David Gilmour Live in Gdansk is a double live album plus concert DVD that will be released on September 15, 2008, on EMI Records. David Gilmour Live in Gdansk, the first solo live album from Pink Floyd’s singer/guitarist, captures the magic of his concert held in front of 50,000 in the Gdansk shipyards, the final performance of his critically acclaimed 2006 On An Island tour. It also features the first ever recording of selected Pink Floyd classics performed with an orchestra.
David Gilmour said of the Gdansk concert:
“This was the first time I have played in Poland and it was a thrill to be there helping to mark one of the most important anniversaries in recent European history. The Gdansk shipyard is a deeply symbolic place and it was an honor to perform our music there. It was particularly exciting to have my friend Zbigniew Preisner there conducting the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra and to be able to perform my album for the first time as it was intended.”
Former President of Poland Lech Walesa and Mayor of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz invited David Gilmour and his band to perform this very special concert to mark the 26th Anniversary of the founding of trade union Solidarity. The concert, funded by the City of Gdansk and Solidarity, was titled “It Started in Gdansk – The Space of Freedom” and was held on August 26, a National holiday for the Polish people commemorating the founding in 1980 of the Solidarity Trade union. Nine years later it toppled the Communist Government, with its leader Lech Walesa elected President of a democratic Poland.
The double live album David Gilmour Live in Gdansk, produced by David Gilmour and Phil Manzanera, features the Gdansk concert and demonstrates a musician and his band playing at the very peak of their musical brilliance. The six piece band is accompanied for the only time on the On An Island tour by an orchestra: the 40-strong string section of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic conducted by Zbigniew Preisner, orchestral arranger on David Gilmour’s number 1 album, On An Island. It is the first ever live recording with an orchestra of Pink Floyd’s ‘High Hopes’ and ‘A Great Day For Freedom,’ the latter performed here as a one-off for this special Solidarity anniversary.
Playing with Gilmour at this historic concert was his band of world renowned musicians:
Richard Wright – Pink Floyd’s keyboard player
Phil Manzanera – Roxy Music guitarist and co-producer of On An Island
Guy Pratt – bass player with Pink Floyd and Roxy Music
Jon Carin – keyboards and longtime player with Pink Floyd
Steve Di Stanislao – drums, recently played with Crosby and Nash
Dick Parry – saxophone and longtime Pink Floyd collaborator.
The two and a half hour DVD which accompanies the live album is directed by Gavin Elder. The DVD evocatively portrays the drama of the Gdansk concert, set against the urban landscape of the shipyard and crane-filled skyline. Hung above the stage, suspended on two giant cranes, were six, 16 ton screens, each one focused on a band member and lit in a kaleidoscope of color and lasers by lightmeister Marc Brickman. As well as 113 minutes of concert footage, The DVD includes a riveting 36-minute documentary which includes Gilmour’s private meeting with former President Lech Walesa, chats with the band and crew, concert rehearsals and a moving wreath-laying with Walesa at the Memorial to the shipyard workers killed in the 1970 uprising.
David Gilmour Live in Gdansk will be available in several formats, all of which include all the orchestral tracks; the 113-minute ‘Concert DVD’ includes footage of all the orchestral songs, plus ‘Echoes’ and ‘Astronomy Domine.’ ‘Wot’s Uh… The Deal?’ is included only on the vinyl LP set.
Formats:
1) David Gilmour Live in Gdansk – 3 Disc set and 12-page booklet, features:
Disc 1 – Concert Audio CD
Disc 2 – Concert Audio CD
Disc 3 – Concert DVD and Gdansk Diary documentary
2) David Gilmour Live in Gdansk – 2 Disc audio only and 12-page booklet, features:
Disc 1 – Concert Audio CD
Disc 2 – Concert Audio CD
3) David Gilmour Live in Gdansk – 4 Disc set and 12-page booklet, features:
Disc 1 – Concert Audio CD
Disc 2 – Concert Audio CD
Disc 3 – Concert DVD and Gdansk Diary
Disc 4 – Extras DVD including three previously unreleased ‘Barn Jams’
and 5.1 audio version of ‘On An Island’
4) David Gilmour Live in Gdansk – 5 Disc Deluxe Box set and 24-page booklet with collectable memorabilia items, features:
Disc 1 – Concert Audio CD
Disc 2 – Concert Audio CD
Disc 3 – Concert DVD and Gdansk Diary
Disc 4 – Extras DVD including three previously unreleased ‘Barn Jams’
and 5.1 audio version of ‘On An Island’
Disc 5 – CD Bonus tracks (live from the 2006 Summer tour).
5) David Gilmour Live in Gdansk (Vinyl) – 5 x LP Box Set and 20-page booklet, plus web-pass to download the album, features:
The full Live from Gdansk concert including ‘Wot’s… Uh The Deal?’, plus extra audio tracks that include two of the private recording sessions known as the ‘Barn Jams.'
Track Listing:
Disc 1 – CD
Speak To Me
Breathe
Time
Breathe (reprise)
Castellorizon *
On An Island *
The Blue *
Red Sky At Night *
This Heaven *
Then I Close My Eyes *
Smile *
Take A Breath *
A Pocketful Of Stones *
Where We Start *
Disc 2 – CD
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Astronomy Domine
Fat Old Sun
High Hopes *
Echoes
Wish You Were Here
A Great Day For Freedom *
Comfortably Numb *
Disc 3 – DVD
Part 1 – David Gilmour Live in Gdansk
Castellorizon
On An Island
The Blue
Red Sky At Night
This Heaven
Then I Close My Eyes
Smile
Take A Breath
A Pocketful of Stones
Where We Start
Astronomy Domine
High Hopes
Echoes
A Great day For Freedom
Comfortably Numb
Part 2 – Gdansk Diary
36 minute film documenting the Solidarity Concert events
Disc 4 – DVD Extras
Live At the Mermaid Theatre, London, March 2006
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Wearing The Inside Out
Comfortably Numb
Live from the AOL Sessions, New York, April 2006
On An Island
High Hopes
Live From Abbey Road, London, August 2006
The Blue
Take A Breath
Echoes (Acoustic)
Barn Jams 2007 (previously unreleased), recorded live in the UK, January 2007
Barn Jam 166
Barn Jam 192
Barn Jam 121
Disc 5 – CD
Bonus Tracks from the ‘On An Island’ Tour, 2006
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Vienne, July 31/Venice August 12)
Dominoes (Paris, March 15)
The Blue (Vienne, July 31)
Take A Breath (Munich, July 29)
Wish You Were Here (Glasgow, May 27)
Coming Back To Life (Florence, August 2)
Find The Cost Of Freedom (Manchester, May 26)
This Heaven (Vienne, July 31)
Wearing The Inside Out (Milan, March 25)
A Pocketful Of Stones (Vienne, July 31)
Where We Start (Vienne, July 31)
On The Turning Away (Venice, August 31)
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