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Comfortably Numb Solo Takes Axe To Competition
UK radio station Planet Rock asked listeners
to come up with a top 40 of the best guitar
solos of all time, and (like there was any doubt)
David's solo on Comfortably Numb topped
the poll. Following David's victory as Best
Fender guitarist ever, it is a logical achievement.
Fret-melters and axe-wielders may appreciate
knowing the runners-up: Sweet Child O' Mine
(Slash of Guns N' Roses); Freebird (Ed
King, Allen Collins & Gary Rossington of Lynyrd
Skynyrd); Eruption by Eddie Van Halen;
November Rain (Guns N' Roses again);
Stairway to Heaven (surely you don't
need telling...); Sultans of Swing (Mark
Knopfler/Dire Straits); Aqualung (Martin
Lancelot Barre of Jethro Tull); Hotel California
(Joe Walsh & Don Felder of the Eagles); and
finally Child In Time by Deep Purple's
very own Ritchie Blackmore. Let's rock!
Gdańsk – What A Memory!
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The last
show of the David Gilmour Summer Tour
2006 was everything it promised to be,
and despite some rain throughout the day,
the sky cleared for the concert itself.
The huge stage with its six suspended
screens was able to accommodate David's
band with ease, plus the 40-piece orchestra
conducted by Zbigniew Preisner, who occupied
a position on Stage Right. |
As usual, the first half of the show included
all of the On An Island album, but the
added textures of the orchestra made it a unique
performance, thankfully caught on film by documentary
director Gavin Elder and a small crew.
It was an evening of high spots, with the added
impact of the six screens carrying images of
the individual musicians, which added a close-up
intimacy to Marc Brickman's visual sorcery.
Special moments would include the authentic
liquid oil psychedelic lightshow for Astronomy
Domine, and the rock and orchestra rendition
of High Hopes, but the surprise of the
night was the hoped-for live debut on this tour
of A Great Day For Freedom, in which
the combination of orchestral accompaniment
and the setting was especially poignant.
Just when anyone thought that Comfortably
Numb couldn't possibly be any better, the
closing song of the closing show, again with
orchestral accompaniment, brought the concert
to a thunderous, triumphant close.
It was a great day for music, but a sad day
for music lovers, as the David Gilmour tour
of 2006 came to a close.
Gdańsk Diary – Press Conference Notes
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In preparation
for tomorrow's Gdańsk concert at the city's
historic shipyards, David attended a press
conference for Polish media, accompanied
by the Mayor of Gdańsk, Pawel Adamowicz,
and the chairman and vice-chairman of
Fundacja Gdanska, Stanislaw Plakwicz and
Ryszard Bongowski.
A relaxed David fielded the usual Floyd/Waters
questions with customary good humour,
repeating that he had "no plans. I am
going to let the next plan come to me
slowly". He paid tribute to the Solidarity
movement, and in particular its founder
Lech Walesa, of whom he said "I am in
awe of his achievements. I am only a pop
musician".
Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner was
also present, and David was able to describe
how they first met and restate his extreme
satisfaction with their creative collaboration
on On An Island. |
David also made reference to the talents of
Roger Waters, in Poland for the performance
tonight of his opera 'Ca Ira', but understandably
the focus was on David's own show at Gdańsk's
shipyards. David said, "It means a lot to me
to take part in something that has changed the
world in an enormous way. I don't deserve it".
Many would disagree.
A Great Stage For Freedom – Gdańsk Details
Saturday 26th sees David's last, and largest,
live show in the 2006 tour, by invitation of
Solidarity and the mayor of Gdańsk, Poland.
Much has been made of the size of the stage,
but we should remember that it will primarily
be a rock music show, not an audio-visual spectacle.
However, there will be six large screens suspended
above the stage, to be used in a different way
from normal. Usually multiple screens at concerts
all have the same, edited, feed – similar
to a TV show; in Gdańsk each screen will only
cover one musician from the player's own dedicated
camera, so each musician will be on one screen
all the time. This may be a first, and it will
certainly allow those at the back of the crowd
to focus on anything happening onstage at any
time.
New Release Dates for 'David Gilmour' and
'About Face' – ex-Europe
We do now have definitive release dates for
those territories via SonyBMG that were waiting
for manufacturing approvals – Canada:
August 28th; USA: September 12th; Japan:
September 27th.
We are waiting for details from Australia and
New Zealand (New Zealand will be getting stock
from Australia). The albums are available now
across Europe via EMI. (Belgium will have albums
instore on Monday 21st August, and Greece and
Turkey are yet to advise.)
Many apologies again for the confusion.
Englishman Gets Summer Gold in Germany
It had to happen, although
it took a little time – David getting Gold
in Germany and us getting the photos.
After David's triumphal concert in Munich's
Königsplatz on July 29th, he was presented with
Gold discs for the CD sales in Germany of On
An Island and DVD sales there for David
Gilmour In Concert.
Seen with David, above, is Dirk Ewald, Managing
Director of EMI Catalogue in Germany. The gold
has now returned to Britain, even if the World
Cup hasn't...
Stop Press (literally) – David's Catalogue
Delayed Ex-Europe
All we can say is – it's the holiday season...
Thanks to alert, keen (and disappointed) fans
via The
Blog, we have discovered that SonyBMG
haven't in fact shipped David's catalogue reissue
CDs outside Europe. At least it was a quality
issue – they had moved production to a
different factory to meet exacting quality control
criteria.
Unfortunately your faithful News Editor wasn't
apprised of any delay, so we in good faith published
Monday's news – which IS at least correct
for Europe. The presses are now rolling at SonyBMG
and we should have a new release from them very
shortly. In the meantime, many apologies, not
least to the Features Editor, who first intercepted
your pleas.
ReMaster Class – 'David Gilmour' and
'About Face' Out Now
For those keen to reacquaint themselves with
David's first two solo albums, they are finally
available from today via EMI (in Europe) and
tomorrow via SonyBMG (in the rest of the world).
They have both been remastered with so much
care and attention that the releases have taken
a little longer than planned, so apologies for
that.
David Gilmour (1978) has been remastered
by Doug Sax and Sangwook Nam at The Mastering
Lab, California, from the original analogue
master tape. About Face (1984) had some
tape edits on its original master, so audio
legend James Guthrie transferred it to a high-quality
digital master and created a new edit-free master,
while ensuring the highest sonic quality.
David Gilmour is essentially a trio of
David on guitar, keyboards and vocals, with
old friends Rick Wills on bass/vocals and Willie
Wilson on drums (see Discography
for complete credits). About Face has
a larger cast, featuring the late, great Jeff
Porcaro (drums), Pino Palladino (bass), and
Ian Kewley (keyboards). Guests include Steve
Winwood, Anne Dudley, Roy Harper, and many more.
Both albums have their original track listings
without bonus tracks but the booklets do include
contemporary photographs of David from the time.
Our thanks to Rob Carter, Jeremy Holiday, and
John Jackson at SonyBMG US for their help in
preparing these reissues.
David Reigns as Venice Pours
Torrential rain throughout the first half of David's
second show in Venice didn't stop it being as well
received as all the other dates; but as the weather
cleared at the start of the second portion, the show
gathered momentum.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond featured Igor and
his wine glasses now filled, no doubt, with rainwater.
Arnold Layne and Dark Globe replaced
Astronomy Domine, and the show finale saw another
capacity crowd rush forward to register their approval.
High Tide and Clean Glass – David Plays Venice
Only this afternoon Venice's Piazza San Marco was
awash, courtesy of an exceptionally high tide, but
it abated in time time for David's triumphal return
to last week's City of Sighs.
Even the chaos across Europe's air corridors couldn't
keep our lads down as they delivered to a capacity
crowd – increased to allow for swapped tickets.
As well as the first performance on this tour of On
The Turning Away, the wine glass intro to Shine
On You Crazy Diamond was given an added fillip
by the performance on glasses by a real glass harmonica
player, Igor Sklyarov. Igor performs with his own
trio, but was busking on the streets of Venice when
spotted by David, who invited him to perform. No ancient
buildings were harmed by Igor's tuneful glass manipulation
– but the whole audience enjoyed it.
David also reminded the audience that a portion of
the concert's proceeds was going to the charity
Emergency, and thanked Emergency's Gino
Strada.
Belated News re: Venetian Refunds.
Many apologies to anyone requiring a refund for David's
Italian shows (rescheduled for this weekend). There
has been a lot of confusion about refunds, particularly
from Italy's www.ticketone.it
Web site, which was giving contradictory information.
We have finally established that applications for
refunds for the August 4th/5th concerts will be accepted
until Thursday 7th September.
Apologies again to those inconvenienced by these circumstances;
it took longer than we hoped to establish all the
facts, and we try always to print fact and not rumour.
Even so, we regret that some people have been needlessly
worried about the possibility of not being able to
claim a refund.
Take It Back – Swapping Your Venice Ticket
If you are lucky enough to have a ticket for David's
shows in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, please note
the following:
If your ticket is for Friday 4th August, it is valid
in exactly the same seat on Friday 11th August.
If your ticket is for Saturday 5th August, it is valid
in exactly the same seat on Saturday 12th August.
If you have a ticket for Friday 4th August
(now valid for August 11th), but you are not able
to attend on the 11th, please go to the box office
at the edge of the Piazza San Marco on the evening
of Saturday 12th, and exchange your ticket
for one for the 12th. It cannot be the same as your
original seat, but it will be the best one available.
No tickets will be switched after 8PM.
If you have a ticket for Saturday 5th August,
(now valid for August 12th), but you are not able
to attend on the 12th, please go to the box office
at the edge of the Piazza San Marco on the evening
of Friday 11th, and exchange your ticket for
one for the 11th. It cannot be the same as your original
seat, but it will be the best one available. No tickets
will be switched after 8PM.
It cannot be predicted exactly what seats will be
available on each night, but the Venice council have
granted extra capacity for the shows, so anyone with
a ticket should be able to get in. Please do note
that if you wish to swap nights your new seat cannot
be guaranteed to be in the same position as the seat
you were originally allocated.
However, the above arrangements should at least give
ticket holders the best possible opportunity of being
able to attend one of the shows.
Clarification re: Stage Problem at David's Venice
Shows.
To correct some reports about the situation with the
stage at David's scheduled Venice concerts, and to
avoid further conjecture, we have provided some clarification
as follows:
The stage for the Venice concerts was constructed
by a reputable third party company, sub-contracted
by the concert promoter. All appeared well until,
just after 5pm on Friday 4th, one of the main supporting
beams at the top of the left hand tower appeared to
give way, rendering the whole structure unsafe.
David, his management, and Fran Tomasi, the concert
promoter, will be undertaking rigorous investigations
to determine the cause, but in the event, the prime
consideration was safety, not only for musicians and
crew, but also for the audience and passers-by in
the Piazza San Marco. Therefore, from necessity, the
concerts were rescheduled to allow the stage to be
dismantled with extreme care over the next 36 hours,
under the supervision of the Venice fire service.
With the helpful co-operation of the Mayor and Council
of Venice, it was possible to speedily re-arrange
the concerts, now scheduled for Friday and Saturday,
11th & 12th August, in the hope that most original
ticket holders will still be able to attend. If that
is sadly not possible, a full refund will be available
at point of purchase. It is also planned that ticket
holders should be able to choose to attend either
the 11th or 12th (one concert only) with their original
ticket – while seats are available – with
no added charges or box office commissions.
Some News About Refunds For Venice
It's still the weekend, so please be patient until
the working week starts tomorrow. However, just to
clarify the situation re: tickets for David's rescheduled
shows in Venice on Friday 11th and Saturday
12th August, original tickets for the August 4th
show will be valid for the August 11th show. Tickets
for the original August 5th show will be valid for
the rescheduled August 12th show.
If you need to apply for a refund, please apply to
your original point of purchase. If you bought a ticket
via www.ticketone.it
they will be offering refunds if you apply from August
7th (tomorrow) until August 31st. Please
apply to ecomm.customerservice@ticketone.it.
We hope to be able to bring more news on this over
the next few days.
Where We Restart: Venice Dates Rescheduled.
Talks between all parties including the Mayor of Venice
and the local Promoter have led to a speedy rescheduling
of David's Venice dates. They will now be presented
on August 11th and 12th – one week after their
original dates.
It is hoped that a quick resolution will cause minimal
inconvenience to ticket holders, but we will post
information about refunds as soon as possible.
Venice Shows 4/5 August Off
Discussions are taking place about the possibility
of rescheduling these shows in August, so if you are
a ticket holder, please be patient, and we will advise
as soon as anything is finally decided.
Stop Press! Tonight's Show Off.
Just before the sound check of today's planned show
in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, a structural defect
was discovered in the scaffolding, rendering the whole
structure unsafe. Therefore, regrettably, the shows
scheduled for today and tomorrow cannot go ahead.
As soon as there is more definitive news about the
August 5th show, we will post it here.
A Venetian Bind
Spare a thought for David's beleaguered crew as they
load in the gear for the shows on Friday and Saturday
in the Piazza San Marco, Venice. These concerts truly
will be on an island, which means that in addition
to manoeuvring four trucks of gear through the city's
narrow streets, the production team will be loading
and unloading an additional four huge barges to float
the backline, lights, monitors, lasers, bell, book
and cumbus from mainland to venue.
If you're going to be there, look out for Pete Bell
of Anthill Merchandising, the tour T-Shirt man, inevitably
to be known henceforth as the 'merch Ant' of Venice.
A Frenzy In Firenze
Tonight's show in the centre of Florence (or Firenze,
as it's more properly known) was another demonstration
of how well David's show translates to the city centre
format.
With the now-standard, but still amazing, Marc Brickman
palette of lights, fog and lasers capturing the audience's
imagination, the show confounded expectations yet
again with the reappearance in the set of Wearing
The Inside Out, featuring of course Richard Wright's
impassioned vocals.
An unique version of Echoes was witnessed when
the generator blew up, right at the start of the song.
Most of it was illuminated solely by three follow
spots – a counterpoint to the frenzied activity
around the generator, which came back to life some
15 minutes later to create the full son et lumière
of the climax.
Astronomy Domine was also performed, adding
another David to the list of Florentine artistic achievements.
Wine – on 'You Crazy Diamond'
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Monday's show
in David's Summer Tour visited Vienne in France,
whose Théâtre Antique brought back memories
of Pompeii for many.
A musical memory for David was the re-creation
of the introduction to Shine On You Crazy
Diamond using wine glasses filled with Beaujolais,
as announced onstage by David in the local language. |
The poor man's glass harmonica involves rubbing the
rim of a liquid-filled glass to produce a musical
tone, something enthusiastically performed by David
and the band on Monday at the start of the set's second
half. The fate of the glasses' contents remains unrecorded.
The set itself differed from Munich with the substitution
of Arnold Layne and Wot's... Uh The Deal
for Astronomy Domine and Dark Globe.
Check out
The Blog, as ever, for details of tonight's show
and Live
Dates for future gigs.
Careful With That Punt, You Three – 9PM, BBC2
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UK TV viewers
can look out again for a quick tour round David's
boat studio Astoria tonight, when Three Men
In A Boat is repeated. A homage to Jerome
K. Jerome's comedic 'Three Men In A Boat', the
show features Griff Rhys Jones, Dara O'Briain,
Rory McGrath and a dog, who set out from Kingston
in a wooden skiff in an attempt to re-trace
the literary journey, calling in at Astoria
on the way. |
Shot last year, David's section includes a guided
trip round the vessel plus its potted history, while
Rory McGrath attempts to impress David with his guitar
skills. It does convey some of the tranquillity of
the Astoria environment, so worth a look. |
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