As a guitarist and singer in Pink Floyd, David Gilmour has had one of the most successful, influential and mind-expanding careers in British rock music – and as he releases a new solo album and goes on tour, he will be taking on your questions.
Now 78, Gilmour’s tenure with Pink Floyd stretches back to 1967, when he was drafted in to replace Syd Barrett, who was struggling with his mental health. With a guitar tone rooted in the earthiness of the blues but given a cosmically epic scale, Gilmour played a huge part in taking the band from bug-eyed psych to a much grander, statelier sound – one that came to define progressive rock.
As well as deploying much-admired solos, Gilmour also took or shared lead vocals on a substantial number of the band’s best-known songs – Money, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and more – as they released one iconic album after another. Friction built up, though, with the keyboardist Richard Wright leaving after 1979’s The Wall and Roger Waters in 1985, leaving Gilmour to lead the band for three further studio albums, including to multiplatinum success with 1994’s The Division Bell.
2014’s The Endless River was billed as the band’s final music, but Gilmour and the band’s drummer, Nick Mason, resurrected the name for a one-off song in 2022, to voice support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.
Over the years there have been sideman roles with Bryan Ferry, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Paul McCartney and Kate Bush – Gilmour had a big role at the very start of Bush’s career, paying for the 16-year-old to record her demo tape, then pushing it to her eventual label, EMI.
He’s also recorded four solo albums – a fifth, Luck and Strange, is released on 6 September – and continues to tour. Along with a six-night residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall in October, he’s playing dates at the Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Garden and – in a move reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s 1972 Pompeii performance – the ancient Circus Maximus chariot racing stadium in Rome.
It’s a life that has brought with it an entire universe of music, which generation after generation have mulled over and got lost in. Post your questions about it all in the comments below before Wednesday 28 August and we will publish Gilmour’s responses on Friday 4 October.
