David Gilmour Launches First Tour Since 2016: Photos, Set List
· Ultimate Classic RockDavid Gilmour launched his 2024 solo tour with a performance at Circo Massimo in Rome, Italy on Friday night.
Surrounded by the ancient ruins -- commonly known by its Latin name, Circus Maximus -- Gimour delivered material from throughout his incredible career. The show began with "5 A.M.," an instrumental tune released in 2015. From there, Gilmour launched into a pair of songs from his recently released fifth solo album, "Black Cat" and the title track, "Luck and Strange."
While solo material was found throughout the set, Gilmour was sure to work in plenty of Pink Floyd classics as well. "Breath (In the Air)," "A Great Day for Freedom" and "Wish You Were Here" were among the many Pink Floyd tunes performed on the night. Gilmour's closing encore was "Comfortably Numb," the timeless track from 1979's LP The Wall.
A complete set list, along with photos and fan-shot videos from Gilmour's performance, can be found below.
When Was David Gilmour's Last Tour?
Gilmour last toured in 2016, when he was supporting his fourth studio album, Rattle That Lock. The Pink Floyd rocker has played various one-off gigs since then, but the Rome show marks the start of his first official tour in eight years.
The new tour is in support of Gilmour’s latest album, Luck and Strange. In preparation for the trek, Gilmour played a pair of warm-up shows on Sept. 20 and 21 at the Brighton Centre in England. He live-debuted several of the Luck and Strange songs during those concerts, while also dusting off some Pink Floyd rarities.
“I haven’t really gotten these shows very well worked out yet,” Gilmour admitted to UCR prior to his return to touring. “I’ve got a very loose list of songs and things that I’m expecting to do, which do include one or two from the ‘70s.”
READ MORE: David Gilmour's 10 Best Solo Songs
Friday's performance was the first of six shows Gilmour will perform in Rome. From there, the famed guitarist will head to London for another run of dates. At the end of October, Gilmour will come Stateside to play four concerts in Los Angeles. He’ll then round out his 2024 dates with five shows in New York in November.
David Gilmour, Rome, Sept. 27, 2024
David Gilmour, Rome, Sept. 27, 2024
David Gilmour, Rome, Sept. 27, 2024
David Gilmour, Rome, Sept. 27, 2024
David Gilmour, Rome, Sept. 27, 2024
David Gilmour, Rome, Italy, 09/27/24 Set List
1. "5 A.M."
2. "Black Cat"
3. "Luck and Strange"
4. "Breathe (In the Air)"
5. "Time"
6. "Breathe (Reprise)"
7. "Fat Old Sun"
8. "Marooned"
9. "Wish You Were Here"
10. "Vita Brevis"
11. "Between Two Points"
12. "High Hopes"
13. "Sorrow"
14. "The Piper's Call"
15. "A Great Day for Freedom"
16. "In Any Tongue"
17. "The Great Gig in the Sky"
18. "A Boat Lies Waiting"
19. "Coming Back to Life"
20. "Dark and Velvet Nights"
21. "Scattered"
22. "Comfortably Numb"
No. 9. 'The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking' (Roger Waters, 1984)
Roger Waters gave Pink Floyd the choice between this material and the songs that made up 1979's The Wall. The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking crept to No. 31 in the U.S., but ultimately become a largely forgotten solo effort. Formatted incrementally throughout a husband's 41-minute dream about having an affair during a lonely trip, the album includes a subtextual worry about the resurrection of Nazism – "but basically," Waters later admitted, "it was just a record about sex." Pink Floyd chose well. The Wall became a 23-times platinum smash, while the meandering, occasionally incomprehensible Pros and Cons took nearly 10 years to reach gold-selling status.
No. 8. 'About Face' (David Gilmour, 1984)
Gilmour emerged from Pink Floyd's most recent sessions having earned no compositional credits on 1983's uneven The Final Cut. That had more to do with Waters' singular vision for the album than with a lack of material from his longtime bandmate. Several contemporary tracks on Gilmour's subsequent, similarly uneven solo project (including "Out of the Blue," "Murder" and "Near the End") would have gone a long way toward balancing things. Unfortunately, About Face suffered from the era's mechanized production sensibility (in particular on "Blue Light" and "Murder"), but songs like the smartly episodic "Out of the Blue" easily transcended those production missteps. Combine them with the best of what Waters created for The Final Cut, and you might have had the next great Pink Floyd album.
No. 7. 'Rattle That Lock' (David Gilmour, 2015)
If there was a criticism to be made about the last two projects led by Gilmour at this point, it was that his solo album On an Island and Pink Floyd's finale The Endless River sometimes suffered from a confining quietness. As gorgeous as those largely meditative albums no doubt are, some might have wished they'd had a less steadfast reserve. Rattle That Lock, at least in part, broke that spell. Working in a more modest conceptual format seemed to free Gilmour to explore elements of jazz, even a waltz, but also to rock out some. With the propulsive title track, he also recalled a few of his former group's coolest quirks. Rattle That Lock suffered occasional missteps along the way, but it was certainly good news for anyone wondering if Gilmour could still cut loose.
No. 6. 'Radio K.A.O.S.' (Roger Waters, 1987)
Commercial flourishes like sequenced drums and programmed keyboards all but sunk this project, which today comes off as a plasticine bid for MTV acceptance. "Me or Him," "Who Needs Information" and "Sunset Strip" are good songs in desperate need of a more stripped-down approach. Waters eventually came to see that, too. "Between [co-producer] Ian Ritchie and myself, we really fucked that record up," he said in Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd. "We tried too hard to make it sound modern." Look past those production missteps, however, and Radio K.A.O.S. reveals itself as an often-powerful new iteration of Waters' patented call to arms against warmongers and bloated bureaucracy. There was, as usual, some larger narrative at work, but the best tracks rose above any writerly conceits. "Home," for instance, featured some of Waters' most biting commentary, as he challenged citizens to stand up to the creeping indignities that eventually coalesce into true injustice. Waters even gives way to a surprising moment of hopefulness on "The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)."
No. 5. 'David Gilmour' (David Gilmour, 1978)
Gilmour's self-titled debut is probably destined to be forever compared with Animals and then The Wall, the two Waters-heavy Pink Floyd releases on either side of it. But David Gilmour holds up better when considered as a smaller, personal statement. "This album was important to me in terms of self-respect," Gilmour told Circus in 1978. "Being in a group for so long can be a bit claustrophobic, and I needed to step out from behind Pink Floyd's shadow." Loose and collaborative with some interesting instrumentals, David Gilmour succeeds on its terms by not trying too hard to sound like Pink Floyd – and that's a mistake Gilmour was prone to during the band's third act. Instead, everything feels familiar and comfortable. Credit goes in part to his backing band, a group of old buddies who had been members of his earlier solo group Bullitt. Together, they construct what stands as Gilmour's most varied offering.
No. 4. 'Luck and Strange' (David Gilmour, 2024)
Though he often seems settled into one of them lately, Gilmour always had his feet in two distinct worlds: He's by turns brooding and contemplative or flinty and eruptive. He made a brave attempt at balancing those two impulses on Rattle That Lock but just missed. Luck and Strange does a better job. (That's encapsulated on its most representative song, "The Piper's Call": Gilmour leaves behind a trickling guitar figure and whispered entreaties about avoiding life's darker temptations to unleash a solo of wit and sudden fury.) This is an album focused on mortality and the passage of time, and in keeping Gilmour makes a surprisingly direct reference to his storied past in "Scattered," beginning with a pulse straight out of Dark Side of the Moon. In the end, however, Gilmour allows for the kind of hope that former bandmate Roger Waters seldom did – and Luck and Strange is better for it.
No. 3. 'Is This the Life We Really Want?' (Roger Waters, 2017)
Waters' return to a world in political turmoil, almost a quarter-century after 1992's Amused to Death, was in its own sad, weird way perfectly timed. He was able to pour a cauldron of seething anger into "Picture This" and "Broken Bones." But Is This the Life We Really Want? wasn't your typical Waters screed, as producer Nigel Godrich and a group of new musical collaborators helped shape a leaner, more universal message. The results, happily, weren't all fire and brimstone. Elsewhere, Is This the Life ended up plumbing some of Waters' most emotional depths, with songs like "Wait for Her" that allowed fans the rare opportunity to see him as more than a didactic orator. After years of lawsuits and bitter public spats, he was also finally ready to deal with Pink Floyd's always-looming specter. Waters incorporated overt musical nods to Wish You Were Here and The Wall, giving this project both an old and new feel. In this way, Is This the Life We Really Want? challenged the conventions of what a Roger Waters album could be, even as he belatedly embraced his towering musical legacy.
No. 2. 'On an Island' (David Gilmour, 2006)
This was just Gilmour's third solo project, and first in nearly 20 years. He didn't return with any great fire. On an Island, as a wee-hours recording, instead moved almost song for song with this leisurely gait. Critics pounced, saying the album sometimes sounded too much like it was: a pet project constructed by a semiretired 60-something multimillionaire, hanging out with his wife and familiar cronies (Richard Wright, Phil Manzanera, David Crosby and Graham Nash) aboard a houseboat on the Thames. Thing is, this period of contentment seemed to open up Gilmour in new ways. Sure, everything was utterly controlled — even when he rocks a little — but the LP was also refreshingly un-extravagant, and completely mesmerizing. Gilmour couldn't sound more different from The Wall / Final Cut era, when he tended to strike a pissed-off or diffident figure on cuts like "Comfortably Numb" and "Not Now, John." With On an Island, Gilmour once again inhabited his charmingly pretension-free early musical persona, recapturing the cerulean placidity that made his pre-The Dark Side of the Moon era Pink Floyd recordings so underrated.
No. 1. 'Amused to Death' (Roger Waters, 1992)
Waters was still focused on the problems of modern life like needless war, out-of-control capitalism, idiotic entertainment consumption. The difference: As in his Pink Floyd days, Waters found his greatest success as a solo artist through a collaborative bond with a forceful and equally artful guitarist. This time, rather than David Gilmour, it was Jeff Beck. The result is the most coherent reiteration of Waters' mindset since he left Pink Floyd. Amused to Death includes his best take on the conflicts within organized religion (and that's saying something) with "What God Wants, Pt. 1." Equally incisive was Waters' contempt for warlords in "The Bravery of Being Out of Range." His duet with Don Henley, a meditation on the 1989 Chinese youth movement against Communism called "Watching TV," is the most sadly beautiful thing Waters ever attempted — while "Three Wishes" might be the best song Pink Floyd never did. After the too-synthy Radio K.A.O.S., Waters was, quite simply, back on his game.