If there is one guitarist whose name communicates to us with the word "feel" it must be David Gilmour.
(Photo: Jorgen Angel)
We have so many things to tell you about him. We really tried to make it short, but still were not so successful:
1. He was born on March 6, 1946, as David Jon Gilmour in Cambridge, England.
2. His father was a lecturer in zoology at the University of Cambridge and his mother was a teacher who became an editor at the BBC. They both encouraged him to study music.
3. In 1954 he bought his first single: "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley.
4. When he was 11 he began attending a school in Cambridge, where he first met Syd Barrett and Roger Waters who had attended another school in the same compound.
5. At age 14 he borrowed his first guitar from his parents' neighbor. He never returned it. In a 2008 interview, he noted that he still owns the same guitar.
6. He taught himself to play the guitar with the help of books and records by Pete Seeger.
7. In 1962 he began studying at the "College of Arts and Technology" at Cambridge, where he deepened his friendship with Syd Barrett. They used to play together during breaks.
8. In 1963 Gilmour formed his first band: "Joker's Wild". They released a mini-album and a single.
(Photo: neptunepinkfloyd.co.uk)
9. In August 1965 Barrett and Gilmour spent their time as street performers in Spain and France. They used to play songs by "The Beatles".
10. Luck did not play for them. They did not even have enough money to buy food. In one case they were even arrested and in another case, Gilmour was hospitalized due to malnutrition.
11. Later Gilmour and Barrett traveled to France and slept in tents outside Paris. At the time Gilmour was working all sorts of casual jobs. Among others, he served as a driver and assistant to a fashion designer and even was a model himself.
12. In 1967 Gilmour resumed his activities with members of the band "Joker's Wild". They too tried their luck in France when they operated under the name "Flowers" and later "Bullitt".
13. Following a theft of the band's equipment, Gilmour returned to London. At the time he was present on the "Pink Floyd" single "See Emily Play" recordings and was in shock from the fact that his friend Syd Barrett did not really recognize him.
14. That same year Gilmour served as a studio player in the soundtrack to Bridget Bardo's "Two Weeks in September" movie. He also sings two of the songs that appear in it.
15. Towards the end of 1967, when Syd Barrett's mental state began to deteriorate, Nick Mason turned to Gilmour and offered him to join "Pink Floyd".
(Photo: Michael Ochs Archives)
16. Gilmour initially joined as an additional guitar player and later as a temporary replacement for Syd Barrett. Gilmour's first appearance with "Pink Floyd", along with Syd Barrett, was held on January 12, 1968. You can read more about it here.
17. Later, following the worsening of Barrett's mental state, Gilmour became a permanent member of the band taking his place. Gilmour's first appearance with "Pink Floyd" without Syd Barrett was held on January 26, 1968.
18. All this did not hurt Gilmour & Barrett's friendship and Gilmour even produced and participated in Barrett's first two 1970 albums: "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett".
19. In addition to his playing and singing roles, Gilmour became one of "Pink Floyd's" lead songwriters, especially in the first half of the 1970s. He also helped define the band's sound, including in albums such as: "Atom Heart Mother", "Meddle", "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "The Wall", "Animals" and more.
20. "Wish You Were Here" is Gilmour's favorite "Pink Floyd" album and the song "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" from it, is his favorite of them all.
21. While recording the song at Abbey Road Studios, Syd Barrett came to visit the band. Waters and Gilmour did not recognize him, because he was very fat, lost most of his hair, and shaved his eyebrows. David just cried when he saw his friend in this situation.
22. During the recordings of the album "Animals" and following Waters' "takeover" of the band, Gilmour and Rick Wright have pushed aside from the writing process. This caused them great frustration.
23. Following his growing frustration and knowledge that he was not exhausting his musical abilities within the band, Gilmour released his first solo album, in 1978.
24. During the recordings of his debut solo album Gilmour recorded another song that did not enter the album: "Comfortably Numb". The song found its way to Pink Floyd's next album: "The Wall".
25. His second solo album, "About Face" was released in 1984, on the day before his birthday. He admitted it was his way of getting away from Roger Waters and "Pink Floyd".
26. In 1985 Waters left "Pink Floyd" after ongoing conflicts with band members, most notably with Gilmour. From that moment on Gilmour became the band leader.
27. From joining the band up until the 1983 album "The Final Cut", Gilmour has participated in 11 "Pink Floyd" studio albums.
28. After Waters' departure, Gilmour will release three studio albums along with "Pink Floyd": "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" from 1987, "The Division Bell" from 1994, and "The Endless River" from 2014.
29. Gilmour's list of collaborations as a producer and guest artist is inconceivable. Below is only a partial list.
30. Gilmour played in the song "Give Birth to a Smile" from the album "Music from the Body" by Ron Geesin and Roger Waters, from 1970.
(Photo: Getty Images)
31. David played in the song "The Game" on Roy Harper's 1975 album "HQ". Gilmour later participated in other Harper's albums, both as a writer and a player.
32. Gilmour produced two tracks from Kate Bush's 1978 debut album: "The Kick Inside." Gilmour later participated in other Bush albums.
33. Here is the place to point out that Gilmour actually discovered Kate Bush. His Cambridge friend Ricky Hopper gave him a recording of Bush. He liked what he heard, offered her to record her first demo, and even funded it.
34. He played guitar on two tracks from "Wings" album "Back to the Egg".
35. Gilmour also played on "Atomic Rooster's" 1983 "Headline News" album.
36. He played on Paul McCartney's hit "No More Lonely Nights" from the album "Give My Regards to Broad Street". He has also collaborated with Paul McCartney on the albums "Flowers in the Dirt" and "Run Devil Run".
37. He is responsible for the electric guitar solo in the theme song from the album "Brother Where You Bound", by "Supertramp".
38. David also served as guitarist on Bryan Ferry's "Boys and Girls" album.
39. He sang the song "Lie for a Lie" from Nick Mason's "Profiles" album.
40. Gilmour participated in Pete Townshend's fourth album "White City: A Novel" and played guitar on his live album: "Deep End Live".
41. Gilmour played in the song "Understanding Women" from Elton John's "The One" album.
42. He played guitar solo in several songs from Ringo Starrr's album "Ringo Rama".
43. Gilmour is an experienced pilot and also a collector of aircraft parts.
44. He founded the "Intrepid Aviation Museum", but sold it due to the much preoccupation that management charged him, with it becoming a business rather than a hobby.
45. He also managed to "infect" Mason and Wright with the aviation virus making them to take flight lessons.
46. The song "Learning To Fly" from the album "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" released in 1987, was written by Gilmour following his love for aviation.
47. Gilmour speaks four languages: English, German, French, and Italian.
48. He says that to this day he has stage fright, especially in smaller and more intimate performances.
49. Gilmour plays many instruments. In addition to guitar, he also plays bass, keyboards, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, pedal steel, saxophone, and even drums.
50. He learned to play the saxophone only in his fifties. He took music lessons with his son.
51. Gilmour plays bass on four "Pink Floyd" songs: "Fat Old Sun," "Pigs (Three Different Ones)," "Sheep" and "Hey You."
52. He is a compulsive guitar collector. He owned more than 100 different guitars. In June 2019, he put his private guitar collection up for sale at the auction house "Christie", for a fantastic amount of over $ 21 million and broke several Guinness records. You can read more about it here.
53. In 1996, Gilmour was inducted into the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" as part of "Pink Floyd".
54. In November 2003 he received the British Knighthood.
55. In 2005 he was crowned Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
56. That same year he reunited with Waters and the rest of his "Pink Floyd" friends, for a one-time reunion show as part of Bob Geldof's fundraiser: "Live 8".
57. Gilmour is a well-known philanthropist. He has donated millions of dollars to various charities, cancer research funds, animal welfare organizations, and various environmental organizations.
58. On his 60th birthday, in 2006, Gilmour released his third solo album, "On An Island". The album features Rick Wright, Graham Nash, and David Crosby, among others.
59. In 2015, Gilmour released his fourth solo album: "Rattle That" Lock. Crosby and Nash also participated in this album and in addition, Gilmour's son Gabriel, guitarist Phil Manzanera, Robert White, and Israeli bassist Yaron Setavi were guests on the album.
60. In July 2020, Gilmour released his first song in 5 years - Yes, I Have Ghosts. Gilmour wrote the song to accompany the audiobook "A Theater For Dreamers," which was published by his wife, Polly Samson. You can read more about it here.
61. On April 7, 2022, he released a new song called "Hey Hey Rise Up" under the "Pink Floyd" name, which includes a collaboration between him, Nick Mason, and the Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk from the band "Boombox".
62. Gilmour has been married twice and has eight children. He is an atheist and does not believe in life after death.
63. He is ranked 14th on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the greatest guitarists of all time.