David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink Floyd had become one of the highest-selling and most acclaimed acts in music history. Following the departure of Roger Waters in 1985, Pink Floyd continued under Gilmour's leadership and released the studio albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Division Bell and The Endless River.
Gilmour has released five solo studio albums: David Gilmour, About Face, On an Island, Rattle That Lock and Luck and Strange. He has achieved three number-one solo albums on the UK Albums Chart, and six with Pink Floyd. He produced two albums by the Dream Academy, and is credited for bringing the singer-songwriter Kate Bush to public attention, paying for her early recordings and helping her find a record contract.
As a member of Pink Floyd, Gilmour was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2003, Gilmour was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He received the award for Outstanding Contribution at the 2008 Q Awards. In 2023, Rolling Stone named him the 28th-greatest guitarist.
Gilmour has taken part in projects related to issues including animal rights, environmentalism, homelessness, poverty, and human rights. He has married twice and is the father of eight children. His wife, the novelist Polly Samson, has contributed lyrics to many of his songs.
Early life and education
David Jon Gilmour was born on 6 March 1946 in Cambridge, England. He has three siblings: Peter, Mark and Catharine. His father, Douglas Gilmour, was a senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Cambridge, and his mother, Sylvia, was a trained teacher who later worked as a film editor for the BBC. At the time of Gilmour's birth, the family lived in Trumpington, Cambridgeshire; after several relocations they moved to nearby Grantchester.Gilmour's parents encouraged him to pursue his interest in music, and in 1954 he bought his first single, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock". His enthusiasm was stirred the following year by Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", and "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers piqued his interest in the guitar. Gilmour borrowed a guitar from a neighbour, but never gave it back. Soon afterwards, he started teaching himself to play using a book and record set by Pete Seeger. At age 11, Gilmour began attending The Perse School on Hills Road, Cambridge, which he did not enjoy. There, he met two classmates who would later become the future members of Pink Floyd: Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, both of whom attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys on the same road.
In 1962, Gilmour began studying A-Level modern languages at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, but despite not finishing the course, he eventually learned to speak fluent French. Barrett was also a student at the college, and the two spent their lunchtimes together practising guitar. Later that year, Gilmour joined the blues rock band Jokers Wild. They recorded a one-sided album and a single at Regent Sound Studio, in Denmark Street, west London, but only 50 copies of each were made.
At age 19, Gilmour hitchhiked to Saint-Tropez, France. Barrett and his friends also drove there and met up with him before they were arrested for busking. Gilmour and Barrett later travelled to Paris, where they camped outside the city for a week and visited the Louvre. During this period, Gilmour worked as the driver and assistant for the fashion designer Ossie Clark.
Gilmour travelled to France again in mid-1967 with Rick Wills and Willie Wilson, formerly of Jokers Wild. They performed under the name Flowers, then Bullitt, but were not commercially successful. After hearing their covers of chart hits, club owners were reluctant to pay them, and soon after their arrival in Paris, thieves stole their equipment. Also while in France, Gilmour contributed lead vocals to two songs on the soundtrack of the film Two Weeks in September, starring Brigitte Bardot. When he returned with Bullitt to England later that year, they could not afford petrol and had to push their bus off the ferry onto the landing.
Career
Pink Floyd
In 1967, Pink Floyd, composed of Gilmour's Cambridge schoolmates Barrett and Waters with Nick Mason and Richard Wright, released their debut studio album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. That May, Gilmour briefly returned to London in search of new equipment. During his stay, he watched Pink Floyd record "See Emily Play" and was shocked to find that Barrett, who was suffering mental health problems, did not seem to recognise him.In December 1967, after Gilmour had returned to England, he accepted an invitation to join Pink Floyd to cover for the increasingly erratic Barrett. They initially intended to continue with Barrett as a non-performing songwriter. One of the band's business partners, Peter Jenner, said the plan was to have Gilmour "cover for Barrett's eccentricities". By March 1968, working with Barrett had become too difficult and he agreed to leave the band. Mason later said: "After Syd, Dave was the difference between light and dark. He was absolutely into form and shape and he introduced that into the wilder numbers we'd created. We became far less difficult to enjoy, I think." In 1970, Gilmour attended the Isle of Wight Festival and assisted in a live mix of a Jimi Hendrix performance.
In the 1970s, Gilmour received a copy of a demo tape by the teenage songwriter Kate Bush from Ricky Hopper, a mutual friend of both families. Impressed, Gilmour paid for Bush, then 16, to record three professional demo tracks to present to record labels. The tape was produced by Gilmour's friend Andrew Powell, who went on to produce Bush's first two studio albums, and the sound engineer Geoff Emerick. Gilmour arranged for EMI executive Terry Slater to hear the tape, and he signed her. Gilmour is credited as the executive producer on two tracks on Bush's debut studio album, The Kick Inside, including her second single "The Man with the Child in His Eyes". He performed backing vocals on "Pull Out the Pin" on her fourth studio album, The Dreaming, and played guitar on "Love and Anger" and "Rocket's Tail" on her sixth, The Sensual World. In 1975, Gilmour played on Roy Harper's album HQ.
First solo works
By the late 1970s, Gilmour had begun to think that his musical talents were being underused by Pink Floyd. In 1978, he released his first solo album, David Gilmour, which showcased his guitar playing and songwriting. Music written during the finishing stages of the album, but too late to be used, became "Comfortably Numb" on the Pink Floyd album The Wall.The relationship between Gilmour and Waters deteriorated during the making of the Wall film and the album The Final Cut. This negative atmosphere led Gilmour to produce his second solo studio album, About Face, which he used to express his feelings about a range of topics, from his relationship with Waters to the murder of John Lennon. Gilmour toured Europe and the US, supported by the Television Personalities, who were dropped after the singer, Dan Treacy, revealed Barrett's address on stage. Mason also made a guest appearance on the UK leg of the tour, which despite some cancellations eventually turned a profit. When he returned from touring, Gilmour played guitar with a range of artists and produced the Dream Academy, including their US top-ten hit "Life in a Northern Town".
Gilmour co-wrote five songs on Roy Harper's album The Unknown Soldier, including "Short and Sweet", which was first recorded for Gilmour's first solo album. In April 1984, Harper made a surprise guest appearance at Gilmour's Hammersmith Odeon gig to sing "Short and Sweet". This was included in Gilmour's Live 1984 concert film. Harper also provided backing vocals on Gilmour's second solo studio album About Face.
In 1985, Gilmour played on Bryan Ferry's sixth solo album, Boys and Girls, and on the song "Is Your Love Strong Enough" for the US release of the Ridley Scott film Legend. The music video for "Is Your Love Strong Enough" incorporated Ferry and Gilmour into footage from the film. In July that year, Gilmour played with Ferry at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in London. He contributed to Pete Townshend's 1985 album White City: A Novel, including the single "Give Blood", and the 1985 Grace Jones album Slave to the Rhythm. Gilmour also played guitar on Paul McCartney's 1984 hit single No More Lonely Nights, on the title track of Supertramp's 1985 album Brother Where You Bound and on three tracks of the 1986 album Persona by the classical guitarist Liona Boyd.
Leading Pink Floyd
In 1985, Waters declared that Pink Floyd were "a spent force creatively" and attempted to dissolve the band. Gilmour and Mason announced that they intended to continue without him. Waters resigned in 1987, leaving Gilmour as the band leader. In 1986, Gilmour purchased the houseboat Astoria, moored it on the River Thames near Hampton Court, London, and converted it into a recording studio. He produced the Pink Floyd studio album A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987, with contributions from Mason and Wright. Gilmour believed Pink Floyd had become too driven by lyrics under Waters' leadership, and attempted to "restore the balance" of music and lyrics. In March 1987, Gilmour played guitar for Kate Bush's performance of "Running Up That Hill" at the Secret Policeman's Third Ball.Pink Floyd released their second album under Gilmour's leadership, The Division Bell, in 1994. In December 1999, Gilmour played guitar, alongside Mick Green, Ian Paice, Pete Wingfield, and Chris Hall, for Paul McCartney, at a concert at the Cavern Club, in Liverpool, England. This resulted in the concert film Live at the Cavern Club, directed by Geoff Wonfor.