mischievous grin).

He said that when they got together to rehearse, they disagreed and "fell straight into arguing." He said that Roger backed down gracefully and that by the time they did the run-through and the concert, it was all good. He also said, "I'm very glad to have put some of the...shit to bed."

All in all, this was a fascinating interview. He talked a lot even about his childhood and things like that which I'd never heard him talk about before. Are you in the UK? It's a UK magazine that I had to pay extra for here. *g* It might still be around over there because it's the April 2006 issue.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an excellent interview. I'm a bit bummed about no more Pink Floyd, but I guess it's right for him. Thank you VERY much for taking the time to write out those quotes from the magazine.

I've not read much about Pink Floyd, but it sounds like Roger was a bit toxic to the rest of the band. Some of the songs in Division Bell led me to believe there was still bitterness. At least there's some improvement there.

I did manage to get tickets to Roger Waters this October. That should be interesting. I think by the time I went to see Pink Floyd, he'd already split from the band.

I'm in Southern California. I do have a friend in London who owes me, so maybe I'll ask her for a copy...or maybe check the bookstores here.

Again, thank you for all the lovely and interesting stuff. It's very appreciated!

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

You might have a better chance of finding it here as it's still in my local bookstore now. I'm not sure how far ahead they would be in the UK. It's funny. I'd never bought this magazine before, but the last issue had a big thing about the Who and I've been on a sort of Who revival lately *g*, so I picked it up on a whim. And this month I saw David Gilmour on the cover and just couldn't resist it when. It costs $8.99, though, and comes with a CD. I think this CD had something to do with Pink Floyd, but not really, which is how the last CD was, too.

In the David Gilmour article, there is a little "break" where they mention what Roger felt about those times. Roger is quoted as saying:

"I found myself increasingly alienated in that atmosphere of avarice and ego until one night...the boil of my frustration burst."

He then talked about how some crazed teenage fan climbed up some barrier thing and shouted something at him and he spit at the kid and how horrified he was by his own behavior. He felt he was faced with a choice of continuing along that road or sort of finding himself and he felt like he couldn't talk to anyone in the band about it. Because of that, he began pushing everyone else away... There's more, too. It's quite interesting. *g*

I hope you can find a copy. I usually don't buy these types of magazines at all, but as I said, it was David Gilmour. *g*

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Ooops. The part about Roger backing down gracefully should have been in quotes. He said: "We fell straight into arguing. I rather insisted on my view and Roger backed down gracefully, went along with what I thought pretty much."