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David Gilmour entered into the national consciousness when he replaced Syd Barrett as the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist in Pink Floyd.Gilmour had been at school and later college with Barrett and had given him guitar lessons when they were both learning the instrument.
The pair had diverged when Barrett formed the Pink Floyd and Gilmour formed a band called Joker's Wild. In 1968, with Barrett's drug-induced psychosis and frequent inability to perform becoming an issue for Pink Floyd, Gilmour was invited to fill in for his friend. Barrett soon dropped out entirely and Gilmour began to take an increasingly important role in writing Pink Floyd's songs. |
Both Pink Floyd and David Gilmour graced the city of Edinburgh several times with their music, playing at venues such as The Playhouse and The Usher Hall.
Gilmour's signature bluesy guitar sound was one of the defining characteristics of Pink Floyd during their 1970s heyday. Through Meddle (1971), Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and Wish You Were Here (1975) his playing was key to the band's success.
Dark Side of the Moon became one of the best selling albums of all time. The band used some of the profits from it's release to help fund the film Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (1974).
On the day of David Gilmour's wedding to model, Ginger Hasenbein, a much changed Syd Barrett turned up to a recording session for the Wish You Were Here album. He had put on a lot of weight, shaved his head and eyebrows and kept cleaning his teeth with a toothbrush. Barrett's drastically altered appearance was enough to reduce Pink Floyd bassist and co-lead vocalist Roger Waters to tears.
For the band's next three albums; Animals, The Wall and The Final Cut; Waters increasingly demanded a much more dominant role in the songwriting than he had done hitherto. This led to conflict between Waters and the other band members and eventually to Waters leaving the band.
In the final two Pink Floyd albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), it was Gilmour who assumed lead songwriter duties.
David Gilmour's work on songs like Comfortably Numb and Shine On You Crazy Diamond have become staples for people learning to play the guitar. He frequently gets mentioned in guitar magazine lists of the greatest guitarists of all time.
By Andrew Chamberlain
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