Profile of David Gilmour on Famous Like Me

David Jon Gilmour, CBE (born March 6, 1944) is the guitarist and vocalist with UK band Pink Floyd and has also released solo material and collaborated with many others. Following the departure of Roger Waters in the mid-eighties, Gilmour effectively assumed control of the band.

Gilmour was born and grew up in Cambridge. His father was a senior lecturer in zoology. Gilmour met Syd Barrett while attending the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology where they spent their lunchtimes learning the guitar. They were not, however, bandmates, and Gilmour started playing in the band Joker's Wild in 1963. Gilmour left Jokers Wild in 1966 and formed a new band with some of its members. This band, firstly named Flowers, later changing their name to Bullitt, spent the rest of 1966 and most of 1967 playing in Spain and France, before disbanding later that year. Gilmour was asked to join Pink Floyd in January of the following year. Barrett left the group only months later and Gilmour assumed the role of the band's lead guitarist and shared lead vocal duties with Roger Waters. Gilmour's guitar playing and song writing became major factors of Pink Floyd's world-wide success during the 1970s. However, at the turn of the decade, Waters took more and more control over the band. The relationship between the two grew ever worse.

Gilmour released his first, eponymous, solo album David Gilmour in the spring of 1978. One of the tunes he wrote at the time, but did not use, was developed to become the Pink Floyd classic "Comfortably Numb". Gilmour released his second solo album, About Face, in 1984.

In 1985, Waters declared that Pink Floyd was defunct. However, Gilmour assumed full control and created A Momentary Lapse of Reason. 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.

During Pink Floyd's quiet spells, he has amused himself as a session musician, producer and even concert sound engineer, for a wide variety of acts including some pseudonymous novelty releases, Roy Harper, Kate Bush (whose career Gilmour was instumental in launching), The Dream Academy (another artist whose early history Gilmour was pivotal in), Grace Jones, Tom Jones, Elton John, Arcadia, Bryan Ferry, Robert Wyatt, Hawkwind, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Sam Brown, Jools Holland, Propaganda, Pete Townshend, The Who, Supertramp, Warren Zevon, various charity "supergroups" and many more.

Gilmour is especially renowned for a very precise, "bendy" kind of soloing, as well as various "violin-type" sounds and screams. His solos are noted for being well-composed and constructed, with very little waste of notes. He has been an innovator in the use of guitar sound effects. In 1996 Gilmour was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd.

In 2002, he held a small number of acoustic solo concerts in London and Paris, along with a small band and choir, which has been documented on the In Concert release.

In May 2003, Gilmour sold one of his London houses and contributed the $5.9 million he made to a housing project for the homeless.

In November 2003, he was made a CBE, for philanthropy & services to music.

On July 2, 2005, Gilmour played with Pink Floyd - including Roger Waters - at Live 8. The performance caused a 1,343 percent sales increase of Pink Floyd's album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. As a result, Gilmour vowed to donate all 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.

He is also an experienced pilot. Under the guise of his company, Intrepid Aviation, he had amassed an impressive collection of historical aircraft. David decided to sell Intrepid, for the following reason (taken from a BBC radio interview in 2002):

Intrepid Aviation was a way for me to make my hobby pay for itself a little bit, but gradually over a few years Intrepid Aviation became a business because you have to be businesslike about it. Suddenly I found instead of it being a hobby and me enjoying myself, it was a business and so I sold it. I don't have Intrepid Aviation any more. I just have a nice old biplane that I pop up, wander around the skies in sometimes...

Gilmour had four children from his first marriage, to Ginger: Alice, Claire, Sarah and Matthew. They originally attended a Waldorf School, but Gilmour called their education there "horrific". He has three children from his second marriage and has adopted the first-born of his second wife, the writer Polly Samson.

He is reported to be working on a new solo album, tentatively due in Spring of 2006 and is reported to have guest appearances by Richard Wright, David Crosby and Graham Nash. He has also recorded a contribution to an "all-star" version of The Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen in Love with Someone You Shouldn't Have?, in memory of John Peel, due for release in November 2006.

Solo albums by David Gilmour

• David Gilmour (1978)
• About Face (1984)

Filmography

• David Gilmour Live (1984)
• David Gilmour in Concert (2002)

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