Kathmadu, March 6: Today marks Pink Floyd guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour’s 68th birthday. Gilmour, who’s currently working on a solo album, joined Pink Floyd in 1967 and was vital to the group’s sound as they became one of the biggest bands in the world. After Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in the ’80s, it was Gilmour who became the group’s de-facto leader.

We want to celebrate David’s birthday by looking back at professionally-shot video from the A Momentary Lapse Of Reason Tour – the group’s first jaunt without Waters.

On July 15, 1989 – nearly two years after the tour began – Pink Floyd performed at Grand Canal in Venice, Italy for a show that aired live on Italian TV and was broadcast worldwide. The evening’s 14-song setlist mixed Pink Floyd classics with tunes off A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It was not without its issues, but presents some of the best available footage from the tour.

Here’s what Gilmour had to say about the show in a 1990 interview with Q Magazine, “The Venice show was great fun, but it was very tense and nerve-wracking. We had a specific length of show to do; the satellite broadcasting meant we had to get it absolutely precise.

We had the list of songs, and we’d shortened them, which we’d never done before. I had a big clock with a red digital read-out on the floor in front of me, and had the start time of each number on a piece of paper. If we were coming near the start time of the next number, I just had to wrap up the one we were on. We had a really good time, but the city authorities who had agreed to provide the services of security, toilets, food, completely reneged on everything they were supposed to do, and then tried to blame all the subsequent problems on us.”

0:00 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1)
2:56 Learning To Fly
8:28 Yet Another Movie
14:45 Round And Around
15:20 Sorrow
24:56 The Dogs Of War
32:45 On The Turning Away
40:27 Time
46:11 The Great Gig In The Sky
51:06 Wish You Were Here
55:41 Money
1:05:32 Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
1:11:05 Comfortably Numb
1:20:50 Run Like Hell?

Gilmour announced solo tour after nine years:

David Gilmour has announced that he will play a series of shows this September, for the first time in nine years, to coincide with the forth coming follow-up album to 2006’s On An Island.

While a title and a release date for Gilmour’s follow-up album have yet to be announced, his solo gig dates have been confirmed, with the tour kicking off on September 12 in Croatia, and finishing on a three-night stint at London’s Royal Albert Hall from September 23-25.

Tickets for all of the shows will go on sale on March 6, which also happens to be Gilmour’s 69th birthday.

Last year, Gilmour discussed the release of Pink Floyd’s final album, The Endless River, stating that it would definitely be the last album from the band and that it would be difficult to tour without late keyboardist Rick White. He also discussed his solo record, telling Rolling Stone: “There are some sketches that aren’t finished, and some of them will be started again. There’s a few months’ work in it yet. I’m hoping to get it out this following year. Then I’m hoping to do an old man’s tour, not a 200-date sort of thing.”

Gilmour’s full European tour dates are as follows:

Saturday September 12 – Pula, Croatia Arena Pula
Monday September 14 – Verona, Italy Verona Arena
Tuesday September 15 – Florence, Italy Teatro Le Mulina
Thursday September 17 – Orange, France Theatre Antique
Saturday September 19 – Oberhausen, Germany Konig-Pilsener Arena
Wednesday September 23-Friday September 25 – London, UK Royal Albert Hall