David Gilmour joined the fledgling Pink Floyd as singer and guitarist in 1967 shortly before the departure of maverick Syd Barrett. Following an incident in 1970 where the band’s gear was stolen in New Orleans and they cancelled their US tour, Gilmour purchased the fairly nondescript black Fender Stratocaster in Manny’s Music, a New York City guitar dealers. After several modifications to the paint and the features of the guitar, it was ready to make its mark on the world.

The Black Strat- David Gilmour’s well-worn 1969 Fender Stratocaster

Speaking to Prog Magazine before the Black Strat’s initial sale in 2019, Gilmour said “it became my main guitar, the one I used pretty much on everything, unless there was a reason to want a different sound. So that’s definitely on ‘Meddle’, it’s on ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘Comfortably Numb’. The four notes at the beginning of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ popped out of this very guitar, because it was there and in my hands! What can you say? It’s definitely earned its keep.”

After rifts with Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters, Gilmour reignited his solo career with UK number one album ‘On An Island’ in 2006, which saw the restored Black Strat in use for recording and touring. In 2008, Fender’s Custom Shop created a Signature Black Stratocaster in its honour, fitting to Gilmour’s specifications. His guitar tech Phil Taylor, who was responsible for its modifications and upkeep, published ‘The Black Strat’ in 2007, a chronicling of its physical evolution.

In 2019, David Gilmour parted with the guitar at a charity sale in New York, at the famed Christie’s auction house. It sold for a then-highest value of $3.975 million (currently just shy of £3 million) to US billionaire Jim Irsay, whose collection also contained other top-selling guitars from Gilmour, Kurt Cobain, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and John Lennon. Its value was surpassed in 2020 by the $6 million (£4.5 million) sale of Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar, best known for its use on Nirvana’s 1994 ‘MTV Unplugged’ set.

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Following Irsay’s passing in May last year, his collection estimated to be worth over $1 billion is currently being auctioned off, again at Christie’s. According to Billboard, the Black Strat was the subject of an intense 21-minute bidding war, before being sold to an as-yet unnamed online buyer for a staggering new peak of $14.5 million (£10.9 million). Also sold this week was Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia’s custom-made “Tiger” guitar, which went for over $10 million (£7.5 million).

David Gilmour celebrated his 80th birthday last week, on the 6th of March, also the 20th anniversary of ‘On An Island’. His latest release is 2024 album ‘Luck and Strange’ and it’s 2025 live performance recording ‘The Luck and Strange Concerts’, both of which are available for purchase on his website.

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The restoration effort uses the original 35mm footage, accompanied with newly mixed audio, courtesy of Steven Wilson. The 2025 version of the film will be the fourth iteration, and with the upcoming film featuring documentary footage of the band working on ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, it seems it will be a remaster of the 1974 edition, which was the most commercially successful cut too. The accompanying soundtrack album marks the first time that an album has been released alongside a theatrical cut too.

The film was directed by Adrian Maben, who also conceived of the project. Maben envisioned the would-be concert as an “anti-Woodstock”, where the amphitheater itself could be used as an instrument, and the band would play amongst the natural sounds of their environment. Drummer Nick Mason revealed that Maben described the idea as being “where there would be nobody present, and the music and the silence… would mean as much as, if not more than, a crowd of thousands.”

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Filmed in 1971 and released in 1972, the first version of the film featured just the performance. Two years later, at Maben’s suggestion, the film was recut, now including 20 minutes of documentary footage of the band in the studio recording ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’.. In 2002, a special director’s cut was released which introduced new edits, including footage from the Apollo missions, and heavily edited the setlist included from the performance, including omitting some songs entirely.   

The music video for the recently released ‘One Of These Days’ has racked up 300k views on YouTube in four days, and has been noted for its focus on the drumming of Nick Mason. One X user noticed the lack of footage of the rest of the band, which consisted of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Mason. Another Floyd fan responded that the original footage had been lost before the original cut had even been released. Still, the video gives one of rock’s greatest, yet often under-appreciated drummers, his dues.

  Despite the various revisions of the order in which the tracks appear in the film, ‘Echoes’ always bookends the film, with the first part always appearing as one of the opening two tracks, and part two as a finale. The accompanying soundtrack album seems to match the original cut’s track listing, meaning ‘Echoes – Part One’ will play after the opener, ‘Pompeii’. It also appears that all of the tracks have gone under a remastering process too, with all album tracks labeled as ‘2025 Mix’ on streaming platforms.

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Pink Floyd’s performance in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius remains one of the band’s many iconic moments, and has inspired a range of artists, including Radiohead, Beastie Boys (whose inspiration is evident in the music video for ‘Gratitude’), and even David Gilmour, who returned to the venue in 2018. In Nick Mason’s own words, the film is a “rare and unique document of the band performing live in the period prior to ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’”.

The return of one of the UK’s most prolific guitarists comes in the form of a full-length studio album Luck And Strange, which was released on 6 September 2024 by Sony Music and is his fifth studio solo album to date. It has been nine years since English guitarist and singer-songwriter has released an album.

It is one of three of his solo albums to hit number-one status – the other two being On An Island (2006) and Rattle That Lock (2015) – alongside a flurry of singles from Luck and Strange steadily dropped since April 2024. With the first being The Piper’s Call followed by Between Two Points and Dark and Velvet Nights, the album’s title-track was released this week.

According to Rolling Stone, the album was recorded over five months at Gilmour’s Medina Studio in Hove and at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in London, with the producer Charlie Andrew.

The album grapples with themes regarding mortality and age. Turning 78 this year, it is no wonder these subjects are clearly on his mind. David Gilmour is best known for being one of the members of prolific rock band, Pink Floyd. He joined the band in 1967 and was part of the group during their most successful period. Pink Floyd, one of the most acclaimed and highest-selling bands of all-time, created some of the most ground-breaking albums in music history: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979).

He ranks at #28 on the Rolling Stone greatest guitarist of all-time list. If you haven’t listened to them already, here is a list of David Gilmour’s solo studio albums:
– David Gilmour (1978)
– About Face (1984)
– On an Island (2006)
– Rattle That Lock (2015)
– Luck and Strange (2024)

He is equally incredible live and David Gilmour will begin his Luck and Strange tour this month. So far, he has announced September-November shows through his website at Circus Maximus in Rome, Royal Albert Hall in London, the Intuit Dome and Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as well as Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Luck and Strange is out and available on vinyl, CD and digital formats.

Luck and Strange tracklist:

1. Black Cat
2. Luck and Strange
3. The Piper’s Call
4. A Single Spark
5. Vita Brevis
6. Between Two Points with Romany Gilmour
7. Dark and Velvet Nights
8. Sings
9. Scattered

Bonus tracks
10. Yes, I Have Ghosts with Romany Gilmour
11. Luck and Strange (original Barn Jam)

Waters spoke to The Telegraph about embarking on this project, saying, “not enough people recognised what it’s about, what it was I was saying then.” He believes this to be the perfect opportunity to point fans in the right direction, stating in the accompanying caption to the snippet of ‘Us and Them’ that reworking the album would provide a good opportunity to “re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album.”

Waters acknowledged that “it’s not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable.”

He continues, “But it is a way for the seventy nine year old man to look back across the intervening fifty years into the eyes of the twenty nine year old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my Father, “We did our best, we kept his trust, our Dad would have been proud of us”. And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of.”

Relationships between the ex-band members haven’t always been the best since Waters’ exit in 1985, with Waters anticipating backlash to this rerecording project. He told The Telegraph, “I wrote ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed, but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!”

Waters also revealed to The Telegraph that this project had been “secretly” in the works for months, reworking the entire track list “from scratch” unbeknownst to ex-band members David Gilmour and Nick Mason.

He is reportedly “planning a lavish vinyl release” of the rerecording, with the release date pushed back from March to May as Waters keeps “tinkering with recordings.”

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon,’ Pink Floyd have also announced a reissued version, due to be released on 24^th March. The reissue will also include a live recording of Pink Floyd’s 1974 Wembley Stadium show.

A book will also become available on 24^th March, titled ‘Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon: 50^th Anniversary.‘ The book will include rare and unseen photos taken during tours between 1972 and 1975.

Additionally, harking back to Pink Floyd’s successful stargazing events at the London Planetarium in 1973, fans will also be able to experience ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ stargazing events at planetariums around the world.

Full details of the 50^th anniversary reissues and events can be found here.

Purchase tickets for Roger Waters’ tour here.

31/05/2023 – Utilita Arena – Birmingham

02/06/2023 – 03/06/2023 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow

06/06/2023 – 07/06/2023 –  The O2 – London

10/06/2023 – Manchester AO Arena – Manchester

Stream ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ here.

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At 2 pm last week, the band’s catalogue was made accessible via the app meaning that users are now able to utilise Pink Floyd’s music within their own creations. TikTok creators can access official sounds from the group’s tracks, all fifteen of the band’s studio albums are featured within the recent collaboration. Included within the full list of tracks accessible to fans are “See Emily Play”, “Money”, “Comfortably Numb”, “Wish You Were Here”, “High Hopes” and the group’s era defining anthem “Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)” plus many more.

The iconic band are no stranger to visually pleasing artforms and have utilised such processes throughout their career. The London formed rockers’ partnership with TikTok continues such creative practices whilst combining their unique aesthetic with modern and digital processes. The band’s first TikTok was posted via their account with the caption “Pink Floyd has arrived”, by the morning of Tuesday 31st May 2022 the band’s profile had acquired over 14,000 followers.

@pinkfloyd Pink Floyd has now arrived #pinkfloyd #learningtofly #fyp ♬ Learning to Fly (Remix 2019) – Pink Floyd

The group have joined a long list of successful artists who have utilised TikTok to benefit their careers, many established acts have seen the potential held by TikTok and have utilised the app’s global reach to propel their popularity. The social media platform has also been responsible for the success of many new artists, with over 1 billion users TikTok has become a vital tool for any new and emerging acts.

The TikTok launch date coincided with another important landmark of Pink Floyd’s storied career, the 30th May 2022 marked the fiftieth anniversary of The Dark Side Of The Moon. It has been half a century since the initial recording stages for the seminal album took place, the band recorded the influential album at the iconic Abbey Road Studios within two sessions. The album was released on 1st March 1973 via Harvest Records and marked the group’s eighth studio album.

Pink Floyd have become known for their talented virtuosic musicianship and humanistic lyrical content, the band’s songs have historically dealt with such issues as social injustice, war, oppression and morality. Formed in the early 1960s, Pink Floyd now consists of surviving members David Gilmour and Nick Mason, both band members have joined a roster full of artists voicing their support for Ukraine.

Earlier in the year, Gilmour and Mason released a song in aid of the recent conflict, “Hey Hey Rise Up” was released with Ukrainian artist Andriy Khlyvnyuk, funds occurred through the track’s sales and streams were donated to the Ukraine Humanitarian Relief Fund. Gilmour spoke to Rolling Stone concerning the single, “The following that we have as Pink Floyd — the size of the platform. When I spoke to Nick, and he said he was willing to do it as Pink Floyd, it seemed like a no-brainer, We want to spread this message of peace, and we want to raise the morale of the people who are defending their homeland there in Ukraine. So why not?”

1/3 Tonight at midnight, Pink Floyd will release a new song, ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’, which sees David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined by Guy Pratt & Nitin Sawhney, with an extraordinary vocal by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox.
Listen/download at https://t.co/i1l92D3AYU

— Pink Floyd (@pinkfloyd) April 7, 2022

The band’s forthcoming new song is entitled “Hey, Hey, Rise Up”, and is their first brand new, freshly recorded musical release since The Division Bell, which was released back in 1994. The tune features a sample from Andriy Khlyvnyuk, who is the frontman of Ukrainian band Boombox. According to NME, a press release stated that Pink Floyd- which currently consists of David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney- recorded the new song on March 30^th. The release of the single will also be paired with a music video, directed by Mat Whitecross. The sample of Khlyvnyuk is from a viral video of the Boombox frontman singing a patriotic Ukrainian song entitled “The Red Viburnum” at Sofiskaya Square in the country’s capital city, Kyiv. The moving video can be viewed at the link below.

Трішки мотивації від лідера гурту «Бумбокс» Андрія Хливнюка pic.twitter.com/VQFdRjahGF — Armed Forces (@ArmedForcesUkr) February 28, 2022

In a statement, Gilmour said: “I hope it will receive wide support and publicity. We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities, and raise morale. We want express our support for Ukraine and in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become.”. Gilmour added: “We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers.”

Gilmour went on to talk about the creation of the track, saying: “We recorded the track and video in our barn where we did all our Von Trapped Family live streams during lockdown. It’s the same room that we did the ‘Barn Jams’ with Rick Wright back in 2007. Janina Pedan made the set in a day and we had Andriy singing on the screen while we played, so the four of us had a vocalist, albeit not one who was physically present with us.”

Of the conflict, Gilmour said: “Russian soldiers, stop killing your brothers. There will be no winners in this war. My daughter in law is Ukrainian and my granddaughters want to visit and know their beautiful country. Stop this before it is all destroyed.”

In the very long and detailed message released on the 31st of May, Waters claims that David Gilmour ‘does not dispute the veracity’ of the liner notes. In fact, the album sees the bassist as the most important figure of the creative process of the album making, including songwriting and the cover design. Instead, Waters thinks that his ex-bandmate ‘wants that history to remain secret’.

The musician continues in his statement:‘What precipitated this note is that there are new James Guthrie Stereo and 5.1 mixes of the Pink Floyd album ‘Animals’, 1977. These mixes have languished unreleased because of a dispute over some sleeve notes that Mark Blake has written for this new release. Gilmour has vetoed the release of the album unless these liner notes are removed. He does not dispute the veracity of the history described in Mark’s notes, but he wants that history to remain secret.’

He continues: ‘This is a small part of an ongoing campaign by the Gilmour/Samson [Polly, Gilmour’s wife] camp to claim more credit for Dave on the work he did in Pink Floyd, 1967-1985, than is his due. Yes he was, and is, a jolly good guitarist and singer. But, he has for the last 35 years told a lot of whopping porky pies about who did what in Pink Floyd when I was still in charge. There’s a lot of “we did this” and “we did that”, and “I did this” and “I did that”.‘

Waters also shared that he started working on a possible memoir during the lockdown caused by the pandemic that will reveal more about Gilmour being given too much credit. Animals, released in 1977, reached number 2 in the UK charts and number 3 in the States, and is considered one of the best Pink Floyd’s releases along with ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘The Wall’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’.

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‘Need Your Love So Bad’ represents the early Fleetwood Mac works, stapled with very present blues roots. The peculiarity of this new release is that, although Gilmour’s part has been recorded recently, Green’s vocal has been unearthed and seems to belong to the mid-1960s, taped in his mother’s attic. The song is featured in Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 LP, ‘The Pious Bird of Good Omen.’ Gilmour asked permission to add these guitar tracks, which was granted by Green just before his passing.

The Pink Floyd member was a good friend of Green, who died in July 2020 at the age of 73. For last year’s Peter Green tribute concert, he performed Green’s masterpiece ‘Albatross’. The book ‘Peter Green – The Albatross Man’ is set to come out in October.

The publishers presented the over 450-page book stating the following: ‘For the past 3 years, until his death in 2020, Peter was working directly with Rufus Publications to produce a huge, illustrated book of his life and career. Mark Smith at Rufus has been travelling down to Canvey Island on a regular basis to talk to Peter about his life, look through his personal archive and discuss his love for fishing, drawing and listening to a wide range of music on a daily basis. During this time a book of rare images, memorabilia, lyrics and notes from his time in Fleetwood Mac has been assembled with Peter having full control over the book’s direction and details. Peter also played guitar for Mark on occasion, delicately going back through a lifetime of influential music. The resulting publication will be a unique record of Peter Green’s life.’

Gilmour has recently stated to Guitar Player magazine his thoughts on the reunion and his ex-bandmates comments on the ordeal. “It has run its course, we are done. I’m all for Roger [Waters] doing whatever he wants to do and enjoying himself. But I absolutely don’t want to go back. I don’t want to go and play stadiums. I’m free to do exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it.”

“It has run its course, we are done” – @davidgilmour says there will never be a @pinkfloyd reunionhttps://t.co/7oidBpATFF

— Planet Rock (@PlanetRockRadio) March 11, 2021

In 1985, bass player Roger Waters left the band, openly stating they would not reunite. Waters took the remaining members to court so they could not carry on using the iconic band name, Pink Floyd. However, he lost and Pink Floyd continued, with Gilmour at the helm from 1985 through to 1994. The band, comprised of Gilmour, Nick Mason (drums), Richard Wright (keyboard) and a range of other musicians for song writing and composition, continued to make iconic, acclaimed albums using the Pink Floyd name. In 2005, the whole band, including Waters, got together for the final time, performing at the Live 8 concert which was organised by Bob Geldof.

The ‘Money’ singer has toured solo since the bands spilt. In 2006, Gilmour embarked on his ‘On An Island’ tour performing both solo and Pink Floyd tracks. In the Royal Albert Hall, the legendary artist David Bowie joined Gilmour on stage for an eerie yet brilliant rendition of Pink Floyd track, ‘Comfortably Numb’. This is believed to be Bowie’s last UK performance before his passing in January 2016.

Pink Floyd shook the world with their most critical acclaimed album, ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon.’ Their revolutionary use of sonic sound and psychedelic rock has influenced many legendary artists from Radiohead, Dream Theatre and most recently, Tame Impala. Whilst it is a shame that the legends will not be reuniting on stage, it is understandable with the past pandemic, the uncertainties of live music touring in Europe and the rich, emotional history Pink Floyd have.

Gilmour has recently released a new single, ‘Yes, I Have Ghosts’, his first new track in 5 years. Originally made as part of his wives, Polly Samson, audiobook ‘A Theatre For Dreamers’, it has now been released online and can be streamed on all major platforms.

Premiering at Number 2 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List upon its April 2020 release, Samson’s literary fiction A Theatre For Dreamers is set on Greek Island Hydra during the 1960’s, and centres around a community of bohemian artists. 

Echoing a dark lullaby, the track opens with a smooth isolated guitar, and swells with emotive instrumentation throughout. Gilmour’s haunting lyrics, such as “The heat of the sun stayed through the night/Made spectres of strangers playing games with my sight” and “Where is the sweet soul that you used to be/Gone like a thistle that’s blown on the breeze” play like mythical folklore, evidencing Gilmour’s undeniable strength as a storyteller. 

Yes, I Have Ghosts is the first song from David Gilmour in half a decade, and one of many wonderful collaborations between Gilmour and wife Samson. Samson stated in a press release that “collaborating with David, we were able to bring together the worlds of literature and music to enhance the listening experience and connect with audiences in a way which I don’t think has been done before” 

The former Pink Floyd frontman also creatively collaborated with his 18 year old daughter, Romany Gilmour. Consequential of Covid-19, Gilmour’s creative direction for the record was altered. The epic guitarist said: “I was working on this song as we went into lockdown and had to cancel a session with backing singers. As it turned out, the solution was right here and I couldn’t be happier with the way Romany’s voice blends with mine. Her beautiful harp playing has been another revelation.” 

A talented artist in her own right, Romany Gilmour’s delicate vocals and exquisite harp skills are integral to the record’s enchanting, hypnotic nature. David and Romany Gilmour performed Yes, I Have Ghosts on Gilmour’s YouTube channel, premiering the single to over 516,000 subscribers, which has already received 279,000 views. 

Gilmour also took to Instagram on Friday 3rd July and posted news of his release to over 780,000 thrilled followers. A short video clip from the Yes, I Have Ghosts music video, the rock legend is featured poised on the beach, the camera moving between close-ups of the guitar and shots of a quiet cemetery. 

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The video for my new song, Yes, I Have Ghosts (with lyrics by @pollysamson and harp/vocals from @romany.rose) is available now on YouTube.

A post shared by David Gilmour (@davidgilmour) on Jul 3, 2020 at 9:36am PDT

Gilmour relayed details of the music video in the caption: “The video for my song, ‘Yes, I Have Ghosts’ (with lyrics by @pollysamson and harp/vocals from @romany.rose) is available now on YouTube”. Already widely popular, the post received over 190,000 views and thus a joyous reception from Gilmour’s extensive Instagram following.

A song quietly moves you, Yes, I Have Ghosts will pull on the heartstrings of any Pink Floyd fan, its beautiful melancholia impossible to ignore. 

Yes, I Have Ghosts is out now.