Our music has depth, and attempts philosophical thought and meaning with discussions of infinity, eternity and mortality. There is a line which people cross that turns it into some magical, mystical realm, for which I don't claim responsibility and don't hold any great truck with.
D Gilmour
Biography
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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[1][2] 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.