The light goes out, the crackling of tension, the anticipation charges the air electrically. When the almost 70-year-old enters the stage slowly in the dim light, the emotions unload. With every step by David Gilmour a piece of music history goes on stage. The audience is aware of his career, which lasted almost half a century. The man has charisma, an aura that spreads before he even plays a note or sings a word. Wherever Gilmour has played during his tour that began last year or will play in the summer of 2016, there has always been or will always be the same reception.
Like no other guitarist in rock history he is famous for his solos. Certainly he is not a technical virtuoso, not a guitar witch who can play twenty notes in three seconds. Nor has he produced a riff à la "Smoke On The Water" scrubbed from all over the world on the air guitar. Never in a concert has he destroyed his instrument, dislocated his arms, torn his strings with his tongue, or shown himself off in any other extroverted way. He just stands there, with jeans and T-shirt, hardly moves, just plays guitar, immersed in himself. It is precisely this external inconspicuousness that is part of his image and draws attention to the music. Opposite the "Spiegel" he recently answered the question, where he was playing guitar, with the words: "Lost at this moment, following the coming chord [...] hoping to get to a place before the next note [...] I want to anticipate the coming note and follow it to guide the solo in that direction [...] I am at a place where I let my conscious mind go to swim with the subconscious and allow a melody to come out of my fingers.“
In 1954, at the age of eight, he buys his first single, Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock". He borrows his first guitar from a neighbour who never gets it back. In 1962 he attended Cambridge Technical College, where he met Syd Barrett and practiced guitar playing with him. Gilmour did not graduate from college, but there he learned to speak fluent French. He belongs to the short-lived blues bands Jokers Wild (with later Floyd guest saxophonist Dick Parry, among others), Flowers and Bullit. With Barrett he travels along the Côte d'Azur in 1965. While Pink Floyd becomes an essential part of the London Psychedelic and the Summer of Love, Gilmour is far away in France, where he sings as a studio musician on two songs of the soundtrack to the movie "Zwei Wochen im September" (with Brigitte Bardot). At this point he has no contact whatsoever with the psychedelic craziness. Rather, he feels drawn to rhythm'n'blues. What finally moves him - when he replaces Barrett at Pink Floyd - to surrender to the strange sound experiments is unclear. Certainly he feels obliged to continue the Floyd sound established by Barrett.
David Gilmour will also play two concerts in Germany as part of his summer tour 2016, on July 14 in Stuttgart and on July 18 in Wiesbaden.
