adjensen's Full Review: David Gilmour - In Concert
In the annals of rock and roll, the epic rock guitarist will probably be at the fore, but as the pioneers of the genre either retire, pass on or retreat to the wings, we're left to decide who were the real musicians who contributed to the evolution of music, and who were the stars whose posing and styling were more critical to their success than any knowledge of what makes good music.
To all of this comes the 2002 video release of David Gilmour In Concert from Capital Records. Gilmour, of course, made his name as the guitarist and vocalist for Pink Floyd, and with his comments earlier this year, one can assume that, while Gilmour may not be done with music, he is done with the Floyd. But with the exception of a couple of undistinguished solo albums over the years, Gilmour is solely known for his Floyd volume of work.
So this video, recorded in June of 2001 and supplemented with some January 2002 footage, leans heavily on Pink Floyd tunes, but thankfully, Gilmour doesn't just trot out the colossal band, light show and pound out the hits by the numbers. Instead, he digs out some nuggets from the Floyd catalog (including most of Wish You Were Here ) and does them all in a subtle, almost understated style that works surprisingly well.
The DVD opens with Gilmour, alone on the sparse stage with an acoustic guitar. He begins to play with it, half playing, half tuning, until the opening notes of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-5" brings the crowd to life. The multi layered studio track takes on a whole new meaning when Gilmour does the whole thing on acoustic guitar and pedals, supplemented towards the end by Dick Parry on saxophone.
Although by the fourth song, Gilmour has a full band (guitar, bass, drums and keyboards) and a nine person "choir" on stage with him, he largely sticks to an acoustic guitar with a couple of exceptions (some excellent slide guitar on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9) without losing much from the sound. The choir is generally used for power, and is particularly effective on The Division Bell tracks.
Gilmour picks a smattering of tracks from Pink Floyd, weighing most heavily of The Division Bell and Wish You Were Here. One of my favourite Gilmour penned numbers from the very early days, "Fat Old Sun," is also here. The remainder of the main show is an eclectic collection of tunes, ranging from a cover of Syd Barrett's "Terrapin" to "Hushabye Mountain" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a hauntingly beautiful version of "Je Crois Entendre Encore" from The Pearl Fisher by Bizet.
Robert Wyatt (ex-Soft Machine, Matching Mole) guests for Roger Waters' vocals on "Comfortably Numb" during the Meltdown concert (Wyatt was the host of the festival, an annual event in the UK.) Two other guests of note appear during the 2002 footage, Richard Wright (out of Pink Floyd,) who plays a song from his solo album (bizarre charitable bit on Gilmour's part, although it is a good song) and Bob Geldof, who reprises his role in the film version of the Wall by filling in for Waters on "Comfortably Numb."
The whole of the concert (16 songs) is available with either regular stereo or Dolby 5.1 sound. The director (David Mallet) used a number of cameras to capture the concert and retain the feel of intimacy that seemed to be in the hall.
Extras on the DVD include home rehearsal footage, edited snippets of guitar solos from the shows, some miscellaneous clips (including a video of Gilmour playing some raunchy blues guitar on "I Put a Spell on You" from 1992 Later with Jools Holland show) and lyrics to all songs.
While I mourn the passing of Pink Floyd (Gilmour commented during the publicity tour for the Echoes retrospective this year that he didn't see any Floyd in the future,) I appreciate that Gilmour has moved on, and like Waters before him, he can embrace what was good (the music) and press away the bad (the huge tours and bloated shows.)
David Gilmour is one epic guitarist that will undoubtedly go down in the annals of rock and roll as a musician, never a poser.
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