{"id":665,"date":"2015-09-25T12:25:04","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T11:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=665"},"modified":"2021-04-09T11:47:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T10:47:22","slug":"david-gilmour-the-royal-albert-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"David Gilmour \u2013 The Royal Albert Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old Floyd man still has it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

London Royal Albert Hall 23\/09\/15<\/p>\n

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Many moons ago a work colleague of mine took pride in the fact that, not only had his father been to see a Syd Barrett-fronted Pink Floyd, but that he’d managed to get a significant section of the audience to do the conga to ‘Interstellar Overdrive’.\u00a0 The thought of this happening is a funny one whichever way you look at it but especially that cataclysmic music of the outer space and inner mind was able to move an audience in a provincial town of North-Western England (where the sights and sounds of London were as alien to them as could be) to their feet and not to the exit door.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s unlikely that anyone will leave early tonight either; this is the first return of David Gilmour to this venue (and to touring itself) since 2006 and anticipation levels are pretty high amongst the punters attending to say the least.<\/p>\n

Starting with an opening pairing of \u20185AM\u2019 and the title track to new album Rattle That Lock<\/em>, Gilmour\u2019s distinctive laconic approach to his guitar playing is instantly evident \u2013 why play a dozen notes when you can make one note sing? His sound is instantly recognisable to even the most casual Floyd listener but by third song \u2018Faces Of Stone\u2019, there\u2019s a slight concern that he\u2019s going the way of other similarly ageing guitar veterans and sliding down into snoozefest territory until the “big ones” are pulled out of the bag.<\/span><\/p>\n

No fear of that tonight though as he immediately follows it by playing a wonderful version of\u00a0 Pink Floyd\u2019s \u2018Wish You Were Here\u2019 with ex-Roxy Music\u2019s Phil Manzanera ably assisting on acoustic too; their interplay agleam with the glory and pain of the song\u2019s subject matter. He then introduces “a couple of pals” in the form of David Crosby and Graham Nash to sing their beatific backing vocals on \u2018A Boat Lies Waiting\u2019 \u00a0\u2013 interestingly boats, sailing and the sea seem to be a common motif in Gilmour\u2019s latter day songs, as illustrated by recent Floyd swansong release \u2018The Endless River\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The Blue\u2019 allows Gilmour the use of an octave pedal, enabling him to extend the range of notes beyond the confines of the frets on his guitar yet still maintain the lyrical quality that he’s renowned for.\u00a0 It\u2019s the very definition of a soaring guitar solo and he makes it look so easy too!\u00a0 Things shift up a gear with a groovesome \u2018Money\u2019 and \u2018Us And Them\u2019 back to back; the latter giving a definite tug on the heart strings and tear ducts of those who have grown up listening to \u2018The Dark Side Of The Moon\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first set is concluded with \u2018High Hopes\u2019 and, as much as it elicits similar emotions as the best of Pink Floyd it seems that, despite Gilmour\u2019s razor-sharp guitar lines and voice doing justice to the songs, we\u2019re to be denied the verve and innovation of early Floyd numbers. That is until the second set opens with the familiar strains of Syd Barrett penned \u2018Astronomy Domine\u2019.\u00a0 Suddenly, the synapses are snapped into life and the light show is truly a wonder to behold. From the \u2018Mr Screen\u2019 backdrop come images evoking lava lamp stylings before the venue is awash with eyeball-shredding colours that dazzle and daze. Nothing short of a stroboscopic-like delight!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Shine On You Crazy Diamond\u2019 is a fitting follow-up, featuring the tease of an intro to full effect, whilst \u2018Fat Old Sun is as wonderfully soporific as ever.\u00a0 However, the following series of solo songs threatens to bring back the fear of Floyd-lite territory. (\u2019The Girl In The Yellow Dress\u2019 in particular being a little too French caf\u00e9 jazz-lite) until \u2018Sorrow\u2019 and it\u2019s thunderous guitar introduction blows any such concerns away and suddenly it seems that Gilmour has rediscovered the muse, grappling and squeezing his guitar until it bends to his will.<\/span><\/p>\n

He follows with \u2018Run Like Hell\u2019 and, again, the lights accompanying it are incandescent \u2013 the entire band wearing shades to cope \u2013 and then it happens. One solitary figure is driven to rise from his seat and stomp down the aisle of the entirely seated floor, arms aloft and willing others to join him which they promptly do until the entire audience is compelled to stand up and do the same, creating an impromptu communal headrush of joy and celebration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A double whammy encore of \u2018Time\/Breathe (Reprise)\u2019 and a scintillating \u2018Comfortably Numb\u2019 bring the gig to a close with Gilmour’s exiting grin seeming to say – yes, he\u2019s still got it and that he still likes giving it to \u2018em too!<\/p>\n

Marc Le Breton<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old Floyd man still has it. London Royal Albert Hall 23\/09\/15 Many moons ago a work colleague of mine took pride in the fact that, not only had his father been to see a Syd Barrett-fronted Pink Floyd, but that he’d managed to get a significant section of the audience to do the conga to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[129,130],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-david-gilmour","tag-pink-floyd"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4711,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/4711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}