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David Gilmour is best known for his distinctively
spacy, atmospheric guitar work for Pink Floyd. Born March 6, 1944,
in Cambridge, England, Gilmour was well acquainted with the members
of Pink Floyd when they asked him to join their band to supplement
the guitar work of the increasingly erratic Syd Barrett. When
Barrett's mental breakdown made it impossible for him to continue
with the group, Gilmour became a permanent contributing member
in time for their second album, 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets.
Gilmour has recorded solo albums during periods of Pink Floyd
inactivity, including 1978's moody David Gilmour, 1984's more
melodic About Face (after the breakup of the Roger Waters-led
lineup), and 2006's laid-back, lyrical On an Island (which became
a Top Ten hit). Gilmour has also lent his guitar to a number of
other artists' records, notably Kate Bush and Bryan Ferry.
Gilmour was asked to join Pink Floyd in January of 1968 making
Pink Floyd briefly a five piece. The five piece lineup lasted
for five performances before Barrett "left" the group only months
later and Gilmour by default assumed the role of the band's lead
guitarist and shared lead vocal duties with Roger Waters and Richard
Wright. 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 The Wall by himself. The relationship
between the two would deteriorate during the making of The Wall
film and the 1983 Pink Floyd album The Final Cut.
In 1986 he purchased the houseboat the Astoria, and transformed
it into a recording studio. The majority of the two most recent
Pink Floyd albums were recorded on the boat. It is currently moored
on the River Thames.
In 1985, Waters declared that "as far as he was concerned Pink
Floyd was over". However in 1986, the rest of Pink Floyd issued
a press release saying that Waters had quit and the band intended
on continuing without Waters. It was also at this time that Gilmour
assumed full control and created A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Later, they would go on to create 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.
On July 2, 2005, Gilmour played with Pink Floyd — including Roger
Waters — at Live 8. The performance caused a temporary 1,343 percent
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 [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 changed his stance on Pink Floyd's
future when 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." The tone of that statement seems
to imply that either he has not ruled out any more one-off gigs
or a farewell concert.
This bio courtesy www.allmusic.com & Wikipedia.org
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