“I’m going to be sticking with the ones that are essentially my music.” David Gilmour names three beloved Pink Floyd classics that he won't be playing live again
· louderBy Paul Brannigan
( Classic Rock )
published 19 September 2024
If you're going to see David Gilmour in the hope of hearing some of Pink Floyd's best-known songs you may be disappointed
David Gilmour will be hitting the road soon in support of his UK number one album Luck and Strange, and Pink Floyd fans will doubtless be pleased to hear that the 78-year-old vocalist/guitarist will be incorporating some of the band's best-loved songs into his set alongside selections from his five solo records. However, there are certain Pink Floyd songs which the musician is happy to leave in the past.
“There are songs from the past that I no longer feel comfortable singing,” he explains in a new interview conducted with Mark Blake for Mojo magazine. “I love Run Like Hell [from The Wall]. I loved the music I created for it, but all that (sings) ‘You’d better run, run, run…’ I now find that all rather, I don’t know… a bit terrifying and violent.”
“Another Brick In The Wall is another one I shan’t be doing,” Gilmour says. “I don’t think I’ve done that with my own band, but I certainly did it in the post-Roger Pink Floyd, against my better judgement. The same with Money. I won’t be doing that. I’m going to be sticking with the ones that are essentially my music, and I feel some ownership of. Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, maybe…”
In a recent interview with ITN News, Gilmour emphasised that anyone hoping to see the three surviving members of Pink Floyd - himself, Roger Waters and Nick Mason - sharing a stage again should “dream on”.
He made the comment after being asked by ITV News Arts Editor Nina Nannar, “What do you say to this perpetual yearning for Pink Floyd to get back together?”
“I mean, it's not going to happen,” he stated bluntly. “There's only three people left and we're not talking and unlikely to. [Laughs] So it's not going to happen.”
Nannar also asked Gilmour for his thoughts on why rock bands no longer dominate the UK singles chart as they did back in Pink Floyd's '70s heyday.
“Well, that was part of what was a golden age,” he responded. ”There were a lot of record companies who had ideologies that involved them investing money in the futures of young, talented people and that doesn't seem to be here right now in the same sort of way unfortunately.”
For full details of Gillmour's upcoming shows, visit his website.
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Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
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