Band : David Gilmour

Album Title : Live In Gdansk

Label : EMI

Distributor : EMI

Release Date : 03 / 10 / 2008

Release : CD

When Pink Floyd did the unthinkable and actually reunited for the 2005 Live Aid concerts, hopes were high that the band might consider doing something more than just a one-off charity event. But it was a sad and abrupt end to any further hopes of a more permanent Pink Floyd reunion when Richard Wright succumbed to cancer just weeks before the release of “Live in Gdansk”. Chronicling the final night of Gilmour’s tour in support of his excellent 2006 solo album “On an Island” this live document is even professional than the last two live Pink Floyd albums. Keyboard player Jon Carin, bass player Guy Pratt and saxophonist Dick Parry are all present. Drummer Steve DiStanislao and former Roxy Music guitar player Phil Manzanera completed the band. “Live In Gdansk” feels like an intimate affair. The new songs fit well with the old Pink Floyd songs. The presence of songs like “Fat Old Sun” and “Echoes” in the set are two of the highlights of the concert. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is just chilling. Coming just a year after Gilmour’s Royal Albert Hall concert was released as the DVD “Remember That Night”, “Live in Gdansk” hardly feels necessary, symphony or no symphony. But diehard Pink Floyd fans will find much in it to enjoy and will surely find it preferable to any bootleg torrents floating around online at the various pirate sites. In the end Pink Floyd music still remains one of the best all time.

90/100

Guido Claes.