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Richard
Wright - Keyboards,
Organ, Piano, |
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Synth,
Acoustic Guitar,
Trombone, Vocals, |
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Guitar,
Fiddle, Harpsicord,
Saxophone, Cello |
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Syd
Barrett - Guitar,
Vocals, Bass, Slide |
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guitar, Ukelele,
Mandolin, Banjo |
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Album Art |
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David Jon Gilmour CBE (born
March 6, 1946 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) is
an English musician best known as a guitarist,
singer, and songwriter in the band Pink Floyd.
In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour
has also worked as a record producer for a variety
of famous artists. Gilmour has been very active
in many charity organisations over the course
of his career. In 2003, he was appointed CBE for
this work.
Early Life
Gilmour was born and grew up in the affluent Grantchester
Meadows area of Cambridge, England. His father,
Douglas Gilmour, was a senior lecturer in zoology
at the University of Cambridge and his mother,
Sylvia, was a teacher.
Gilmour attended The Perse School on Hills Road,
Cambridge, and met future Pink Floyd guitarist/vocalist
Syd Barrett who attended Cambridgeshire High School
for Boys, also situated on Hills Road. He took
modern languages A-Levels, and along with Syd,
he spent his lunchtimes learning to play the guitar.
They were not bandmates however, and Gilmour started
playing in the band Joker's Wild in 1963. Gilmour
left Joker's Wild in 1966 and busked around Spain
and France with some friends. They weren't particularly
successful, living a hand-to-mouth existence.
Indeed, Gilmour ended up being treated for malnutrition
in hospital, as he confirmed in an interview with
Nicky Horne on BBC radio in July of 1992. In 1967,
they returned to England, driving a van with fuel
stolen from a building site in France.
Pink Floyd
Gilmour was asked to join Pink Floyd in January
1968 making Pink Floyd briefly a five-piece again.
He was used to fill in for Barrett's guitar parts
when the front man was unable to take a consistent
part in Floyd's live performances. When Syd Barrett
"left" the group (the band chose not
to pick him up one night for a gig due to his
erratic behaviour), Gilmour by default assumed
the role of the band's lead guitarist and shared
lead vocal duties with Roger Waters and Richard
Wright in Barrett's stead. Gilmour's guitar playing
and song writing became major factors of Pink
Floyd's world-wide success during the 1970s. However, after the back-to-back successes
of first Dark Side of the Moon and then Wish You
Were Here, Waters took more and more control over
the band, writing most of Animals and The Wall
by himself. Wright was fired during The Wall sessions
and the relationship between Gilmour and Waters
would further deteriorate during the making of
The Wall film and the 1983 Pink Floyd album The
Final Cut.
In 1985, Waters declared that Pink Floyd was "A
spent force creatively ". However, in 1986,
Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason issued a press
release saying that Waters had quit the band and
they intended to continue on without Waters. Gilmour
assumed full control of the group and created
A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987 with some
contributions from Mason. Wright rejoined the
band for a lengthy world tour and helped create
1994's The Division Bell as well. Gilmour explained:
“ I had a number of problems with the direction
of the band in our recent past, before Roger left.
I thought the songs were very wordy and that,
because the specific meanings of those words were
so important, the music became a mere vehicle
for lyrics, and not a very inspiring one. .. Dark
Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here were so
successful not just because of Roger's contributions,
but also because there was a better balance between
the music and the lyrics than there has been in
more recent albums. That's what I'm trying to
do with A Momentary Lapse of Reason; more focus
on the music, restore the balance. ”
In 1986, Gilmour purchased the houseboat Astoria
which is moored on the River Thames near Hampton
Court, and transformed it into a recording studio.
The majority of the two most recent Pink Floyd
albums, as well as Gilmour's 2006 solo release
On An Island were recorded there.
On July 2, 2005, Gilmour played with Pink Floyd
— including Roger Waters — at Live 8.
The performance caused a temporary 1,343% sales
increase of Pink Floyd's album Echoes: The Best
of Pink Floyd. As a result, Gilmour
vowed to donate all of his resulting profits to
charities that reflect the goals of Live 8 saying:
“ Though the main objective has been to raise
consciousness and put pressure on the G8 leaders,
I will not profit from the concert. This is money
that should be used to save lives. ”
Shortly after, he also called upon all artists
experiencing a surge in sales from Live 8 performances
to donate the extra revenue to Live 8 fundraising.
On February 3, 2006, he announced in an interview
with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that
Pink Floyd would most likely never tour or write
material together again. He said:
“ I think enough is enough. I am 60 years
old. I don't have the will to work as much anymore.
Pink Floyd was an important part in my life, I
have had a wonderful time, but it's over. For
me it's much less complicated to work alone. ”
He said that by agreeing to Live 8, he had ensured
the story of Floyd would not end on a sour note.
“ There was more than one reason, firstly
to support the cause. The second one is the energy
consuming an uncomfortable relationship between
Roger and me that I was carrying along in my heart.
That is why we wanted to perform and to leave
the trash behind. Thirdly I might have regretted
it if I declined. ”
On February 20, 2006, Gilmour commented again
on Pink Floyd's future when he was interviewed
by Billboard.com stating "Who knows? I have
no plans at all to do that. My plans are to do
my concerts and put my solo record out."
Also 2007 will mark the 40th anniversary of Pink
Floyd as a professional recording and touring
band and reports are out that some big occasion
will go down to celebrate Pink Floyd's 40th anniversary
although as things stand there are no plans to
reactivate Pink Floyd at the moment.
In December 2006, Gilmour released a tribute to
Syd Barrett, who had died in July of that year,
in the form of his own version of Floyd's first
single "Arnold Layne". Recorded live
at London's Royal Albert Hall, the CD single featured
versions of the song performed by Floyd keyboardist
(and Gilmour band member) Richard Wright and special
guest artist David Bowie.
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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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