Original subtitles

These corridors were built really,

basically, for rich Romans to go to the best seats, the nearest to the arena.

That's why they were built in the first place.

But since the Vesuvius explosion,

they've been closed for 2000 years nearly.

I mean, I never had any idea

when I was setting this up that you would be back at the same time.

-It was coincidence. -Oh, this is coincidence?

-This is pure coincidence. -Yes.

So, this I think is really good.

- This is Echoes Part 2, of course. - Yep.

And that's Mount Vesuvius there, isn't it?

- Do you remember that? - Yeah.

- It was very cold and very windy. - Oh, that's a very good shot.

Because people still come to Pompeii and they say,

"Can we see the amphitheater where the Pink Floyd played?"

They don't want to see all the immortal treasures, you know.

Because, in fact, Steven, and I think David,

they said to me, "Well, maybe we might consider doing something

if you can find a good venue."

So you went to them to say "I would like to film

the musicians in a place..."

No, no. I said I wanted to combine their music with art Contemporary art,

like Krzysztof, Tinguely and Magritte, and so on and so forth,

and they didn't like that idea at all.

So then I came back saying,

"Well maybe, couldn't we do something in the amphitheater?"

And now you've set him on a course of amphitheaters.

-Yes. -And so now... Yes, yes. Wow.

Can't keep him out of an amphitheater now.

Good idea.

Well, it's a beautiful place. I mean, it's...

- You know, there's ghosts in here. - Exactly.

So the children, I read something saying that

some little children, kind of, did come and they were

allowed to sort of quietly watch.

Have any of those children ever sort of...

Well, one of them Isn't one of them the Mayor or one of those people?

- No, no. - One of them is... someone then.

There was the guy who brought you to the Mayor,

his name is Matteo Apuzzo, he was an old regazzi degli scavi.

- Oh, was he one of the children? - Yeah, yeah.

How funny.

I said, "Oh, my gosh. Inside the amphitheater there are Pink Floyd. I can't believe it. I can't believe it."

In 1971, I was fourteen or fifteen.

As young boys we go inside the ruins without paying,

at that time it was possible.

And so for three, four days, we were here to listen to the concert.

What remained is the fascination of music in a lonely place.

So, the history of Pompeii is strictly together the story of Pink Floyd.

In '71, really that music was something...

extra-terrestrial for all.

[Matteo] So, I said to the Mayor,

"David Gilmour is coming on seventh and eighth July.

We have to give him the honorary citizen."

He said, "Oh, my gosh, yes. Pompeii wants to make him honorary citizen."

-[Mayor] Prego. -Thank you very much.

-Thank you. Grazie. -Grazie Mille.

I'm honoured.

Welcome, welcome.

Welcome home. Welcome home.

Thank you very much.

[Matteo] This is your city.

[David] Thank you. It's lovely to be back here.

[Mary] What you tell kids when they come here is,

"Where do you think they went for a pee?"

-There are no facilities in this place. -There still isn't.

- They still haven't got any - They have to fight for the loos.

They wouldn't allow me to have a loo backstage here.

So, if in the middle of it I need to dash off...

-You think -Nothing changes.

Nobody knows quite how many people have been here because it depends how squashed they were.

But 12,000, 15,000, something twenty?

Twenty thousand people and no lavatories.

And what would the performances have I mean, they would have been...

From what, to what?

Well, I think it would have been quite crude.

We don't imagine guitars or lions, you know.

We think of it as being lions and tigers and hippopotamuses and...

Do you think it was just bare-knuckle fighting?

I think it was sheep. I always say, you know, probably...

Wild beasts, well, yeah.

You went out in the hills and you got a few sheep,

a few wild boar, and you had some guys with nets and spears

and you imagined what you were seeing.

Our hunch is... that they didn't die as much as you'd like.

Well, as much as you'd hate to think they did.

Like hate to think that... Only because they are terribly expensive commodities.

If you are the gladiatorial, kind of impresario,

you don't want to lose all of your property

-in a couple of fights. -Your stars.

Your stars.

Look, the big question really is

was it like boxing or was it like wrestling?

Yeah, yeah.

And we like to think of it like boxing...

Yeah.

...but the chances are, it was a bit more like wrestling.

Though, one of the things that's absolutely clear

is A, they became sort of, a bit heart-throbby.

So that, although gladiators were the lowest of the low in Roman terms.

You know, don't let your daughter marry a gladiator.

-Awful. -There's no future in it.

Absolutely no future.

They had a kind of, sort of, sexy, heart-throbby image.

And Roman writers go on about how elderly middle-class ladies...

-Rough boys. -...go for the rough trade.

[Matteo] Ruins are ruins, but...

from 1971, ruins are something more.

For Pink Floyd fans, it's like a church.

They go inside with a guitar, put the guitar on the ground

in the exact place where was David Gilmour playing the guitar,

and make like this...

It's unbelievable.

It's unbelievable.

-As you can see, after years of-- -The murder weapon .

After years of bell use.

Part of the hammer.

Well , it's become part of the bell because there's, like, there's actual metal

on this from the...

Never-- Never go to any sort of Asian restaurant with a drummer.

Fucking chopsticks!

Good evening.

-I don't know what he says. -No lift.

Thank you very much indeed .

Good night to you ! Thank you for coming. Thank you .

[David] Beautiful . So complete.

We've never played in Croatia-- Croatia before.

Never been here but...

The Romans got everywhere.

I get a little bit nervous, but I can't feel it yet.

Hopefully I won't be too nervous.

Whatever you do in rehearsals, there's a whole massive

lift of gear when-- When there is an audience and for--

For everyone and for me definitely.

Verona is very beautiful . Very gorgeous.

Good energy here. Good people.

-It's a sandwich. It was supposed to be-- -Show them your panini, darling.

It was supposed to be grilled , for a long time.

But someone said the train is here, we must go now.

It's Gavin . I was about to be so angry.

Saw this bloke with a camera pointing at me and I couldn't even duck it.

It's only me.

Okay.

Thank you . Thank you .

[David] Looks like it's designed from one of those Amphitheatres, right?

-[man] Yeah. -[David] But it feels really small ,

so it feels like it's shrunk since the last time.

-Sure? -That's good .

-You're-- You're fine. -Okay.

-You happy? -Yeah.

-We're warming up. We're warming up. -What are we doing?

Good to be back at the Albert Hall , David?

At this moment, no.

-See you later. -See you later, David .

-Done? -Yes. I guess so.

Bit nervous at the minute.

How was that? How was that?

I'm traumatized . That was so scary.

-Well done. -Well done, kid . You all right?

Don't run away so fast next time.

You gotta stay and be thanked .

-No. -Yes!

-Over to you ! -Sherry!

His first professional engagement at the Albert Hall .

-The crowd's better. -They were really enjoying it,

-but in a different way. Less wavy way. -Reserved sort of way.

Sort of English way. But you get used to the different countries.

Yeah, they told me. Yeah.

They're the bike squad .

It does seem a little over the top.

Just put it there, don't worry about it. It's only a bell .

It's in C, isn't it?

Yeah.

The bell is a genuine bell . It's a solid piece of cast bronze.

It takes three people to lift it and it has to travel in its own flight case,

cast in Whitechapel in 2001 .

Curitiba was definitely a highlight.

Because I am from there and everyone was there.

All my family and my friends and just to be able to play in my hometown ...

with such a big act-- It was something very surreal , very surreal .

One, two, three.

[David] You know, it's fantastic to be here.

South America. . . I've never really played South America before, and it's...

The crowds are just so...

I mean , the enthusiasm is matched to a sort of politeness.

That's very, very. . . lovely,

because they're really having a great time. You know, it's terrific.

We've got the M25 50 times over here. We're jammed . We're jammed .

Hello, Paul .

It's big enough, isn't it? Fucking huge, in fact.

Built in 1938 I am told .

I mean , he doesn't tour very often , you know, and people want it madly.

They want him to go out and , you know, they wanna hear him .

See him , hear him .

It's a huge part of a lot of people's lives.

They just love it, you know.

[David] This tour started last year, when the album came out.

And we have done some Europe, and we done some South America.

This is the third bit where we are doing the USA.

But I'm really looking forward to it.

Let's run through a set.

And see how we go. We'll try and cut them short.

Yeah.

Our endeavour, this time, has been to try to do as many shows as we can

in really memorable, beautiful places.

Hollywood Bowl is one of the. . . The great, great venues.

Which has its own atmosphere. If you go there, you don't forget.

It's a great thrill to be here.

Beautiful , beautiful place at which we played last in 1 972.

When we were kids. And here I am again .

The Cros, he's a local L.A. boy, born here,

sang on this album ,

Rattle That Lock, and sang on the last On an lsland album .

And he's here to join in a little bit. Have a bit of fun .

Just gives you a change, a change of voices,

adds something to the vibe of the evening.

I need a hat. Otherwise I will burn .

No, it's all right.

Oh, yeah, maybe I will . It's cool .

[Marc] And as the sun goes down , it will start to, like a slow...

-Yeah. -We haven't put the chase in yet,

-but we'll just do this. . . -Yeah.

Marc Brickman is a real artist.

We've been doing stuff together since 1 980,

when he came in at the very last minute to do the lighting on The Wall Shows.

-Wow. -Cool . I'm loving it.

We have the lovely Mr. David Crosby.

[David] Right. "5AM" into "Rattle That Lock".

Just a handful of people.

Thank you very much indeed , good night.

[David] It is a matter of sort of waiting until something strikes you .

And that can be a tiny little moment of magic.

It can be an external sound or something that you write, create,

which tend to, sort of, just pop into your head at strange moments.

And these days, everyone carries a recording studio, a video suite,

a communication centre in your pocket.

So everything I do, or that strikes me, I can keep a record of.

And then go back and work on later.

[Polly] What's a Downtown Dog?

It comes with mustard , tomato, relish, onion ,

pickle and hot pepper, celery salt.

Okay. I want one of those, please.

-I will have a Char Dog. -A Char Dog?

Yeah. Whatever that is.

[Richard Wright] It's like going into the sea. There's nothing.

We did play Soldiers Field here once, Soldier Field I think it's called .

I n the early 70's too.

Middle 70's. Where we had to sue the local council

Because they'd short changed us.

Well , this one is one that I remember we had a great gig at.

And I remember it being a beautiful building.

And having fun , you know.

Being one of the places in America where it's kind of a beautiful venue.

You know, Radio City, this place, Hollywood Bowl , few other places but...

Does it mean you play any differently, do you think?

Tell you afterwards. Don't know.

So what was the first song that you wrote for him?

I think it was "What Do You Want From Me?".

Which--

Which is bad for a relationship.

"What the fuck do you want from me?" We can't call it that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

-She knew what I wanted from her. -Exactly, of course she did .

-Yeah. -Were you shy about that?

I can't imagine, being you .

So, it was that. And did that establish a pattern that began in your relationship?

Did you come up with some kind of musical framework or some sounds or something

that Polly then provides the words for? Or do you say "I've got something that,

you know, I want you to make real"?

Apart from one, all of the songs have come from the music first.

And they become reasonably well developed .

And if Polly likes one of them particularly she will say,

"Give me that one on my iPad and I will walk with it and ...

come up with something."

She has an extraordinary ability to hit the nail precisely on the head of...

something that feels like it's been in that piece of music all along

and has been dying to get out, but I've been unable to fathom .

So it's something that you can't articulate for yourself

that she is articulating for you , or that she's creating the--

-She's creating it-- -David is incredibly eloquent

at expressing himself musically.

And I think there's a price to be paid for that.

And ...

And it's a bit like, you know, it's a marriage, I stare at him ,

try to work out what it is he's thinking.

And often , if we have a very important conversation , I really think that

I should be the one saying, "So, you know, what do you think about this, you know,

what should we do?" And he should just reply with a guitar.

I think it's one of those things, the longer the tour goes on ,

people gel more and musically it just flows better.

Can I have a hotdog, please?

What would you like with your hotdog?

You know, onions, mustard and some ketchup.

Onion , mustard , ketchup...

Do you want a drink, anyone? Anyone want a drink as well?

It's Chelsea Papaya and Naomi Campbell eats here all the time.

[David] We're in Wroclaw. It's the European capital of culture.

And our stage is all set up down there, and we're doing our first show of our...

European tour, down there, tomorrow night.

We're playing with an orchestra.

The orchestra's conducted by Zbigniew Preisner,

who did the orchestration for this album and the previous On an Island album .

It's looking good .

We did a good rehearsal , and we're doing some more rehearsing today.

And . . . pretty happy with the way it's all looking and sounding.

And we sat up here and watched the lights being rehearsed last night.

It's very beautiful and it's going to be a great show.

It's turned out to be a lot of fun . We are having a great time.

And this is the sort of. . . the final bit.

Playing beautiful , old Europe.

It's a bit odd on a day like today,

when we're just voted to leave Europe as Britons.

[Chuck] I'm at home with my wife, and my wife, Rose Lane, checks our website,

and she says, "You know, there's a message here

from someone claiming to be David Gilmour."

And the message read ,

"Hi, Chuck, David Gilmour here, honest."

[Joao] I didn't even have an audition or anything. I just went to Phil's house,

and he filmed me playing the sax solo of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"

along to a YouTube video.

And he recorded it on his phone and sent it over to David and ,

that was basically my audition .

You know, I met David ...

about...

30 years ago. Close to 30 years ago.

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.

I was a music director for Michael Jackson and I remember seeing

David with Pink Floyd . The first time was Versailles.

It was...

such a spectacle, you know, I am used to being in big productions,

obviously, with Michael , but these guys. . . on a different level , right here.

[Louise] The delight of Rome, Italy.

My goodness, heat of greatness and ,

here, ready to be doing two great shows with David .

[Chester] I mean too many surprises.

Endless,

endless surprises.

David creates magic, always has done.

Master of surprise.

And he's still intensely interested in what he's doing.

Probably the best man I've every played with,

in terms of the way the energy moves around the stage.

You got me. You got me!

You got me.

[Guy] It is a historylarchaeological tour of ancient sites, yes.

It was a-- I answered the advert in the back of The Lady.

For short walking tour of archaeological sites in Southern Europe.

There you are, moving through the European tour.

[Colin] It's up, it's down . It's light, it's shade, it's dark, it's bright.

It's loud , it's quiet. You know, all frequencies are in there, in some way,

and you can be really artistic with the music. I mean it's great.

As an engineer, for me, it's the best thing ever. I have to say.

Musically it's been great. Really stimulating. Everyone's got on .

Uh. . . But in terms of different, I think-- I think everything,

you know, everything's-- I mean , like this whole tour's been different.

[Roger] It's a tour of one-offs. No two shows are the same.

Every day has a different set of rules. A different stage.

How we get it in and how we put it up, is different every day.

Yes, go ahead .

[David] I'm just arriving on site.

[Roger] Jolly good .

[Chuck] I think it's a vision that he has, he wants to play beautiful places,

you know, here we are in Europe playing

largely Roman amphitheatres.

Which is just insane. But it's so wonderful

and the setting is so special , you know.

I think it has an effect on how you play.

It's historic, every venue has a deep history to it.

And somehow that filters into the music. And when you are on that stage

and you're looking out, you're looking at all these beautiful ,

old ancient Roman architecture.

It's just so special and so unique

and very moving to be able to do it in that setting.

Where are we off to today?

We're off in a silly convoy, instead of a nice bus.

It's all my fault. Yeah, I know. Every time. Blame me.

What can I do?

Excuse me, there's a pecking order here.

You know, at this time in my life and my career, it's very nice to...

not put my career absolutely as the first thing.

I mean obviously I am doing it

to the best of my ability. I've put...

everything into making sure it's right, but at the same time...

And I'm sort of doing it in school holidays, university holiday things,

more so that. . . some of my kids can ...

Well , some of them aren't kids, really, anymore.

But it's nice of them to see what I do and to be able to...

come along on these legs of the tour. And they're brilliant critics.

They watch the shows and they give me advice.

Very good advice.

We are in Verona. Once again .

At this marvellous, marvellous amphitheatre.

It's such a privilege to be able to play music with David and ...

And the calibre of musicians in this band .

And it's just great.

Every night it seems like it keeps getting better and better,

and we keep gelling more and more as a band .

And having a lot of fun . Yeah, it feels great.

It's great to see grown men actual--

Crying!

Crying. Looking as if it's Father Christmas,

-it's Christmas, it's their birthday. -So funny.

They're seeing their child being born . . . It's like, "Oh, my goodness",

and cannot quite believe it. They cannot believe, he's there.

[Chuck] I understood that family was very important to David ,

and I have the utmost respect for that. I mean it's fantastic to...

see a relationship like his and Polly's.

I mean not only are they married ,

and for 20 odd years, and have wonderful children .

But they collaborate, you know.

She's an amazing lyricist, fantastic. The themes they come up with.

Lyrically and then the way David puts together with music.

And of course, David writes lyrics as well so it's a wonderful blend .

Not so easily done, I think,

in a lot of marriages but it certainly works for them , and works so well .

I think I got them .

At the end-- Very end of "Shine On"

-you know, he stops. -Yes.

I've suggested he just keeps playing, but just comes off...

-Oh, right yeah, yeah, yeah. -And walks off stage...

And do this...

[Steve] David has encouraged us

to express ourselves within the parameters of the music.

You know, have your own voice.

He's freed up some people musically, except me.

I've been-- He's made it very clear that he wants everyone to have fun .

Except me.

Actually from 2006 onwards, I thought my playing had changed to a point

where it was kind of. . . exactly what David would had wanted .

But no! There's still more, he's still wanting to prune more.

Nice catch.

[Greg] This is not your average arena. I mean , you know...

It's amphitheatres. Pompeii, and Verona, and . . . estates.

Like in Chantilly, you know? And just really, really unique,

and that's been another plus, as well

to add to the, you know, wonderful memories.

Three! Yes!

[Marc] You know, look, I was involved in Venice, Palace of Versailles.

I think that, you know, bringing chaos to...

historic landmarks is always fun .

[Roger] Pompeii might be the oldest arena in the world .

But it's also probably the smallest.

You cannot sort of say, "Okay, we're doing a Roman amphitheatre,

that means there's an entrance here and an entrance there".

Everything had to be pushed from the road , a quarter of a mile to the stage entrance.

Well , the problems with Pompeii, with this show...

are that there's no roof. So, there's nothing to hang anything off of.

Lighting was all done with follow spots pretty much and floor lighting,

so it was a completely one-off approach for Pompeii.

[Marc] You know, in some crazy way I actually like the quiet parts better.

For me, the extreme parts of the show are,

to me, like, low hanging fruit,

'cause you know you're going to get a reaction .

Think it's probably harder to keep people focused with new material

they're not familiar with, and quiet material .

So those are my challenges and if I'm able to sit in the audience

and see that nobody moves I feel like I've done my job.

I mean , I've spent a lot of my life, my career singing other people's words,

as well as some of my own .

Now I'm singing Polly's words, and I owe it to those people...

to mean what I say, what I sing.

I concentrate on it. I am thinking about it, as I am singing.

I mean , there is a lot of things to be thinking about when you're singing,

and playing. Being present, in that moment,

and what you're doing, 1 00 percent, is very, very important.

I will never forget any of these shows, you know.

It was absolutely amazing.

[Greg] I never imagined

that from being a kid , listening to songs like "Money" and "Us and Them",

and "Wish You Were Here", that I'd be playing those...

with this guy.

[David] You know, when this tour is done. I guess I'll be back in the studio,

moving forward , looking forward . Always looking forward .

-I'll just start with a nice easy one. -Yeah.

Who is David Gilmour?

God , that's easy? I wish I knew, I've no idea.

Someone who spends his life driven by music more than anything else,

I would say.

[Alan] David Jon Gilmour was born on Wednesday 6th March 1 946,

in Cambridge, England , the third child of Sylvia and Douglas Gilmour.

At the age of 21 , he joined the band Pink Floyd ,

who subsequently went on to sell over 250 million albums.

His playing style and trademark guitar sound is known the world over.

And in 2011 , Rolling Stone magazine ranked him

one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

His latest solo album , Rattle That Lock,

recently entered the UK charts at number one.

And now, for the first time in nine years,

he's embarked on a tour

that's seen him perform sold-out shows in amphitheatres

and grand halls across Europe, and at the Royal Albert Hall in London .

This unlikely location on the Thames

is where David Gilmour records, and mixes all his music.

-[Alan] And this is it? -[David] This is the boat.

[Alan] And where did you first glimpse this?

[David] I was being driven by someone.

I stopped over there on the road somewhere,

and there was less foliage then .

I could see all that glass and stuff, and I said , "Stop for a minute".

And peered over the wall up there

and thought, "Wow, that's fantastic".

The very next week I was sitting in the dentist's waiting room ,

picked up a Country Life, and there it was for sale.

I rang up the agent, came straight down here, and ...

[Alan] And so, you split your time between here,

the house in Sussex, and Brighton?

Yeah, this one has got the great technology for proper mixing.

It's got a mixing desk with Neve flying faders,

-where all the faders are motorised . -So, this is the most hi-tech bit?

This is the most hi-tech bit and I'd have to come here to mix.

We look at it and it looks, "Oh, yeah, really?"

Well , it's. . . beautiful .

And that's it being built.

Mahogany, Crittall's gun-metal windows.

-[Alan] It's quite lavish. -[David] Yeah.

When we started thinking about doing the Momentary Lapse of Reason album ,

I'd just found and bought this place.

Nothing had been soundproofed , there was no double glazing.

[Alan] So, the whole band would be in here?

[David] The whole band would be in this room .

The drums would be in this corner, which has some sort of padding

behind it and up there, to help absorb the drum sound a bit.

And the rest of us would be in here.

Our guitar amps wouldn't be in here, they'd be in the other rooms

out there, in those little bedrooms and stuff.

So we'd be in here, we'd be hearing what we're doing on headphones,

but they'd be recording a Hammond organ , Leslie in that room ,

a guitar in that room , the bass would be going straight to tape, without an amp.

So, yeah, we made pretty much all of A Momentary Lapse of Reason in here.

Most of. . . pretty much all of The Division Bell in here, in this room .

And these tracks sound enormous, you know...

you can't quite imagine they come out of a tiny little space like this.

Control room's in here.

[Alan] Oh, look.

Well , who wouldn't want to make music in this room , I have to say.

[David] It's fantastic, isn't it?

-[Alan] What's your first memories, then? -[David] Gosh.

I have one sort of snapshot memory of me...

when I apparently left my nursery school ,

at about the age of three, which is in Homerton College,

where my mother had been doing teacher training,

and trying to walk home three miles to the other end of Cambridge,

down Hills Road .

That's my first--

The first snapshot memory I can think of.

What kind of a family life was it?

Your father was a professor, an academic.

[David] My father was a university lecturer at Cambridge...

lecturing in zoology and genetics.

My mother had been at teacher training college,

but she never really went into teaching.

Later she became a film editor at the BBC,

working on Junior Points of View.

[Alan] You went to boarding school

-when you were five years old . -[David] Yes.

My dad went to a university in Madison , Wisconsin ,

for six months

and we were popped into a boarding school in Buckinghamshire.

It was me, at five, my sister, maybe just approaching seven ,

and my brother, who was four. We were put in there for a year.

My parents only spent one term , six months in fact, in America,

and then came back and lived in Cambridge,

but they didn't see fit to take us out for Christmas...

or for the next two terms,

while they remembered , what life was like without children .

[Alan] And when are the first experiences of music,

when did that first begin to resonate in your life as a kid?

[David] I mean , we had the radio on all the time, and records on all the time.

My parents had a very early stereo hi-fi system in the house,

they loved lots of music.

They loved show music, On the Town, West Side Story,

when that came out, and my mother played a bit of piano

and my father loved singing, you know, in the house, in the bath.

So, there was a lot of musical noise going on constantly,

but the first big, sort of, éclat, sort of moment...

was Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock", which came out when I was ten .

And that was brilliant.

And shortly after that, Elvis Presley, with 'rHeartbreak Hotel'r.

You still listen to it and you think, "What a brilliant record",

I mean , it is...

There's so little going on , hardly any drums, if any,

just a bass and a piano and a guitar, and a voice.

But he was absolutely magnetic.

[Alan] And this is home, in the Sussex countryside.

Hello, Mr Khan .

[Alan] It's David Gilmour's musical laboratory.

So, explain to me what happens here.

[David] Well , this, as you can see, this is a music room , and this has been

developing, you could call it, over 21 years we've been here.

The last album , On an lsland,

and a lot of the stuff for this new album , Rattle That Lock,

were started in here, with me doing everything.

So, when you're starting to build the track, you start...

Obviously, you've got your guitar,

-you know, plenty of them . -Yep!

And then , drums if you need to, your sax if you need to,

you also play all these instruments, the mandolin you play, I mean ...

I'm really bad at quite a lot of instruments, yes.

Good . That's useful , then !

David is continually

jotting musical ideas, whether it's on an iPhone, minidisc.

And then he will say, "Oh, I've got some stuff."

And I say, "Oh, great, yeah."

"Well , you know, about 1 50 or 200. . ."

"Oh, no!"

This song, Today, came from several pieces of music.

-I just found that sound on this. -Is that how it all started?

That's how one part of it started , and I ...

... played that onto...

onto the iPhone, and Phil found that

and then he found a bit of me strumming a guitar.

A completely separate bit.

So that one became the beginning, which has got

-me and Polly singing like a choir on it. -Oh, really?

[Phil] I listen through, over a period of weeks, or whatever,

and then I try and

see if there's any, sort of, bits that would work with other bits.

Not all of those are terribly successful , and maybe some of them scare him .

But there's been a few that survived .

So, this is a bit that I recorded on my iPhone.

I was in a studio and had an electric guitar plugged in ,

but didn't want to turn the gear on and get everything running,

and thought this is a nice thing, I'll remember it.

So, I turned my phone on to...

to remember it.

And Phil found this bit just like this,

and he stuck it together with the other thing.

And then , you know, when you add all the instruments on ...

I found it very hard to try and replicate that exactly

as it is with something about the rhythm of it and stuff,

so we just used the original one.

[Alan] This is Polly, Polly Samson .

She's learning guitar, level seven , apparently.

She's an acclaimed author in her own right

and she's David's partner in more ways than one.

[David] Polly, my lovely wife, she is at the heart of everything we do.

Don't know where to begin with Polly, she's my sort of partner in life

and she writes most of the lyrics for my songs.

Along with being a writer and a lyricist,

she is a sounding board for all the stuff I do.

I will play her things and she will voice her opinion

and she'll be very astute

in spotting things that maybe I haven't noticed , musically.

And has been doing that since we did the Division Bell album .

[Alan] Were you a Floyd fan yourself?

[Polly] When I was 1 2, my brother had ...

I think it was Dark Side of The Moon

and Wish You Were Here,

but they didn't have a band name on them .

So, I remember I used to play them but I didn't know who they were by.

So I don't think I ever wrote "Pink Floyd" on my pencil case.

I wrote "David Bowie" on my pencil case.

[Alan] When you met David for the first time, you didn't think,

"Oh, this is David Gilmour, from Pink Floyd?"

I don't think I did ...

He was a man with lots of children , I think is what I thought.

I mean , the first time I met him ,

he had four children and I had one child ,

and I think it was our children who kind of played with each other,

and so, we kind of ended up at this nice day,

lunch in the countryside, sort of sitting near each other

because our children were trying to climb the same tree.

[Alan] David is not someone who is loquacious,

but he is very emotionally engaged ,

but he doesn't necessarily display that.

Do you think that you're there partly to interpret what's going on in David's head?

Yes, I think so. And that does feel like a huge responsibility.

But then , I mean , the whole of marriage is a bit like that,

isn't it? I mean , particularly with a partner who is quite silent.

I mean , you know, he plays guitar a lot

and I often think that if ever we were going to have an argument,

the best way we could do it, would be for me to use words

and for him to answer in guitar, because he's very eloquent,

and emotionally eloquent with a guitar.

So, yes, a lot of it is just trying to get under his skin

and sort of feel what he's feeling.

Okay, so here's a track recorded ten years ago

for "The Girl in The Yellow Dress".

It says it's got a guide vocal on here.

[Alan] Was the process always the music first,

-was he kind of humming to you in bed? -No, it's always music first.

And he. . . Nowadays, he puts tracks on my iPod

and I just walk up and down playing all the tracks and eventually, you know,

one or two start to suggest things to me.

That would be what Polly would have on her headphones

and would be listening to when she wrote the lyrics.

So that's really interesting, because you sort of feel

-it's almost got the words on it. -Yes.

His scats really do sound like someone singing in tongues.

It's as though the words are just, sort of, under the surface,

and it's quite interpretative at that point.

[Alan] Most people imagine that people writing lyrics

would be sitting down at a table

and crossing things out and writing things down .

-Do you write anything down? -I ...

It's a bit. . . Actually, it's the same for my fiction ,

I think that the work is done while I walk.

By the time I get back to the house. . . it's practically like typing,

because I . . . While walking I've kind of worked out what it is.

But I have a notebook...

So this will be full of things that are not all to do with lyrics, but...

Yeah, this was the start of Today, I think.

It looks to me like "a wide Sargasso Sea of shit".

Yes, I had written "a wide Sargasso Sea of shit"!

I think it became something else in the song.

I think it was a missing line, and I thought "I'll get to that line later".

So I think I had written in the song "a wide Sargasso Sea of shit".

[David] I wish I'd learnt the piano properly when I was young,

and that I'd learnt to read music and could do all that stuff.

Still can't read music.

So, you just kind of know that your children

will be grateful for having learnt piano, when they're adults.

But they certainly aren't when they're young! It's just a chore.

So, they've all had piano lessons until they were bored to tears

and begged us to be allowed to stop.

Now they are moving forward , learning things by themselves.

It's terrific, they are thoroughly enjoying...

Gabriel's piano playing, since he stopped having lessons,

has gone from strength to strength

and is in fact playing on one of the songs on the album .

Purely because he's the right person to be doing that job.

Romany has picked up the ukulele entirely on her own ,

and play a number of chords, and will happily sing anything.

She's got a really nice voice, you know, with a bit of huskiness to it.

Nice low-register voice, lovely.

Joe is into science and mathematics and is excited by those things

and has got a fantastic direct, linear mind that

looks to see if there's a better way of doing things,

which will stand him in very good stead .

They don't want to be musicians

and I don't know if they'll change,

and I wouldn't dream of influencing that in any way.

Gabriel wants to be a set designer, maybe an actor as well .

Romany definitely wants to be an actor.

I used this on "Breathe ",

and on "Great Gig in The Sky", on Dark Side of The Moon , this one.

-This machine. -This actual one, yeah,

and have used it ever since, occasionally.

When was. . . Your first guitar...

Were you yet in your teens or not?

[David] My next-door neighbour had a guitar, was given a guitar,

he was completely non-musical .

-I borrowed it and played it for a while. -[Alan] How old were you?

Probably 1 2, 1 3, and I think I gave it back to him a couple of times

and then I borrowed it again , and thought, "Oh, never mind".

And he never asked for it back.

-I kept it. -You stole it.

Basically, yeah.

My parents moved to America permanently when I was 1 8 or 1 9,

and they lived in Greenwich Village, from 1 965, onwards.

So, you know, they could see the end of Bleecker Street, out of their window.

So, I mean , I got Bob Dylan's first record for my 1 6th birthday,

which they sent me from Greenwich Village.

Before then , they'd sent me Pete Seeger's guitar tutor record .

Which is the. . . my only actual instruction

was with the Pete Seeger guitar tutor record .

[Pete Seeger] For most of us, playing a guitar can be about as simple as walking.

Of course, remember it took us all a couple of years to learn how to walk...

[David] There's an LP with a big book, with all the chord shapes you might need .

It started out with a pitch pipe playing the six notes of a guitar,

so, the most important thing was to learn how to tune it.

[Pete Seeger] There, now we're in business.

The second band was teaching you how to play a D chord ,

which is three fingers on the guitar, which you then strum .

And then he sang some words, so you could do a song, instantly,

with just one chord .

So, from the beginning of learning the guitar

I was learning singing as well .

And singing is just as important to me.

[Alan] That's your vinyl collection , is it?

There's vinyl over there, well , it's mine and Polly's mixed together

in a sort of, obsolete pile of tea chests and shelves.

Loads of stuff here, going way, way back.

That's the 1959 Newport Folk Festival , which I was given ,

on my 16th birthday, by my parents,

who were in America at the time, along with Bob Dylan's first record ,

which I've. . . I think I've got somewhere but I can't find it anymore!

So I've had these since my 16th birthday,

as you can see by my youthful possessive writing on the back.

I was very into folk music. . . Leon Bibb, some great people.

And then you can go straight on to something like the Shangri-Las,

you know, girl group in the '60s, early '60s.

Produced by a guy called George 'Shadow' Morton ,

who painted aural pictures.

I mean , "Remember (Walking in The Sand) ", 'rPast, Present and Future 'r,

they are like movies.

So is that where you got your interest

in extra-natural sounds, or even unnatural sounds?

It's the idea of creating a picture or something like a movie with

the story that's being told that I love.

Who were the guitarists who you ...

Well , you talked about Pete Seeger, obviously.

Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, I was very keen on at a very early age,

1 2-string he played mostly, brilliant.

You know, later, Hendrix, of course, Clapton , Joni Mitchell's guitar playing,

her use of different guitar tunings was a big influence.

-Another Side of Bob. . . -Yeah.

The first Dylan album , just called Bob Dylan,

was recorded in December '61 , and I got it in March '62,

which was when it, probably, about a week after it came out in the States.

That's pretty quick going,

definitely long before it came out over here.

When I went into the sixth form at school ,

the music teacher had given up doing music lessons by then

for the sixth form , he just said to people,

"Bring in a record , we'll play it and we'll talk about it."

And so, I brought Bob Dylan's first record in . I absolutely loved it.

Played it.

Silence.

I was the only one who liked it.

I went to see him at the Festival Hall .

At one point, he lost a harmonica.

"Has anyone got a harmonica in C?"

And half the audience came rushing to the front like this, with harmonicas.

-Everyone went through that way. -We're going this way.

-Just whatever. -Whatever...

[David] Family is everything,

and you have to devote time and yourself

to raising children , if that's what you elect to do in your life.

So, yeah, I'm loving my life with my family, raising these children .

When I was a young man , ambition ,

the desire to be together with these other guys in a pop group,

you're very driven and ambitious, otherwise you won't get anywhere.

And I certainly was and I'm sure there's still vestiges of that

of that sort of ambition still around , but I'm not as ambitious as I was.

I've had that. It's been fantastic.

I put just as much work and effort into making a record

but I can prioritise my time better.

Play Postman Pat.

Please stop!

[Polly]"ln Any Tongue '' came into the mix really late on

and it was immediately clear what that song needed to be about.

There isn't a day when one isn't affected by war.

When I'm singing this sort of vocal , I try not to constrain myself

and if consonants feel like coming out they do.

Completely meaningless, you know.

You say meaningless, you mean you've not given them

any kind of status at all but they are something, obviously.

There's something in there, I suppose you could say, trying to get out.

And Polly is so brilliant at picking them out, but you can hear

consonants that she's taken that were there,

and put a proper word to.

Anyway, we'll have a quick...

What has he done ?

God help our son...

-Stay a while. . . -Yes.

So, what's it like, that first time that you hear, not the scat,

-but the words? -That's the best...

That's an incredibly. . . wonderful moment.

It's really exciting and that is...

It tends to be just the two of us, and , you know, I give him

the sheet of paper, and he sticks it up, and sings it and ...

Yeah, I think that is the most enjoyable moment of the whole thing.

There's a very special guest joining us for the next song.

This man gave me my first guitar

and was also one of the first people to play in this venue.

Please welcome Mr David Gilmour from Pink Floyd .

Oh, my God !

[Jamie] Some of my earliest memories

are staying at his and Polly's house in the countryside,

and we'd kind of stay there for whole summers.

And I guess I was too young, initially, to understand

who Pink Floyd were, or who he was.

I guess he was just a friend of my parents, with a nice house!

This is crazy!

He was the first person that told me I had a nice voice.

Which I probably didn't appreciate at the time,

but looking back, that was pretty cool .

We have a very young fan base.

I nitially, I was a bit worried that all these 1 6-year-olds

would have no idea who he was.

But as soon as he walked on stage,

I just have this very vivid memory of this 1 6-year-old boy

in the front row, like, tears streaming down his face with happiness.

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl ...

When we were actually learning the song, I went on YouTube to look up

a live version to see how he'd done it live in the past,

and the first thing that came up was him and my dad

playing it at the Royal Festival Hall .

It had something like 20 million views

and it suddenly all felt quite familial

and circular in some way,

that my dad had done it and now I was doing it.

Pretty much everyone on my dad's side in the family is a musician .

He's a guitarist called Neill MacColl , and his parents were

were Ewan MacColl the folk singer and Peggy Seeger, also a folk singer.

And her brother was Pete Seeger.

And strangely, I think David actually learned to play guitar initially

by listening to these instructional records that Pete Seeger had made.

So, yeah, it's all connected in some strange way, I think.

-So, here we are, rehearsal room . -So, there's a lot of stuff here.

[David] Well , this is basically pretty much what we have on stage.

We all have our full sort of stage kit.

[Alan] Are you going to take all these on tour when you go?

[David] Yes, all these things come with me.

Okay, let's...

Jon , would you play it off the thing,

'cause I can't really remember what I should be doing.

Start. . . Just play it again , yeah.

Trying to remember these fucking chords.

Without forgetting the words all the time

or forgetting what I'm supposed to be playing, all the time,

and gradually, as you relax into it, you get more, and more close

to what you're doing, but I'm constantly,

I'm listening to what everyone else is doing,

trying to, say, remember to say this at the end .

Or I just stop and we do it. And I have all the lyrics here.

All of these I need to know by the time we get going.

I have...

"Shine on You Crazy Diamond", I have a bit of a mental block about that,

so that is here.

And that sits on the floor during every show,

with the start of the lines,

so I get the right lines in the right order.

For some reason , I can remember 50 songs word perfect all the way through,

and I have a rotten memory.

Got that on the F. One, two, three, four.

Great. Much better without me playing. Okay?

[Polly]"Rattle That Lock" came out of the work that I'd done

for the last book I wrote, which was a novel called The Kindness,

because the main character in the novel is a student of Milton .

I knew that I wanted to write a song about the need to protest

and I suddenly remembered Book Two of Paradise Lost

and Satan's heroic journey, to go and challenge God .

And I thought, well , that would work really well .

Within that is everything I want to say.

And I ran back and picked up the book, and there it was,

and it was a huge, huge help.

It's a sort of, not exactly a call to arms,

but it's encouraging people to stand up for themselves,

and shake it about a bit.

OK, let's do "Today".

Just to cheer ourselves up, then we can fuck off.

Do we stay up?

Do that.

[Alan] Way back, when you were living in Cambridge,

that's when you met Syd Barrett, isn't it?

[David] Well , there was an art school for kids in Homerton College.

They ran for, I guess, five-year-olds and above, or six-year-olds and above,

they ran art classes on a Saturday morning.

And I went to that until the age of 11 , and , apparently,

I didn't know it at the time because I didn't know them ,

both Syd and Roger were in the same class, in the same room as me,

for probably three or four years.

But I got to know Syd when I was about 1 4 or 1 5,

which is three or four years after that.

We both went to the Cambridge Tech. I was there doing A Level languages.

And Syd was doing arts, and we would meet in the art school , every lunchtime.

What was Syd like at that time and that age?

[David] Syd was just. . . Had a real , real magnetic personality.

And a spring in his step and a glint in his eye.

And was very, very sharp and very, very funny.

Everyone wanted to be friends with Syd . Me included .

[Alan] By then , musically, did you have any sense what your destiny was?

What you wanted to do with your life?

[David] By the time it got to taking my A Levels...

I think I had pretty much decided what I wanted to do.

And I thought that if I passed my A Levels,

there'd be no way out, and I'd have to go off to university,

and the moment for my rock and roll career might pass.

So, I stopped going to the exams.

-You just stopped , did you? -Yeah, in the middle of the A Levels...

-For fear that you might pass. -Yeah. Essentially.

[David] I've heard people saying that they got into popular music

because of the girls, the drugs, all the rest of it.

But I . . . Having thought about that, I think that it was definitely the music

that was the absolute main priority for why I got into it.

[Alan] And when was the first move into performance?

I suppose when I was 1 7 or 1 8.

I started . . . joined a band or two, you know.

You sort of flit in the door, and out of the door very quickly.

One or two bands, an early one was called Newcomers.

Then after that, I met some other people who wanted to do something more ambitious

And we formed what became Jokers Wild .

We did a lot of harmony music, Beach Boys, The Four Seasons,

and we did your regular R&B, the Stones numbers,

Beatles numbers, and there were five of us and we could all sing.

[Alan] How did you keep pace with what was happening,

-if you were doing all these covers? -It was competitive covering.

A new Beatles record , for example, would come out, and we'd rush down

to Millers Music Store

and we'd gather together in one of the little booths.

They used to have those stand-up booths where you could fit

three people in like that, listening to a single,

but they also, at Millers, had bigger room booths

which were about six foot by six foot,

and you could get four or five people in ,

and you could listen to a whole LP.

And we would listen to a whole brand-new Beatles LP

and we'd be writing the words down and making notes on the chords

and stuff as it went through and we'd try to get them

to play it to us again .

And if the serving girls were in a good mood ,

or, you smiled at them nicely, they might play it a second time.

And then , while you're setting up for a gig that night,

you'd rehearse one or two of the ones that seemed easiest,

and you'd got to know well , and then you could announce,

you know, over your PA, "And this is one, a song called such and such,

from the new Beatles album , which is out today". And it was...

You know, it would be massively exciting,

to play a really bad rendition

with all the wrong words, and all the wrong chords,

but all you could manage to pick up in one, maybe two listens.

Can we hear some of Jokers Wild? Have you got any...

You can hear a bit of my embarrassment.

This is me singing a cover of a song by Manfred Mann .

Oh, yeah, Four Seasons, three by then .

Focusing on this popular stuff, dissecting it,

and working out how all the harmonies work,

how all the instrumentation was done and how it was produced ,

this is my musical education , really.

My parents came to shows. I mean , they would drive me to things, you know,

in the early days when I couldn't get myself to places.

Sometimes they even towed a cart full of equipment on a trailer to gigs.

And they became big fans, you know.

Couldn't get away from them later on !

[Alan] So, there was Jokers Wild and then , of course, there was Pink Floyd .

[David] Jokers Wild had done a few gigs on the same bill

with the early version of Pink Floyd .

We played in a couple of art colleges in London

and a couple of gigs in Cambridge,

and we played in a marquee in Shelford , just outside Cambridge.

And the bill was Jokers Wild , Pink Floyd and Paul Simon .

[Alan] So, what next?

After I packed up with Jokers Wild ,

I started moving between London and Cambridge a lot,

and some people I ran into in London offered me a job

with a band in a nightclub in Saint-Etienne in France.

Then we just hung around in France for the best part of the next year.

[Alan] And then , you lucky chap, you got to work with Brigitte Bardot.

I went in and sang a couple of songs for a film soundtrack,

which was called Two Weeks in September,

which starred Mike Sarne and Brigitte Bardot.

I've never heard them since.

I hope you haven't found them .

I think we may have done.

I don't think they're dancing to this track at all ,

they're dancing at a different. . . Look.

More questions

I just turned up at a studio in Paris,

sang the words they put in front of me, and went home.

[Alan] How did joining Floyd happen , because it was really to do partly with

Syd's, sort of, inconsistency, or whatever you want to call it?

Well , Syd , you know, I knew the guys from the Pink Floyd pretty well .

I called Syd , and he invited me to go along to a recording session .

They were recording "See Emily Play".

-But he was very strange. -[Alan] How?

[David] You know, the light had gone out of his eyes.

He was monosyllabic and ...

Yeah, it was very shocking.

[Alan] So how did this transition . . . how did it happen?

I went to see them playing at a party at the Royal College of Art,

just next door to the Albert Hall , and at that party,

which must have been November, maybe, Nick came up to me

and said , whispered in my ear quietly,

"If at some point soon , you know, we asked you to join , what would you say?"

I said , "Well , I'd probably say yes."

We did five gigs together as a five piece,

which was pretty strange, I can tell you .

And then , one day we were going to play, I think it was at Southampton University,

with T Rex, and people, Tyrannosaurus Rex then , on the bill .

And someone said , "Right, shall we go and pick up Syd?"

And someone else said , "Nah."

And we didn't, and that was the end of that,

in that sort of wonderful , callous way that you have,

when you're young and ambitious.

Were you as bad as the others, then?

I'm sure I was just as bad as the others, yes.

We became gradually more and more successful .

There was five years, really, from when I joined ,

to when Dark Side came out,

which was when the sort of stratospheric leap happened .

My mother threw herself into it, and loved every bit of it, and loved ,

you know, the so-called glamour of the life that I had taken on .

My father less so.

Only because it could have emasculated him a little bit.

A serious scientist doing brilliant work

but not earning anything like as much as his guitar-strumming son .

And , the thrill my mother got out of that

couldn't have been that nice for him at times, I think.

-Can we run back and drop in a bit? -Yeah, you can if you like.

Just turn it down a bit.

I mean , I didn't really make a specific mistake, but...

-Turn it down? -Yeah, my guitar's too loud .

[Alan] And that working relationship, at that time, between you , and Roger,

and Rick and everyone, how was that at that period?

It was sort of a microcosm of what went on later.

We all found our place in the hierarchy

and made it work for ourselves, you know.

[Alan] You call it a hierarchy?

Well , it is. These things always have a hierarchy, I think.

Roger at the top, me next, then Rick, then Nick,

in terms of who did the most commanding, bossing of things around .

But I felt that in my position that I was more the leader of the musical

side of things, and Roger was definitely in terms of

the lyric and the driving force, sort of. . . way it was.

We have some pretty good arguments from time to time, yes.

-And do you manage to get over them? -Yep, we're pretty durable.

I never had that moment of thinking, no, I really am a part of this fully.

I always thought that I was the new boy, and they enjoyed that.

-They enjoyed playing on that. -[Alan] Really?

Yes, but, you know, in that sort of jokey way that you do, you know.

They would always tease me for being the new boy,

even when I'd been in it for 20 years, you know.

[Alan] And what about the next stage, you know,

post Dark Side of The Moon, and Wish You Were Here,

what happened after that?

Well , that's ancient history, all that old , ancient Floyd history,

the arguments, the fights and ...

-Well , you get over it. -We did get...

We did get on pretty well as work people, as work associates,

if you want to call it that, throughout those years,

but there were changes, you know, everyone's little problems,

and dissatisfactions all started coming more and more to the fore.

Boring. Let's move on to something else.

[Alan] I n September 2009, David Gilmour's friend , and musical partner,

Rick Wright, of Pink Floyd , sadly passed away after a long illness.

Let's. . . let's do "A Boat Lies Waiting".

[Polly] The first song to be written was 'rA Boat Lies Waiting'r.

A beautiful piece of music,

it was instantly suggestive of something to do with the sea.

And . . . I went for a walk with it in my headphones

and then I walked back and David was walking towards me,

and I said , "Just come and sit on the beach with me,

I just want to talk to you about this piece of music."

And I said , "David , just try to put into words for me,

what you think it's about."

And he sort of stared off into the distance,

and then he looked at me and said , "Well , I think it's about mortality."

And what had just been happening was,

he'd been trying to find other keyboard players

and he'd come back having tried a few out, and say, "It's just not the same."

And I think he realised , you know, really after Rick died ,

just what it was he'd lost.

And so that then sort of mixed with this idea of the sea,

and Rick spent most of his life on a boat, sailing the Atlantic.

And so, the song became a song about David missing Rick.

[David] This is the original recording.

This is Gabriel making an appearance.

So that dates this track to 1 997.

'Cause that's Gabriel as a baby, and he was born in '97.

[Alan] What made you put that in?

-Did you add that later? -No, that was...

That was here?

That I did on a mini-disc, on the piano in the house.

And you can hear people wandering around

and crockery being washed up, and ...

-And you've left all that on the track? -Yeah, it's all on .

Anyway.

On the last album , On an lsland, I managed to get David Crosby,

and Graham Nash to sing on a couple of tracks from that,

so I thought it would be great to get them in again ,

and to recreate their sound with me,

'cause we seem to fit quite well together.

And that big harmony thing is something I've always really loved .

The first solo album that I did in 1 978,

wasn't what I was going to be then , subsequently, doing as my career.

It was something to fill in a bit of loose-end time, and to have some fun .

Oh, look, mushrooms.

That was to take a simpler approach,

just go with a couple of old friends and just play some songs

and have a bit of fun and see what happened .

I mean , these things were really off the cuff, just sit me down ,

play around a bit and say, "Right, record ."

But the last thing I did was what became 'rComfortably Numb 'r.

We didn't have time to work on it any more,

and it was still around when we got to starting The Wall the next year.

[Alan] So, this is the original recording?

Yeah.

[David] Wow, I'd forgotten I'd written words. . . of some sort.

Ran out of...

Getting used to that now?

-Yeah. -It's good , isn't it?

It's great. It sounds amazing, I love it.

I actually...

I wrote "Comfortably Numb '' on that. . . on that guitar, with that tuning.

-On this guitar? I'll call this an honour! -Yeah.

[Alan] Do you think that your solo songs draw on a more emotional side of yourself?

That's hard to say, I don't know.

Not yet. Wait.

Somewhere round here.

[Polly] His emotional centre is musical , it isn't...

You know, most of us express our anger, love, hate,

whatever it is, we express it in words,

and David really, really doesn't, but he does express it musically.

And I don't know what came first.

You know, did the language part of his brain not evolve

because the musical part of his brain was so busy,

or was he just born with a brain that worked in that way?

It's really hard to know, but it's certainly true that emotion ,

for him , is expressed musically.

[David] Every once in a while,

an idea will force its way to the surface of my mind

that I will try to write a lyric, or song about,

but I've got no way of predicting where that's going to go in the future.

I keep thinking that there is a little door,

and a little key that would . . . That I could open

and I would suddenly find a way that would make it

slightly simpler for me to move those things forward and to find them ...

because there's plenty to write about but I haven't yet really pinned that down .

[Alan] You wrote the lyrics for 'rFaces of Stone 'r yourself, didn't you?

-Yes. -What prompted it?

"Faces of Stone '' was prompted by a memory of a day walking

in Ladbroke Gardens with my mother,

when she was suffering from dementia.

And she. . . As we were walking through the trees,

under the trees and the hedge, she was saying, "Oh, isn't it lovely?"

She could see pictures that weren't there, hanging in the trees.

That was the moment that sparked it off and I had a line that went,

"Faces of stone...

that watch from the dark as the wind swirled around ,

and you took my arm in the park".

So, it's basically about my mother's decline and , you know,

the ending of one life and the beginning of another,

'cause Romany was born nine months before my mother died ,

so there was a short period where they were both alive together, and ...

She came back to our house

and held Romany in her arms as a tiny baby.

And I have a picture of that.

And so, the moment in the park, which is a mental picture,

and the picture I have of her holding Romany in her arms,

sparked a little thing which became that lyric.

So this is some of what became 'rFaces of Stone 'r.

This has got the original vocal that I did on my iPhone late one night,

which is where the lyric spark came from .

I suppose when you write a song about something specific,

that has got some emotional content,

I mean , that one, "Faces of Stone ", that is related to my mother

and her declining years, yeah, there's an emotional thing in there.

I mean , our relationship was very difficult and tricky and ...

It's good at the moment, right now,

to be putting that back into a slightly different perspective.

Trying to find the affection that was there.

I must have loved her, but a lot of the time, it didn't feel like I did .

-[Alan] Do you miss her? -[David] Do I miss my mother? I ...

No.

No, I don't miss her, I don't think, no.

It wasn't a closely-knit, emotional type family,

and when my mother wanted to be closer, when she was getting old ,

I found it difficult to deal with, I just...

wanted her to, "Get off, get off, leave me alone."

Now is not the time to be trying to do this.

The time to be doing that stuff was when I was five.

[Alan] It's just days away from his first live show

and David and the band are catching up, rehearsing new songs, and old .

Tell me about playing live, because you haven't played live for a while.

-Do you enjoy the experience of playing? -Yes, it's terrific.

It's almost like a completely different thing though,

to recording in the studio where you slave away,

hermit-like for years and years, perfecting little things.

This, you have to do the work in this rehearsal room ,

getting it as good as you can get it, but then you bash it out,

and mistakes don't matter, as long as you get the right overall feel

and excitement and emotional depth to what you're doing.

The performance is a great part of it.

There's a lot that he has to do to be the frontman on this show.

It's a big job being David Gilmour!

[Alan] And here we are in Croatia.

Never played in Croatia before, never been here,

but. . . the Romans got everywhere.

-Beautiful , isn't it? -It is.

How did you find this place?

Well , I set my team off to find me beautiful places, you know.

I just think it's fantastic for people's memories of an event

to be something special , not be just another sports arena or stadium , you know.

They're going to go away again afterwards,

assuming I do a reasonably good show,

they're going to go away, and they're going to remember it.

Partly because of the place and the setting they're in .

[Alan] And from here, you go...

[David] From here we're off to Italy, and then off to France,

and then off to Germany. And then we'll be back to London ,

where we'll do some more dates at the Albert Hall .

And then , we'll have a little break

and after this school term is over, we'll head to South America.

[Alan] The school term comes in the middle of it,

because you've got to be in London for the school term .

I want to be around and not be too absent.

I've had my moment, you know,

of doing all those things, and letting my career come first,

but, I'm established , I think, aren't I?

Yeah!

[Alan] There are some performers for whom the crowd is incredibly important,

but I sense that it's not just about the excitement of the crowd ,

it's more about the moment and the music.

It is, well , we try very hard to get the music really...

heartfelt when we do it.

But you can never get above sort of 70ojo or something without an audience.

Whatever you do in rehearsal ,

there's a whole massive lift of gear when there's an audience,

for everyone, and for me definitely.

It's likely to be slightly less perfect, but more fun .

Okay.

Guard the meat, don't eat the meat.

"I'll guard it in my stomach very well ."

There's potato salad over here.

[David] I'm a control freak. I confess, I can't do anything about it.

I try to stop, but I just am that person who...

does want to man the barbecue,

and does want to light the fire, and do all those things.

[Alan] Do you have any regrets?

[David] Can you get through life without regrets?

I don't think you can . I've got tons of regrets!

Tons of regrets, I mean , "Oh, that silly song".

I've got a few, but then again too few to mention .

I've got many regrets but you . . . You get on , don't you?'

There are things I could have done better, things I should have done better.

[Alan] What is your favourite musical memory?

Oh, God , there are just far, far too many.

I mean , I did play at a Les Paul tribute

once in the New York, in the '80s I think it was,

and I was playing a blues number,

and BB King sort of wandered into the room and stood on the side.

And at the end of the song he came up to me and said ,

"Hey, boy, you sure you wasn't born in Mississippi?"

-Play "Hey Jude ''. -'rHey Jude 'r by Romany, yes.

That's too high!

Cor, she knows how to seize her moment, that girl !