David Gilmour has released a rehearsal clip of “Wish You Were Here,” the title track from Pink Floyd’s 1975 album. The legendary musician is joined by guitarist Ben Worsley, who’ll be the touring guitarist on Gilmour’s upcoming run of dates, scheduled to begin in late September.
Gilmour shared a second track from “Luck and Strange“, his upcoming studio album, and first since 2015. “Between Two Points” features lead vocal by his daughter, Romany Gilmour. David Gilmour has continued to expand his 2024 tour, his first since 2016. On June 10th, he announced a fourth show in Los Angeles, this time at the new Intuit Dome on Oct. 25th. That show precedes the concerts he’s giving at the Hollywood Bowl. [On May 16, he added a third show at the Hollywood Bowl and fourth and fifth concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden. [One day earlier, when the pre-sale for the two venues began, a third concert at MSG was added “due to overwhelming demand.”] That brings the total to 21 concerts in support of “Luck and Strange”. On May 10th, Gilmour announced six shows—all at Rome’s Circo Massimo in late September and early October 2024. That announcement followed the news exactly one week earlier of six October concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall. (The Italy and U.K. performances are the only European dates.)
‘Luck and Strange’ was recorded over five months in Brighton and London and is Gilmour’s first album of new material in nine years. The record was produced by David and Charlie Andrew, best known for his work with ALT-J and Marika Hackman. Of this new working relationship, David says, “We invited Charlie to the house, so he came and listened to some demos, and said things like, “Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?” and “Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?”. He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine. He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. That is just so good for me because the last thing you want is people just deferring to you.” The majority of the album’s lyrics have been composed by Polly Samson, Gilmour’s co-writer and collaborator for the past thirty years. Samson says of the lyrical themes covered on ‘Luck and Strange’, “
It’s written from the point of view of being older; mortality is the constant.” Gilmour elaborates, “We spent a load of time during and after lockdown talking about and thinking about those kind of things.” Polly has also found the experience of working with Charlie Andrew liberating, “He wants to know what the songs are about, he wants everyone who’s playing on them to have the ideas that are in the lyric informing their playing. I have particularly loved it for that reason.” The album features eight new tracks along with a beautiful reworking of The Montgolfier Brothers’ ‘Between Two Points’ and has artwork and photography by the renowned artist Anton Corbijn.
Musicians contributing to the record include Guy Pratt & Tom Herbert on bass, Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao on drums, Rob Gentry & Roger Eno on keyboards with string and choral arrangements by Will Gardner. The title track also features the late Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright, recorded in 2007 at a jam in a barn at David’s house.
Some contributions emerged from the live streams that Gilmour and family performed to a global audience during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021; Romany Gilmour sings, plays the harp and appears on lead vocals on ‘Between Two Points’. Gabriel Gilmour also sings backing vocals.
The album’s cover image, photographed and designed by Anton Corbijn, is inspired by a lyric written by Charlie Gilmour for the album’s final song ‘Scattered’. Of working with his family on ‘Luck and Strange’, David says, “Polly and I have been writing together for over thirty years and the Von Trapped live streams showed the great blend of Romany’s voice and harp-playing and that led us into a feeling of discarding some of the past that I’d felt bound to and that I could throw those rules out and do whatever I felt like doing, and that has been such a joy.”
“Luck and Strange” will be released on September 6th, 2024, on Sony Music.
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