Yes, Halo 3 came out today. Although David Gilmours new concert DVD released today may not have had as much fanfare, his music has remained relevant and popular since the late 1960s. (can you name any musician who had an album on Billboard's Top 200 for over 11 years?).

David Gilmour Remember that Night - Live at the Royal Albert Hall is his latest concert DVD and it captures David Gilmour and many legendary friends on the concert tour for On an Island. For those of you not familiar with David Gilmour he has been the guitar player for Pink Floyd since 1967. He is also one half of the creative force that was Pink Floyd (the other half being Roger Waters). David Gilmour has also released three solo albums, all of which are quiet good, especially if you are Pink Floyd fan. The Royal Albert Hall of course is the famous concert venue in downtown London.

DVD ONE - The Concert

The concert starts off with a great set of songs from the legendary Dark Side of the Moon Speak to Me, Breathe, Time and Breath (reprise) got the crowd in the mood. Longtime Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright is the keyboard player for this tour, and longtime saxophone player Dick Parry also lends his considerable talents to this tour.

All the songs from David Gilmour's new solo album On an Island are performed live. Castellorization, On an Ilsand, The Blue, Red Sky at Night, This Heaven, THen I Close My Eyes, Smile, Take a Breath, A Pocketful of Stones, and Where We Start. Just like on the album, David Crosby and Graham Nash join Gilmour on stage to do vocals on some songs! The band looks just fantastic that is really what I think. Fog and lighting effects fill the stage to a sold out show at the huge Royal Albert Hall.

The show is rounded out with another great selection of Pink Floyd tunes. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Fat Old Sun, Coming Back to Life, High Hopes, Echoes, Wish You Were Here, and Find the Cost of Freedom (and of course Crosby and Nash sang on that ONE). Did they sound incredible? Oh yes they did! I never tire of hearing the Pink Floyd classics. I noticed that David used the same classic red Fender Telecaster to play Shine On, as he did in the Pulse concert. Unlike Pulse however, Crosby and Nash provide the backing vocals! Poor Syd, we'll miss the crazy founder of Pink Floyd. Parry's sax solo on both alto and tenor sax was incredible (he has one on his back, and swings it around when its time to change!) On songs like Fat Old Sun, Gilmour proves that of his former band mate Roger, David has the much more pleasant musical voice. (I love Waters, but sometimes his yelping is a bit much). Richard Wright sounded incredible on the melancholy opening to Echoes. I was pleased to see on the close up of Dave Gilmour playing Wish You Were Here on the Gibson acoustic that I had the solo down correctly from every slide and hammer on! (thanks to Paul my guitar teacher at Crossroads Music, Hanover, MA)

If the show wasn't spectacular enough, rock legend David Bowie joins Gilmour on the final two songs, Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb! Everyone stood up and cheered when David Bowie walked in. It was cool to hear Bowie sing this song from ancient Floyd history. (although, not the first time, Bowie covered See Emily Play on his album Pin-Ups back in the 70s). For me, this was a great sight to see, because while Pink Floyd has always been my favorite group, David Bowie has been my favorite artist. His interpretation of Comfortably Numb made it seem like it was one of his songs. This was one incredible awesome concert!

Concert Audio / Video

The show is in Dolby Stereo and Dolby 5.1 surround. First I must say, this is 5.1 done right, I really felt like I was at the show! The music was very well balanced and filled the front three channels. The surround channels were used for ambient echoes and thunderous clapping by the fans that filled the Albert Hall. (Do you know how many fans it takes to fill the Albert Hall? I didn't get the chance to count them all).

Video was good, the show is in anamorphic widescreen, so it easily filled my wide screen movie screen. The show was shot in 16:9 so its perfect for wide screen televisions. The cinematography was a bit all over the place for me. One minute they are showing David Gilmour from the left, and then they show him from the right, then an extreme close up of his Fender or Gibson with his fingers bending strings with incredible ease. If the camera had actually stayed on Gilmours hand on the incredible guitar solos, I could have actually learned how to play them! However, it would change angles or view just as I had the fingering down on one part of a solo. Other times the camera would come behind the fans in the balconies and slowly zoom down to the stage. Nevertheless, the cameras usually focused on the instrument being featured at the moment, on a guitar for guitar solos, on Wright for keyboard solos, and Perry for sax solos. Sometimes though, I just wished the camera would stay still and let me have the illusion that I was sitting in the Royal Albert Hall about ten rows back just watching this incredible show.

Disc Two

The second DVD is chock full of extras including 13 bonus songs, three documentaries, and two music videos from Gilmour's latest solo album.

On one of the documentaries, David actually runs into Roger. The two have a brief conversation and hug. I was glad to see that, I never liked the fact that my favorite band had a very acrimonious litigious breakup.

The bonus tracks were a lot of fun, and included some Pink Floyd tunes I've never seen performed live, like Wots. uh the Deal from Obscured by Clouds and Syd Barrett's solo song Dominoes.

That's all I am telling you about this concert and the DVD of extras. I have to leave something for you to discover on your own!

Summary David Gilmour with David Bowie? David Crosby and Graham Nash! A reconciliation with Roger Waters? The return of Richard Wright and Dick Parry? How could I give this any less than five stars? This show was outstanding!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD