As much as I LOVE music and LIVE music, live DVDs are usually hit or miss for me. Some bands just don’t translate great on DVD for me and I have a hard time watching some of my favorite bands doing lackluster performances caught on DVD. My buddy Spoob lent me David Gilmour’s “Remember That Night” DVD and I can’t even begin to say just how floored I was by the quality of the film and the quality of not just the song performances but the choice of songs for this evening.
The DVD was filmed at Royal Albert Hall during Gilmour’s “On An Island” tour in which he was supporting his 2006 solo release of the same name. This was also Gilmour’s first solo tour in over 20 years. The DVD itself is quite stunning. It’s a two disc set with the full performance on the first disc and the 2nd disc packed with extras such as versions of songs from other performances and a full documentary on the tour. I definitely felt like I got my moneys worth after purchasing a copy for myself.
Any guitar nut would love this collection as it really showcases Gilmour’s amazing guitar playing and even more amazing sound and tone. The man plays with such heart and soul and at times you feel that his guitar is literally “singing” the solos. The performance itself is nothing short of amazing. The show opens with the Pink Floyd classics “Speak To Me”> “Breath”>”Time”>”Breathe (reprise). The band featuring Floyd alumni Guy Pratt on bass guitar and longtime friend and Floyd band mate Richard Wright on keyboards. Gilmour graciously thanks everyone for coming out and announces that they will be performing his solo album “On An Island” in it’s entirety for the first set. Usually, I HATE when bands do this. There are few acts that I can tollerate this from and even fewer albums that I can think of actually WANTING to hear in it’s entirety live. This is a fantastic album at times sounding much like a current Pink Floyd album and other times really showcasing Gilmour’s ability to write and perform outside the box so to speak. The album opens with the instrumental “Castellorizon” and then flows right into “On An Island” which is song about what happens to friends after they moved on to the afterlife. The song is absolutely amazing and when you’ve got David Crosby and Graham Nash doing harmonies, how can you go wrong? The following song, “The Blue”, is the first time that I feel I can hear that “outside the box” style. It really stands on it’s own and doesn’t sound so much like Floyd. The rest of the album performance is quite good. The album has a conceptual feel to it and the songs, while they sound great played in order, these songs could stand very well on their own.
Returning for a 2nd set, Gilmour and Co. treat the audience with a whole set of Floyd material including some really great gems seldom heard over the years, if at all since their hayday. Opening the set was a beautiful rendition of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” featuring, once again, David Crosby and Graham Nash on harmony vocals. Add to that gems like “Fat Old Sun”, an absolutely amazing “Echoes” and the highlight of the show (in my opinion), a fantastic “Arnold Layne” and “Comfortably Numb” featuring David Bowie on lead vocals. Bowie really took these songs into a whole new stratosphere and made this an encore that just couldn’t be topped.
What I loved most about this collection was how timeless it is. You really get a glimpse at just how timeless the Pink Floyd catalog is and you also see that Gilmour put some real effort into this set. He could’ve very easily just played these songs note for note the way they were originally recorded and just offered up a pure nostalgic collection but instead opted to play with the arrangements of the songs which gives the listener and idea of just what makes him tick. The arrangements were fantastically done and at times even more enjoyable to listen to than the “classic” versions. This is a collection not to be looked over as just a nostalgic collection of Floyd songs nor is it a collection of hacked up Floyd arrangements. This is a VERY well thought out and very well packaged DVD. You won’t be sorry.
(From Wikipedia)
David Gilmour – Remember That Night
Disc 1
The main concert at the Royal Albert Hall. These are the songs:
- “Speak to Me” (Mason)
- “Breathe” (Waters/Gilmour/Wright)
- “Time” (Waters/Mason/Gilmour/Wright)
- “Breathe (Reprise)” (Gilmour)
- “Castellorizon” (Gilmour)
- “On an Island” (with David Crosby and Graham Nash) (Gilmour/Samson)
- “The Blue” (with David Crosby and Graham Nash) (Gilmour/Samson)
- “Red Sky at Night” (Gilmour)
- “This Heaven” (Gilmour/Samson)
- “Then I Close My Eyes” (with Robert Wyatt) (Gilmour)
- “Smile” (Gilmour/Samson)
- “Take a Breath” (Gilmour/Samson)
- “A Pocketful of Stones” (Gilmour/Samson)
- “Where We Start” (Gilmour)
- “Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Pts. 1-5” (with David Crosby and Graham Nash) (Waters/Gilmour/Wright)
- “Fat Old Sun” (Gilmour)
- “Coming Back to Life” (Gilmour)
- “High Hopes” (Gilmour/Samson)
- “Echoes” (Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason)
- “Wish You Were Here” (Gilmour/Waters)
- “Find the Cost of Freedom” (with David Crosby and Graham Nash) (Stills)
- “Arnold Layne” (with David Bowie) (Barrett)
- “Comfortably Numb” (with David Bowie) (Gilmour/Waters)
The footage is from his concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2006.
[edit] Disc 2
This disc contains the following bonus features:
- Bonus tracks from the Albert Hall concerts:
- “Wot’s… Uh the Deal?” (Waters/Gilmour)
- “Dominoes” (Barrett)
- “Wearing the Inside Out” (Wright/Moore)
- “Arnold Layne” (with Richard Wright)
- “Comfortably Numb” (with Richard Wright)
- Other bonus tracks
- “Dark Globe” (video) (Barrett)
- “Echoes” (Live from Abbey Road. Hidden track after Dark Globe)
- “Astronomy Domine” (Live from Abbey Road)
- “On an Island” promo video
- “Smile” promo video
- “This Heaven” (AOL Sessions performance)
- “Island Jam” (January 2007 version, recorded at ‘The Barn’)
- Footage from the Mermaid Theatre concert (March 2006)
- “Castellorizon”
- “On an Island”
- “The Blue”
- “Take a Breath”
- “High Hopes”
- Documentaries
- One filmed between shows in Los Angeles with some shots by Richard Wright, known as the West Coast Documentary
- Breaking Bread, Drinking Wine, a tour documentary by Gavin Elder
- The making of On an Island
- Photo Gallery
- Credits
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