David Gilmour Of Pink Floyd Returns To Pompeii
David Gilmour is returning to Pink Floyd’s roots. Sort of.
In 1972, Pink Floyd, which then featured Gilmour, bassist Roger Waters, keyboard player Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason, shot a live concert at the historic Roman city.
It was called “Live At Pompeii,” and there was no audience. At that point, it was considered one of the band’s triumphs, just two years prior to the release of its masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon.
Gilmour, who replaced Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, figured prominently in the band’s arrangement as a co-writer who shared singing duties with Waters and was known for his stimulating guitar solos and stage presence.
Return To Pompeii
Ultimate Classic Rock reports that Gilmour is returning as part of his worldwide tour, on July 7-8. The announcement was made by Dario Franceschini, Cultural Minister of Pompeii via Twitter.
Accordo raggiunto.Dopo 45anni David #Gilmour tornerà a suonare a #Pompei il 7 e l'8 luglio #PinkFloyd #LiveAtPompeii pic.twitter.com/rx3HLXJobI
— Dario Franceschini (@dariofrance) March 16, 2016
This time, however, Gilmour will perform before a live audience. In addition to classic Pink Floyd songs like “Money,” “Run Like Hell,” and “Wish You Were Here,” Gilmour will also likely feature material from his most recent solo album, Rattle That Lock.
Gilmour’s tour begins in Los Angeles, California, and Chicago and New York. After two nights in Toronto, Ontario, Gilmour and his band will then travel overseas to European nations Austria, Italy, France, before concluding in London, England on September 30.
Gilmour and Pink Floyd
The announcement comes less than a year after Gilmour, 70, announced that Pink Floyd was no more, just four years after Wright’s death.
The band started in 1965 with Barrett, Waters, Wright, and Mason. Gilmour joined in 1968, and Barrett, Floyd’s early founder and leader, quit shortly thereafter.
Gilmour teamed with the rest of the band for the historic 1972 concert.
The following year, the band released The Dark Side of the Moon, which has sold over 50 million copies since its release, and was on the Billboard charts until 1988. While Rogers was generally considered the band’s leader at that point, Gilmour featured prominently on the album in singing classics like “Breathe,” “Us And Them,” and for strong guitar solos on “Time” and “Money.”
The band followed Dark Side with Wish You Were Here in 1975, and then Animals in 1977. By the time the class Another Brick In The Wall in 1979, Waters’ relationship with his bandmates was frayed. Wright left after Wall.
Waters’ relationship with the rest of the band was so strained that the next Floyd album, The Final Cut, featured very little of David Gilmour and Nick Mason. It was Waters’ last album with Pink Floyd.
The band reformed in 1987, minus Waters, who sued over rights to the band’s name. The case was settled out of court. But the Gilmour-led Floyd released two more albums, in 1987 and 1994, and continued to tour to sell-out crowds.
In 2005, Waters contacted David Gilmour, asking if the band might be willing to reunite for a one-off performance at Live 8. Gilmour agreed, and Pink Floyd played live with Waters for the first time in over 20 years.
[Photo by Joel Ryan/AP Images]
The event spurred another joint Gilmour-Waters appearance; this time, Gilmour appeared at a Waters concert in 2011, where he joined Waters for their classic duet, Comfortably Numb.
Gilmour Goes Back To Pompeii
In 2014, Pink Floyd released their final album, The Endless River (Waters did not take part). The following year, Gilmour announced that Pink Floyd was no more.
“I’m done with it…it has run its course, we are done – and it would be fakery to go back and do it again”
Shortly thereafter, Gilmour released Rattle That Rock.
In July, fans at Pompeii will hear songs from that album, as well as some pieces that David Gilmour performed with his then-band mates back in 1972.
The dates are not yet listed on Gilmour’s website.
[Photo by Joel Ryan/AP Images]
