“SOMEONE WOULD COUNT IN OR START PLAYING... AND THEN YOU'D JUST FLY!”

MY LIFE IN PINK FLOYD – AND BEYOND. DAVID GILMOUR: IN HIS OWN WORDS...

- Mark Ellen and Daryl Easlea

In extracts from two major interviews, David Gilmour looks back on his long career – with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist. He speaks about the formative influences that shaped him as a guitarist, and all that followed...

Joining Floyd in 1968 as their former leader Syd Barrett was losing control of the band and his sanity. The landmark albums and songs that defined Pink Floyd. The bizarre ‘lost’ album Household Objects (recorded with – you guessed it – household objects!). The Final Cut - the last album the band made with founding member Roger Waters. The reunion with Waters for the Live 8 concert in 2005. The solo records and session work that sustained the guitarist outside of Floyd. The thrill of playing guitar with a Beatle. And the satisfaction that comes from Floyd’s mighty legacy...

GUITAR HEROES

I’m a real jack of all trades. I’m completely the anti-purist. I was never going to dedicate my life to being B.B. King. My influences were Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Bob Dylan, Hank Marvin, all the blues guys and everything. It was all a complete hotchpotch, a mass of different styles and influences. I saw no reason why all these influences could not co-habit – and I still don’t! Bill Haley’s Rock Around The Clock was a pivotal moment for me. And that was superseded in what seemed like months by Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley, also pivotal. The Beatles were pivotal. Jimi Hendrix was a pivotal moment. Pete Seeger was a pivotal moment when I was young. I learnt guitar from him. Too many to name.

THE EARLY FLOYD WITH SYD BARRETT