[RELATED: David Gilmour Debuts Stunning \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d Performance Video from His New Concert Film, \u2018Live at the Circus Maximus\u2019]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nThe Gavin Elder-directed concert film captures Gilmour\u2019s 2024 return to Rome\u2019s Circus Maximus, an ancient entertainment venue developed by Julius Caesar and used for chariot racing, which became a pilgrimage site for rock and roll for the evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve developed a love for those beautiful, old places that have a sense of history, the feeling of people\u2019s footsteps who have been walking in those colonnades for 2000 years,\u201d Gilmour tells American Songwriter<\/em>. \u201cThere\u2019s a magic to that. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve done ones in Pompeii and a number of the places that I\u2019ve performed because the vibes of places like that aren\u2019t only for filming, it\u2019s for the moment.\u201d<\/p>\nDuring the world premiere in London, Gilmour watched the film alongside his friends, family, and bandmates on the largest screen in the UK\u201466 feet high and 85 feet wide\u2014and watching the concert unfold on such a big scale gave the musician a unique perspective of his own performance.<\/p>\nDavid Gilmour (Photo by Polly Samson<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cThe ambition has always been to go and see myself and the other people playing, which is one of those impossibilities in life that you can only dream of,\u201d says Gilmour. \u201cIn that, wondering about what the experience is like for all the people who have always been out there watching these things that, when you\u2019re at them, have a huge scale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He jokes that this is the closest he will get to seeing himself perform live unless he decides to venture down the ABBA Voyage route and use AI and virtual avatars to host a virtual concert.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gilmour says that Italy has a \u201cmagic,\u201d which he can\u2019t quite find the words to describe. It has also played an important role in his career for almost 60 years, from performing in Rome during Pink Floyd\u2019s first world tour in 1968, and studio sessions in the city in 1969, to Gilmour\u2019s iconic return to Pompeii in 2016.<\/p>\n
In 1969, Pink Floyd traveled to Rome to record songs for the soundtrack of Antonioni\u2019s 1970 drama, Zabriskie Point.<\/em> During their two-week stay in the Italian capital, the band also started to formulate ideas for its fifth studio album, Atom Heart Mother,<\/em>using outtakes from the soundtrack sessions for the album when they returned to London.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe were at a studio in Rome, and we stayed in a little hotel,\u201d Gilmour says about the Zabriskie Point sessions. \u201cThe only time they managed to book for us was 9 at night until 9 in the morning, so we worked all through the night and went back and slept all day. It was fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty basic,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt was a proper studio, but even then, not quite state-of-the-art. In those days, in London, you would have four tracks. The tape machine, [in Rome] had three. There was a lot of ingenuity required to do all the stuff you want to do with that sort of equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps Pink Floyd\u2019s most notable connection to Italy is the band\u2019s now iconic performance at Pompeii in 1971, which was the brainchild of filmmaker Adrian Maben.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had the idea of doing an artistic thing in a beautiful place,\u201d Gilmour says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have an audience; it was just us set up, most of it during the daytime. It felt pretty strange [because] you\u2019re not used to playing like that for a film version, where you play one song without an audience and say, \u201cWas that good enough? Oh, we\u2019ll do it again!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s one similarity to the studio process and another to the live process,\u201d he continues. \u201cAfterwards, we had to do some overdubs in a studio in Paris, where Adrian said, \u2018You won\u2019t tell the difference.\u2019 And of course, you could tell the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a 4K restoration of the performance, Pink Floyd at Pompeii \u2013 MXMLXXII<\/em>, was released in cinemas, and a new generation was able to witness memorable renditions of \u201cEchoes\u201d, \u201cSet the Controls for the Heart of the Sun\u201d and more of the band\u2019s earlier experimental tracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWhen it was released [in 1972], it was in a very old-fashioned recording system on videotape, the sort that none of us have seen for years; it was so crude,\u201d says Gilmour. \u201cThis time, we had our experts find all of the film canisters. We have a person who does that called Lana Topham, who is brilliant. She found these film canisters, which were stored in different places in Paris, London, and Italy, and had them all cleaned and every frame scanned to 4K and then re-edited as the original, and the sound remixed by Steven Wilson. I found it exhilarating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilmour also made history when he returned to the amphitheatre in 2016, marking the first public performance at the venue since 79 AD, around the time that Mount Vesuvius erupted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The recent tour, Gilmour\u2019s first in 10 years, was in support of his 2024 album, Luck and Strange. <\/em>The singer-songwriter says that his work on Luck and Strange<\/em> has \u201cpleased him more\u201d and \u201csurpassed\u201d anything he has done musically. Even a year after release, he still listens to the album on a regular basis in a \u201crather self-congratulatory way.\u201d<\/p>\nPhoto by Polly Samson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe album was produced by Charlie Andrew, about whom Gilmour once told Rolling Stone<\/em> that he had \u201ca wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine.\u201d This direct approach was a welcome addition for Gilmour as it helped achieve the best results.<\/p>\n\u201cOne of the problems in life, when you\u2019ve hit the heights of success that we did, is that people tend to be a bit too respectful around you,\u201d Gilmour says. \u201cThey agree with you too much. When you say, \u2018What did you think of this?\u2019 And they say, \u2018It\u2019s great.\u2019 Do you really think that? It\u2019s only helpful to you if people are bluntly honest about what their opinion is about what you\u2019re doing. That\u2019s what I managed to get in Charlie Andrew, someone who was very blunt and very honest in his questions and suggestions, and where we were going with that album.\u201d<\/p>\n
[RELATED: The 1980s Superstar David Gilmour Discovered Thanks to a Mutual Friend: \u201cI Did Think She Was Very Talented\u201d]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nFor the setlist of the Luck and Strange tour, Gilmour says that he felt a slight pressure to perform Pink Floyd tracks. Nevertheless, he found a nice balance between performing new music from solo albums and Pink Floyd songs as he included tracks from Dark Side of the Moon, Atom Heart Mother, Wish You Were Here, <\/em>and The Wall.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist also included \u201cFat Old Sun\u201d from Atom Heart Mother<\/em>, which has been a regular feature of his solo concerts since 2006. It was also a track that was put forward for the album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd<\/em>, but Gilmour was eventually outvoted by the other band members.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s probably the first song that I ever wrote,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about a teenage moment in a meadow by a river when you\u2019re young. I think it captures something, and I\u2019m very, very happy with it. Just like \u201cComfortably Numb,\u201d it\u2019s a great soundbed to play over, and the guys all love it when we come thrashing in at the end and put the solo to bed. My little Fender Esquire really sings out.\u201d<\/p>\n
When watching the concert film, a wave of emotion and surge of adrenaline from the crowd was undeniable when songs like \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d and \u201cWish You Were Here\u201d rang out across Circus Maximus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gilmour says that during the tour, he was \u201cmostly trying to play new music,\u201d but couldn\u2019t ignore these classic songs because they create a special atmosphere within the crowd as they sing along to every word.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Wish You Were Here<\/em>, an album that further cemented Pink Floyd\u2019s legacy as one of the greatest rock bands in history.\u00a0<\/p>\nDespite the end result being one of the most critically acclaimed and celebrated albums of all time, the early studio sessions proved to be difficult for the band as they were emotionally and creatively drained after the success of Dark Side of the Moon.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cThere were moments of torpor in the whole proceedings, Gilmour says. \u201cWe had hit the top with Dark Side of the Moon,<\/em> and this was the next thing we were doing. I imagine there were nerves and that thing that you can beat yourself up with, \u2018Can we beat that?\u2019 Of course, you\u2019ve got to discard any thoughts like that and do the best that you can do, which we did.<\/p>\n\u201cDespite some of the moments in the studio where we didn\u2019t really get on with what we were doing and took our time, the end result, you can\u2019t knock it,\u201d he adds. \u201cFrom that era, it\u2019s probably my favorite album and [\u2018Wish You Were Here\u2019] is one of my favourite songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilmour was joined on the Luck and Strange Tour with his daughter, Romany Gilmour, as they performed a beautiful, yet haunting, cover of The Montgolfier Brothers\u2019 1999 song, \u201cBetween Two Points.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lovely old song that Polly [Samson] and I have loved for years and years since it came out in the \u201890s by The Montgolfier Brothers,\u201d Gilmour says. \u201cPolly suggested that we do a cover, that\u2019s one of the ideas that she\u2019ll throw at me, constantly, and I\u2019m very grateful for that. I don\u2019t often do a cover, but on this occasion, it felt like the perfect fit. Lyrically, it wasn\u2019t the perfect fit for me and my voice, and she suggested we get our daughter Romany to sing it. It\u2019s magical. It\u2019s a lovely song. Despite the fact that I\u2019m not singing on it and I didn\u2019t write it, it still seems to fit into what we do in a perfect way.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than 60 years in the industry, Gilmour has no plans of slowing down, as he revealed that he is currently working on music for an upcoming album.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m [working on new music] but that snowball takes a bit of time to start gathering momentum and building up into something,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not too far down that process yet, but I\u2019m thinking that it\u2019ll start speeding up at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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