In short…
Musician, guitar, vocals, keyboards, bass guitar, harmonica, record producer, songwriter and current leader of Pink Floyd.
David Gilmour has been main vocalist, guitarist extraordinaire and co song writer for Pink Floyd since 1969 and since the mid 80’s this soft spoken, compassionate humanitarian has been the main driving and leading force behind the band.
In deep…
Born on March 6, 1946 David learned to fend for himself early on when his parents left him and his two brothers behind in Cambridge for work and a life in New York City. While childhood friend Syd Barrett went away to school and became part of The Pink Floyd in London with Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright David was busy in Cambridge with his own quite popular band “Jokers Wild”. While playing the ballroom, party, club circuit around Cambridge and surrounding areas The Pink Floyd were hitting the pop charts with songs like “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”. During this time Syd Barrett’s experimentation with LSD and his underlying mental problems caused the other members of the band to seek out a replacement. The choice was Syd Barrett’s childhood friend David Gilmour and he officially replaced Syd in 1969.
Overcoming some initial obstacles when joining the group David was the perfect choice for Syd with his good looks, excellent guitar work and singing voice. Soon he became an important part of what would become the Pink Floyd sound and the direction the band would take musically. The band would move on to release several very experimental and progressive albums in the late 60’s and early 70’s including, “A Saucerful Of Secrets”, the movie soundtrack “More”, “Ummagumma”, “Atom Heart Mother”, “Meddle” and “Obscured By Clouds”. His attempts at lyric writing were short lived as Roger Waters was becoming more and more the leading and driving force behind the band. When they had gotten into the studio for “Dark Side Of The Moon” Roger Waters clearly became the sole lyricist for all Pink Floyd songs from that point up to the early 80’s.
In 1973 “Dark Side Of The Moon” would become Pink Floyd’s biggest selling album to date and would become one of the biggest selling albums of all time and hailed by critics and fans as a masterpiece and one of the greatest albums ever made. It is also the only album to ever remain on the Billboard top 200 albums for the past 30 years and 15 of those years continuously. It was this album where Pink Floyd truly came into their own as a band with their own unique sound, but also where David Gilmour’s guitar work really began to shine as well. This is evident in songs like “Time” and “Money” which have two standout solos by David.
After the success of “Dark Side Of The Moon” they would release “Wish You Were Here” which is David’s personal favorite. Even though it did not match the same success they had with Dark Side, “Wish You Were Here” was the perfect follow up and it is just as much of a masterpiece as its predecessor. The albums haunting guitar and beautiful melodies along with Roger Waters brilliant lyrics on songs like “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and the title track make this another one of Pink Floyd’s best. At this time David would also marry Ginger, his live in girlfriend of 5 years.
After extensive touring and a well deserved break they would start work on their next album, “Animals”. A more cynical and dark album than their previous work, “Animals” would be the continuation of Roger Waters distain towards the music business and the distance he was beginning to feel towards the fans. Although “Animals” would not be considered one of their greatest, mainly because of its negativity, David’s guitar work, especially on “Dogs” is the main standout on the album.
After touring for “Animals” David would go into the studio and record his first solo album simply titled, “David Gilmour”. The album would be a moderate success and would carry a similar sound to Pink Floyd. Most of the songs written by David Gilmour, the album shows that David is a fine songwriter in his own right. The album is filled with beautiful melodies, wonderful guitar work and the pleasure of hearing David’s singing voice. The album is a must not only for David Gilmour fans, but for anyone who just likes good music!
Beginning as early as Dark Side Roger Waters’ ever growing grip to become Pink Floyd’s only creative force was becoming more and more obvious. This was starting to take a toll on all band members and creative disagreements between David and Roger were becoming more frequent and more heated. By the late 70’s when work had begun on “The Wall”, Roger Waters epic based on his own life experiences, working conditions had reached an all time low. Rogers wanting complete control lead to the letting go of one of the original band members and keyboardist, Richard Wright. Though “The Wall” would also become one of the biggest selling albums of all time it was obvious that it was not a group effort in the same way “Dark Side Of The Moon” and “Wish You Were Here” were. Although the album holds some of Pink Floyd’s most recognizable and best loved songs, the album still mainly has a Roger Waters alone feel to it. However it does hold two songs that have become classic standards whose music was mainly influenced by David Gilmour, “Run Like Hell” and “Comfortably Numb”. “Comfortably Numb” is probably Pink Floyd’s most recognized and well loved song, it also holds one of the most memorable guitar solo’s in rock and roll history and simply a flawless piece of work by David! Following the release of “The Wall” came a lavish stage production which played only a handful of cities worldwide and the album eventually became a feature film. The film would not have the same success the album had but in recent years it has become somewhat of a cult classic.
With Richard Wright gone from the group Pink Floyd was now a three piece and Roger Waters was ready to go into the studio again for yet another album. The only problem was Roger wanted to be the ONLY creative force on this project. “The Final Cut” would become not only Pink Floyd’s final album with Roger Waters but it would also be their most disappointing. Waters control over the entire project would reduce drummer Nick Mason and David Gilmour to nothing more than studio musicians. David, who had always been co-producer to most of Pink Floyd’s albums would have his name removed as producer from this one. Even though “The Final Cut” is not a bad piece of work, it is primarily the work of Roger Waters alone. After “The Final Cut” Roger Waters would announce that he no longer would be a part of Pink Floyd and assumed that was the end of the band, but he was wrong, David Gilmour and Nick Mason had other ideas.
After “The Final Cut” David would record a second solo album entitled “About Face”. That is exactly what this album was for David, a complete about face to anything he had done in the past. Filled with catchy pop tunes again David would write most of the songs and several songs were co-written with Pete Townshend. “About Face” was and is a nice departure for David Gilmour and his fans. As with his first solo effort “About Face” would be a moderate success and would be followed by a successful tour of Europe and America. But, David Gilmour and Nick Mason were not ready to give up their day jobs just yet as members of Pink Floyd and by the mid 1980’s they began work on a new Pink Floyd album without their main lyricist and self appointed leader, Roger Waters. Bringing back Richard Wright, who was fired during “The Wall” they would set out on a Pink Floyd lead by David Gilmour. What resulted were some nasty mud slinging wars between Waters and Gilmour and law suits filed by Waters that lasted for years. During this time the Gilmour lead Floyd would put out two studio albums, first “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason” released in 1987 followed by an extremely successful tour and in 1994 “The Division Bell” also follow by another successful tour. “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason” would be David’s first shot at being the main drive behind Pink Floyd and he did it well. The album does not stand out as one of Pink Floyd’s greatest or classics but it does have its moments and most of those moments consist of David Gilmour’s brilliant and beautiful guitar work. It also stands out as an album that shows Pink Floyd could still exist without the destructive leadership of Roger Waters. “The Division Bell” would fair even better with songs and sounds that are in the same line as the classic Pink Floyd sound. The “Division Bell” is obviously a more personal album as far as David Gilmour is concerned, recruiting his second and current wife, Polly Samson, to help write lyrics for the album. What is also obvious is that Pink Floyd became a group again using input from all band members and not just one creative force!
In 1994 David married writer Polly Samson and for the past ten years spends his days as husband and father, occasionally playing at benefit concerts and writing checks out to charity! In 2002 he taped for release on DVD, “David Gilmour in Concert” a sort of David Gilmour unplugged, and rumor has it he is currently in the studio working on material. The only question is will it be for a David Gilmour solo project or will it be Pink Floyd. Either way we look forward to whatever it!
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Chitarrista, voce e anima delle canzoni Pink Floyd, uomo tranquillo, pacato, riservato, persona dal cuore umano per chi è meno fortunato di lui, destino fortunato e gentile con Gilmour che lo porta ad accettare la sua grande vincita e scommessa della sua vita, una telefonata con i codici esatti per aprire il sipario dei Pink Floyd, un’uscita ed un’entrata di prima categoria, un uomo che esce dallo scenario e fa posto a lui, autore di musica e suoni dei Pink Floyd, L’EMOZIONE PASSA SULLE CORDE DELLA SUA CHITARRA, amico e nemico di chi gli ha aperto le porte del successo (Roger Waters), uomo di famiglia che lascia il suo spettacolo, scriverà in un’intervista del 1995 il suo 24 ore dei Pink Floyd è terminato ma si renderà conto guardando, con occhi illuminati di rosa, quel palco, di aver lasciato la sua più grande passione e di aver tolto e perso la luce del diamante più pazzo del mondo nella faccia oscura della luna.
In profondo…
David Gilmour, altro pilastro importantissimo e determinante della macchina pinkflodyana, la sua vita parte il sei di marzo del 1946.
La vita non inizia facilmente ma la forza di volercela fare spinge questo ragazzo a guardarsi intorno ed è lì che incomincia la corsa verso l’inverosimile.
Inizia a studiare ed a fare qualche lavoretto, ama la musica, ha i primi approcci con la chitarra, le note lo avvolgono, lo cerchiano e tutto vola sopra di lui.
Incomincia a prendere lezioni di musica e si fa tutta una sua idea e tutto un suo modo di suonare e sentire la musica.
La sua vita continua, scorre tra mille arcobaleni, conosce qualche amico, si crea gruppi musicali, fa spettacoli,persone miste e diverse, sfilate di moda…un amico lo chiama e gli chiede di entrare nel suo gruppo, in cerca di un chitarrista.
David Gilmour da quel momento : “Si incontriamoci”; si apre il sipario rosa, ecco sta salendo, entra, fa un passo, ecco che si accende la musica, ecco i primi assoli, guarda in alto, vede quadri di sabbia, di mani che s’incrociano, di occhi che guardano un punto che non c’è, una stretta di mano calda e fredda nello stesso tempo, un “Welcome” questo è il nostro cammino, la nostra musica, non aver paura, sarai dei nostri segui la luce dei nostri suoni e ispirati a qualcuno ed ad un posto che non esiste e vedrai che sarai dei nostri gli dirà quello stesso giorno Roger Waters.
Una svolta decisiva nella vita del gruppo e per Gilmour, sarà l’allontanamento di Syd Barrett che si abbandonò via via in modo sempre più determinante all’assunzione di LSD al tempo ancora legale (droga di uso stupefacente molto diffusa negli anni sessanta e settanta, provoca stati analoghi alla psicosi).
Così Barrett si fece affiancare in un primo momento dall’amico chitarrista David Gilmour, lasciandoli poi in seguito, con l’aggravarsi delle condizioni fisiche, definitivamente il proprio posto e con quello il destino dell’intera band che aveva riscontrato nell’arte di Syd il caposaldo e il punto di riferimento dell’intero gruppo.
Con Syd Barrett se ne andarono i sogni di molti fan e anche le aspirazioni di Peter Jenner, il manager della band che aveva deciso di abbandonare il quartetto al proprio destino, ritenendo impossibile che il nuovo entrato Gilmour potesse portare avanti quello che aveva interrotto Barrett.
A conferma di ciò saranno le seguenti parole, con le quali Nick Mason (batterista altro pilastro Pink Floyd) in seguito, commenterà questo periodo del gruppo: “Eravamo sul punto di scioglierci; ci sembrava impossibile trovare un sostituto di Syd…” Syd Barrett si era portato via i testi, la musica e gli effetti di una chitarra che veniva suonata in modo singolare, con un senso del tempo e delle battute che non aveva nessun altro.
David Jon Gilmour, la new entry, sarà il Floyd più odiato dai fan della prima generazione, ritenuto “cattivo”, per aver sostituito Barrett e per non essere stato in grado di portare avanti il gruppo.
Nonostante ciò sarà in presenza di Gilmour che il gruppo arriverà al successo planetario scalando le classifiche europee.
Inoltre resta il fatto che gli album più famosi e di maggiore successo dei Pink Floyd sono stati composti dalla band con il nuovo entrato, ad esempio capolavori come: “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, “Wish You Were Here”, “The Wall”, che hanno fatto la storia del rock.
Gilmour in un primo momento si impegnò nel mantenersi il più vicino possibile a quello che era il sound di Syd, anche se con il passare del tempo cercherà con il gruppo un nuovo stile, molto più melodico e meno psichedelico del precedente. Nel periodo di tempo a cavallo tra gli anni 1973 e 1977 i Pink Floyd diedero vita alla trilogia che portò il gruppo alla vetta del successo, nella quale il gruppo faceva leva sull’alienazione umana e sulla follia della nuova società tecnologica; essa comprendeva gli album: “The Dark Side of The Moon”, “Wish You Were Here”e “Animals”.
Del primo ne sono state vendute più di 25 milioni di copie ed è rimasto nelle classifiche di vendita degli album per più di 14 anni, divenendo uno dei più grandi successi musicali di tutti i tempi; “Animals” è da considerarsi un lavoro pervaso da un totale pessimismo nel genere umano, ritenuto questo irrimediabilmente corrotto, nel mezzo del quale l’individuo si trova impotente e rassegnato.
Il periodo di tempo successivo venne caratterizzato dagli primi scontri tra Roger Waters e David Gilmour e tra Waters e il pubblico, infatti per Roger esibirsi nei concerti stava diventando un’esperienza assolutamente alienante e si andò via via formando un vero e proprio muro tra il musicista e il pubblico.
Questo sentimento di Waters caratterizza massicciamente quello che sarà probabilmente l’album più riuscito dei Pink Floyd: “The Wall”, uscito il 16 novembre del 1979 e scritto in buona parte da Waters ma anche con la collaborazione di Gilmour, di Bob Ezrin e di James Guthrie, lavoro denso di effetti sonori e ricco di mille sfumature, curate fin nei più piccoli particolari.
Nel 1979 dopo l’imponente tour allestito per “The Wall” i Pink Floyd incisero un nuovo album: “The Final Cut”, scritto per intero da Waters, un’opera molto controversa, percorsa da quella che sarà poi la definitiva interiorizzazione di Roger, calcata da forti ricordi di guerra. “The Final Cut” segna la fine dei Pink Floyd con Waters.
Da qui incominciamo a capire la mancanza sempre più evidente della collaborazione e partecipazione di Gilmour e degli altri componenti che porterà alla rottura nonché noia tra i componenti.
Nel 1986 i Pink Floyd lavorano ad un nuovo album: “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason”, Waters però venendo a sapere che Gilmour e Mason intendevano registrare altro materiale a nome Pink Floyd, decise di avviare un procedimento presso la corte suprema e di far sciogliere la società. Il giudice ritenne però illegittime le pretese e lasciò il permesso a Gilmour e a Mason di continuare con il nome Pink Floyd.
Nel 1987 esce a “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason”, seguito nel 1988 dal doppio live: “Delicate Sound Of Thunder”; a marzo del 1994 è in vendita quello che è tuttora l’ultimo album dei Pink Floyd: “The Division Bell”,
e proprio in questo album osserviamo un Gilmour leader ma non troppo, cauto e dedito alla vita e anche a Roger che in qualche modo ammetterlo o meno li ha aperto la strada di inizio e gli ha permesso di vivere e condividere emozioni e passioni.
Il Gilmour del 2000 ne sappiamo poco, Pink Floyd parlando chiaramente, per la band non cerca niente, ma si sostiene per qualche spettacolo per la beneficenza assieme a noti cantanti e musicisti, merita attenzione per la sua famiglia e guarda indietro al suo passato felice di quel che ha creato e vissuto ma stanco di toccare di nuovo quell brivido tutto particolare che solo lui e la band conosce e può sentire.