With a stretch at London’s Royal Albert Hall kicking off on 9 October and new solo album Luck and Strange out now, the Pink Floyd legend is on the promotional trail, including answering fans' questions in a new interview with The Guardian.
The slightly off-kilter result is a fresh barrage of Gilmour gold, during which the star reveals a love of carpentry, how he kept his best guitars OUT of his 2019 Christies sell-off, and laments the loss of a pair of pink velvet trousers - stolen from a laundrette in 1969…
Other gems include a scathing takedown of the modern music industry (and the fat cats within it), the likeliness of ever making up with bandmate Roger Waters (spoiler alert: it’s not likely) and an ongoing secret side mission to get Kate Bush back on the stage (gently)…
“I think the music industry is a tough one these days, and for people who are recording in it, the rewards are not justifiable,” Gilmour concedes. “The rich and the powerful have siphoned off the majority of this money. I was lucky to be part of the golden years when there was a much better share going to the musicians, so I support anything that could be done to make that easier.
“The working musician today has to go out and play live – they can’t survive any other way. They won’t do it by the recording process and that’s a tragedy because that is not encouraging new music to be created.
“It’s not the greatest era that the world has been through, as gradually all the work moves to robots and AI, and the amount of people creaming off the money gets smaller and smaller and they get richer and richer. “Sod everyone else” seems to be the attitude,” he concludes glumly.
As to which he prefers – Telecasters or Stratocasters – Gilmour neatly dodges the issue: “Every song demands a different guitar, and I just obey what that command is – I love them both.”
And speaking of hardware, despite parting with The Black Strat for £3.9 million back in 2019 (aka the most expensive guitar in history), Gilmour reveals that his real favourite guitars were very deliberately NOT part of his Christies Auction House 120-guitar sell-off.
“To be perfectly truthful, I kept a few guitars back which are my real favourites,” Gilmour admits. “But I generally think of guitars as tools of the trade. I don’t have a massive sentimental attachment and what cushions any of that loss is the good that was – and is being – done by the money that was raised by that auction, which went to ClientEarth.”
On the subject of ever playing with Roger Waters again, Gilmour only reinforces his stance from last week.
“Absolutely not. I tend to steer clear of people who actively support genocidal and autocratic dictators like Putin and Maduro [president of Venezuela]. Nothing would make me share a stage with someone who thinks such treatment of women and the LGBT community is OK. On the other hand, I’d love to be back on stage with [late Pink Floyd keyboard player] Rick Wright, who was one of the gentlest and most musically gifted people I’ve ever known.”
It’s a point further highlighted when asked to name his favourite Waters lyric. Rather than plucking out a Floyd classic, Gilmour instead shows his disdain by citing something rather less celebrated. “Gosh, let me have a think about that. How about a song called Walk With Me Sydney? I don’t think it’s officially recorded,” he offers.
But it’s perhaps Gilmour’s behind-the-scenes prodding of Kate Bush that will perhaps be most gratefully received by his fans. When asked if he could get Kate Bush back on stage soon, Gilmour offers the glimmers of a work in progress.
“Kate Bush is the only person who can get Kate Bush back on stage,” counters Gilmour. “I think the shows she did in 2014 at the Hammersmith Apollo were some of the best I’ve ever seen. We went several nights. I’ve tried persuading her recently, actually. Gently.”
We await further updates with interest… [Puts side two of Hounds of Love on repeat. Again.]
Gilmour’s latest solo work Luck and Strange is out now and he’ll be playing six nights at Royal Albert Hall commencing on 9 October, with dates in Los Angeles and New York to follow.
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