“Some of the best I’ve ever seen”: the concerts that David Gilmour adored
When Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd, the band wondered how to proceed. Barrett was one of the biggest creative voices behind the band and was responsible for putting their songs together. When he left, and the remaining members tried to write music, it didn’t work out as well. It became clear that they needed to take a different approach to writing rather than trying to be a Barrett copycat.
This turned out to be a revelation for the band, as they stopped writing three-minute-long radio-friendly tracks and instead delivered something more elongated and drawn out. This led to creating some of the band’s exciting concept albums, such as The Wall and Dark Side Of The Moon.
These albums didn’t just contain songs; they had characters in them, were packed with emotion, and were designed to be consumed as a whole rather than in small fractions. You come away from these listening experiences feeling different to how you went into the album. It truly is something to behold, and the innovation shown in these albums has cemented Pink Floyd as one of the greatest musical outfits on the planet.
Of course, the issue with concept albums is how you perform them live. You can’t just pick a random list of songs; they need to flow together and give fans the same experience they had when they listened to the album. Delivering a live set that does the records justice is much more complicated.
The Who was also a band famous for concept albums, and they had to stop playing encores because of how tightly knit and high-energy their live sets needed to be. “We all gave it all out in the show. If you give a good show out, you’ve got nothing left for a good encore,” said Roger Daltrey. “And pretentious crap about, oh, we go off now, so we can be called back. What a lot of bollocks.”
Despite these difficulties, The Who put together some fantastic shows, and Pink Floyd did precisely the same. Their gigs were the stuff of legend, long shows packed with energy and atmosphere, unlike anything other people experienced elsewhere.
David Gilmour never wanted to leave anything on stage. Every show that the band performed, in terms of sound, atmosphere, pyrotechnics and lights, was absolutely filled to the brim so that fans knew they weren’t shortchanged on shows. Gilmour has been to plenty of gigs in the past and, therefore, knows how fans should feel once they’ve seen an outstanding artist. Interestingly, he said that some of the best gigs he was ever privy to were Kate Bush’s shows in 2014.
“I think the shows she did in 2014 at the Hammersmith Apollo were some of the best I’ve ever seen,” he admitted, “We went several nights.” Gilmour also revealed that he would love to see Kate Bush take to the stage again, but said that that is much harder than one would realise.
“Kate Bush is the only person who can get Kate Bush back on stage,” he concluded. “I’ve tried persuading her recently, actually. Gently.”
