0:00:02 > 0:00:07This programme contains some strong language
0:00:07 > 0:00:10- I'll just start with a nice easy one.- Yeah.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Who is David Gilmour?
0:00:17 > 0:00:22God, that's easy?! I wish I knew, I've no idea. Um...
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Someone who spends his life driven by music more than anything else,
0:00:28 > 0:00:29I would say.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44David John Gilmour was born on Wednesday 6th March 1946,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48in Cambridge, England, the third child of Sylvia and Douglas Gilmour.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52At the age of 21, he joined the band Pink Floyd,
0:00:52 > 0:00:58who subsequently went on to sell over 250 million albums.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02His playing style
0:01:02 > 0:01:05and trademark guitar sound is known the world over
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and in 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him
0:01:08 > 0:01:12one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14MUSIC: Echoes, Part 1 by Pink Floyd
0:01:24 > 0:01:26MUSIC: Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd
0:01:36 > 0:01:38MUSIC: Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
0:01:38 > 0:01:41# How I wish How I wish you were here
0:01:44 > 0:01:49# We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
0:01:49 > 0:01:50# Year after year... #
0:01:55 > 0:01:58His latest solo album, Rattle That Lock,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01recently entered the UK charts at number one.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04And now, for the first time in nine years,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07he's embarked on a tour that's seen him
0:02:07 > 0:02:09perform sold-out shows in amphitheatres
0:02:09 > 0:02:14and grand halls across Europe, and at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32PIANO DROWNS SPEECH
0:02:35 > 0:02:40'This unlikely location on the Thames is where David Gilmour records
0:02:40 > 0:02:43'and mixes all his music.'
0:02:43 > 0:02:46- And this is it.- This is the boat.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49- And where did you first glimpse this? - I was being driven by someone.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52I stopped over there on the road somewhere,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54and there was less foliage then.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56I could see all that glass and stuff,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58and I said, "Stop for a minute."
0:02:58 > 0:03:00And peered over the wall up there
0:03:00 > 0:03:03and thought, "Wow, that's fantastic."
0:03:03 > 0:03:06The very next week I was sitting in the dentist's waiting room,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10picked up a Country Life, and there it was for sale.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14I rang up the agent, came straight down here, and...
0:03:14 > 0:03:18And so you split your time between here, the house in Sussex,
0:03:18 > 0:03:19and Brighton.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Yeah, this one has got the great technology for proper mixing.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24It's got a mixing desk of Neve flying faders,
0:03:24 > 0:03:29- where all the faders are motorised. - So this is the most hi-tech bit.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33This is the most hi-tech bit and I'd have to come here to mix.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36- We look at it and it looks, "Oh, yeah, really?"- Well, it's beautiful.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41That's it being built.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Mahogany, Crittall's gun-metal windows.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47- It's quite lavish.- Yeah.
0:03:48 > 0:03:49GUITAR PLAYS
0:03:58 > 0:04:01When we started thinking about doing the Momentary Lapse Of Reason album,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05I'd just found and bought this place.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09Nothing had been soundproofed, there was no double glazing.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12- The whole band would be in this room. - The whole band would be in this room.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15The drums would be in this corner, which has some sort of padding
0:04:15 > 0:04:19behind it and up there, to help absorb the drum sound a bit.
0:04:19 > 0:04:20And the rest would be in here.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Our guitar amps wouldn't be in here, they'd be in the other rooms
0:04:24 > 0:04:27out there, in those little bedrooms and stuff.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30So we'd be in here, we'd be hearing what we're doing on headphones,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34but they'd be recording a Hammond organ, Lesley in that room, a guitar
0:04:34 > 0:04:37in that room, the bass would be going straight to tape,
0:04:37 > 0:04:38without an amp. So, yeah.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42We made pretty much all of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason in here,
0:04:42 > 0:04:47most of...pretty much all of The Division Bell in here, in this room.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50These tracks sound enormous, you know,
0:04:50 > 0:04:51but you can't quite imagine
0:04:51 > 0:04:54they come out of a tiny little space like this.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57Control room's in here.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00Oh, look.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Well, who wouldn't want to make music in this room, I have to say.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05It's fantastic.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20- What's your first memories, then? - Gosh.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25I have one sort of snapshot memory of me
0:05:25 > 0:05:29when I apparently left my nursery school,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32at about the age of three, which is in Homerton College,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35where my mother had been doing teacher training, and trying
0:05:35 > 0:05:38to walk home three miles to the other end of Cambridge,
0:05:38 > 0:05:40down Hills Road.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45That's my first...that's the first snapshot memory I can think of.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47What kind of a family life was it?
0:05:47 > 0:05:50Your father was a professor, an academic.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54My father was a university lecturer at Cambridge,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57lecturing in zoology and genetics.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01My mother had been at teacher training college,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04but she never really went into teaching.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Later she became a film editor at the BBC,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09working on Junior Points Of View.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13- You went to boarding school when you were five years old.- Yes.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17My dad went to a university in Madison, Wisconsin,
0:06:17 > 0:06:18for six months
0:06:18 > 0:06:22and we were popped into a boarding school in Buckinghamshire.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28It was me, at five, my sister, maybe just approaching seven,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32and my brother, who was four. We were put in there for a year.
0:06:32 > 0:06:39My parents only spent one term, six months in fact, in America,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41and then came back and lived in Cambridge,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44but they didn't see fit to take us out for Christmas,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48or for the next two terms,
0:06:48 > 0:06:53while they remembered what life was like without children.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00And when are the first experiences of music,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03when did that first begin to resonate in your life as a kid?
0:07:03 > 0:07:07I mean, we had the radio on all the time, and records on all the time.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11My parents had a very early stereo hi-fi system in the house,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14they loved lots of music.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18They loved show music, On The Town, West Side Story,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21when that came out, and my mother played a bit of piano
0:07:21 > 0:07:25and my father loved singing, you know, in the house, in the bath.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30So there was a lot of musical noise going on constantly,
0:07:30 > 0:07:36but the first big sort of eclat sort of moment was
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock, which came out when I was ten.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43# We're going to rock around the clock tonight
0:07:43 > 0:07:45# Put your glad rags on and join me hon'
0:07:45 > 0:07:48# We'll have some fun when the clock strikes one
0:07:48 > 0:07:49# We're gonna rock... #
0:07:49 > 0:07:51That was brilliant.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53# ..We're gonna rock, rock, rock till broad daylight
0:07:53 > 0:07:55# We're gonna rock... #
0:07:55 > 0:07:59And shortly after that, Elvis Presley with Heartbreak Hotel.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02# Well, it's down at the end of Lonely Street
0:08:02 > 0:08:04# At Heartbreak Hotel
0:08:04 > 0:08:07# Where I'll be I get so lonely, baby
0:08:07 > 0:08:09# Well, I'm so lonely... #
0:08:09 > 0:08:12You still listen to it and you think, what a brilliant record.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16I mean, it is... There's so little going on, hardly any drums,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21if any, just a bass and a piano and a guitar, and a voice.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22But it was absolutely magnetic.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37And this is home, in the Sussex countryside.
0:08:37 > 0:08:38Hello.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44'It's David Gilmour's musical laboratory.'
0:08:48 > 0:08:51So, explain to me what happens here.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56Well, this, as you can see, this is a music room, and this has been
0:08:56 > 0:09:01developing, you could call it, over 21 years we've been here.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04The last album, On An Island, and a lot of the stuff for this new
0:09:04 > 0:09:06album, Rattle That Lock,
0:09:06 > 0:09:12were started in here, with me doing everything.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16So when you're starting to build the track, you start...
0:09:16 > 0:09:21- Obviously you've got your guitar, you know, plenty of them.- Yep!
0:09:21 > 0:09:25And then, drums if you need to, your sax if you need to, you also
0:09:25 > 0:09:29play all these instruments, the mandolin you play, I mean...
0:09:29 > 0:09:32- I'm really bad at quite a lot of instruments, yes.- Good.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34That's useful, then!
0:09:34 > 0:09:36SAXOPHONE PLAYS
0:09:53 > 0:09:58David is continually jotting musical ideas, whether it's on an iPhone,
0:09:58 > 0:10:03minidisc, and then he will say, "Oh, I've got some stuff."
0:10:03 > 0:10:06And I say, "Oh, great, yeah."
0:10:06 > 0:10:10"Well, you know, about 150 or 200..."
0:10:10 > 0:10:12"Oh, no!"
0:10:13 > 0:10:18This song, Today, came from several pieces of music.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25- I just found that sound on this. - That's how it all started?
0:10:25 > 0:10:28That's how one part of it started, and I...
0:10:30 > 0:10:32..played that onto...
0:10:32 > 0:10:35onto the iPhone, and Phil found that
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and then he found a bit of me strumming a guitar.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41A completely separate bit.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44So that one became the beginning, which has got me
0:10:44 > 0:10:46and Polly singing like a choir on it.
0:10:46 > 0:10:47Oh, really?
0:10:49 > 0:10:54# If you should wake... #
0:10:54 > 0:10:59'I listen through, over a period of weeks, or whatever, and then
0:10:59 > 0:11:02'I try and see if there's any sort of bits
0:11:02 > 0:11:05'that would work with other bits.'
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Not all of those are terribly successful
0:11:08 > 0:11:10and maybe some of them scare him.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13But there's been a few that survived.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14GUITAR RIFF PLAYS
0:11:14 > 0:11:18So, this is a bit that I recorded on my iPhone.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21I was in a studio and had an electric guitar plugged in,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24but didn't want to turn the gear on and get everything running,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26and thought this is a nice thing, I'll remember it.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28So I turned my phone on to...
0:11:28 > 0:11:30VOLUME LOWERS
0:11:30 > 0:11:32..to remember it.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35And Phil found this bit just like this,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38and he stuck it together with the other thing.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45And then, you know, when you add all the instruments on...
0:11:45 > 0:11:46FULL TRACK PLAYS
0:11:46 > 0:11:47# ..Slides away. #
0:11:47 > 0:11:49MUSIC STOPS
0:11:49 > 0:11:56I found it very hard to try and replicate that exactly as it is,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00with something about the rhythm of it and stuff,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02so we just used the original one.
0:12:02 > 0:12:03ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYS
0:12:14 > 0:12:18This is Polly, Polly Samson.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21She's learning guitar, level seven, apparently.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24She's an acclaimed author in her own right
0:12:24 > 0:12:28and she's David's partner in more ways than one.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38'Polly, my lovely wife, she is at the heart of everything we do.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40'Don't know where to begin with Polly,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42'she's my sort of partner in life
0:12:42 > 0:12:45'and she writes most of the lyrics for my songs.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51'Along with being a writer and a lyricist,'
0:12:51 > 0:12:54she is a sounding board for all the stuff I do.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58I will play her things and she will voice her opinion and she'll be
0:12:58 > 0:13:05very astute in spotting things that maybe I haven't noticed, musically.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10And has been doing that since we did the Division Bell album.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17# Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
0:13:17 > 0:13:21# In a world of magnets and miracles... #
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Were you a Floyd fan yourself?
0:13:23 > 0:13:31When I was 12, my brother had... I think it was Dark Side Of The Moon
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and...Wish You Were Here,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37but they didn't have a band name on them.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40So, I remember I used to play them but I didn't know who they were by.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43So I don't think I ever wrote "Pink Floyd" on my pencil case.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45I wrote "David Bowie" on my pencil case.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49When you met David for the first time, you didn't think,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52- "Oh, this is David Gilmour, from Pink Floyd?"- I didn't...
0:13:52 > 0:13:55He was a man with lots of children, I think is what I thought.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57I mean, the first time I met him,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00he had four children and I had one child,
0:14:00 > 0:14:04and I think it was our children who kind of played with each other,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07and so we kind of ended up at this nice day,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09lunch in the countryside, sort of sitting near each other
0:14:09 > 0:14:12because our children were trying to climb the same tree.
0:14:12 > 0:14:13ELECTRIC GUITAR PLAYS
0:14:23 > 0:14:26David is not someone who is loquacious, but he is
0:14:26 > 0:14:31very emotionally engaged, but he doesn't necessarily display that.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34So, do you think that you're there partly to interpret what's
0:14:34 > 0:14:37- going on in David's... - Yes, I think so.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40And that does feel like a huge responsibility.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43But then, I mean, the whole of marriage is a bit like that,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48isn't it? I mean, particularly with a partner who is quite silent.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51I mean, you know, he plays guitar a lot and I often think that
0:14:51 > 0:14:53if ever we were going to have an argument,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55the best way we could do it would be for me to use words and him
0:14:55 > 0:14:57to answer in guitar, because he's very eloquent,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and emotionally eloquent with a guitar.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03So, yes, a lot of it is just trying to get under his skin
0:15:03 > 0:15:05and sort of feel what he's feeling.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13OK, so here's a track recorded ten years ago
0:15:13 > 0:15:15for The Girl In The Yellow Dress.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17It says it's got a guide vocal on here.
0:15:17 > 0:15:18TRACK PLAYS
0:15:21 > 0:15:22# De der
0:15:22 > 0:15:25# Der-de de-de-der
0:15:27 > 0:15:29# Der-de
0:15:29 > 0:15:33# De de-er de-er... #
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Was the process always the music first,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41- was he kind of humming to you in bed? - No, it's always music first.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47And he... Nowadays, he puts tracks on my iPod and I just walk up
0:15:47 > 0:15:51and down playing all the tracks and eventually, you know,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53one or two start to suggest things to me.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00# Der de
0:16:00 > 0:16:03# De der do-do-do
0:16:04 > 0:16:06# De der... #
0:16:06 > 0:16:09That would be what Polly would have on her headphones
0:16:09 > 0:16:12and would be listening to when she wrote the lyrics.
0:16:12 > 0:16:13So that's really interesting
0:16:13 > 0:16:17- because you sort of feel it's almost got the words on it.- Yes.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20His scats really do sound like someone singing in tongues.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24It's as though the words are just, sort of, under the surface,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26and it's quite interpretative at that point.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30# De-der de-de...
0:16:30 > 0:16:32# ..Ever closer
0:16:32 > 0:16:39# This girl gets right down in a groove
0:16:39 > 0:16:42# Woos and moves
0:16:44 > 0:16:47# Leads him on... #
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Most people imagine that people writing lyrics would be
0:16:49 > 0:16:53sitting down at a table and crossing things out and writing things down.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57- Do you write anything down? - I, um, it's a bit...
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Actually, it's the same for my fiction, I think that
0:16:59 > 0:17:03the work is done while I walk. By the time I get back to the house,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05it's practically like typing
0:17:05 > 0:17:08because I...while walking I've kind of worked out what it is.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10But I have a notebook...
0:17:12 > 0:17:16..so this will be full of things that are not all to do with lyrics,
0:17:16 > 0:17:18but...
0:17:18 > 0:17:22Yeah, this was the start of Today, I think.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25It looks to me like "a wide Sargasso Sea of shit".
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Yes, I had written "a wide Sargasso Sea of shit"!
0:17:30 > 0:17:33It just... I think it became something else in the song.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36I think it was a missing line, and I thought I'll get to that line later.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40So I think I had written in the song "a wide Sargasso Sea of shit".
0:17:40 > 0:17:42PIANO PLAYS
0:17:50 > 0:17:52SAXOPHONE PLAYS
0:18:05 > 0:18:06PIANO PLAYS
0:18:06 > 0:18:09I wish I'd learnt the piano properly when I was young,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and that I'd learnt to read music and could do all that stuff.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14Still can't read music.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19So, you just kind of know that your children will be
0:18:19 > 0:18:22grateful for having learnt piano, when they're adults.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26But they certainly aren't when they're young! It's just a chore.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32So, they've all had piano lessons until they were bored to tears
0:18:32 > 0:18:35and begged us to be allowed to stop.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Now they are moving forward, learning things by themselves.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46It's terrific, they are thoroughly enjoying...
0:18:46 > 0:18:50Gabriel's piano playing, since he stopped having lessons,
0:18:50 > 0:18:52has gone from strength to strength
0:18:52 > 0:18:55and he is in fact playing on one of the songs on the album.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59Purely because he's the right person to be doing that job.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03Romy has picked up the ukulele entirely on her own,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06and play a number of chords, and will happily sing anything.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11She's got a really nice voice, you know, with a bit of huskiness to it.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Nice low-register voice, lovely.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Joe is into science and mathematics and is excited by those things
0:19:18 > 0:19:23and has got a fantastic direct, linear mind that looks to see
0:19:23 > 0:19:25if there's a better way of doing things,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28which will stand him in very good stead.
0:19:29 > 0:19:30They don't want to be musicians
0:19:30 > 0:19:33and I don't know if they'll change,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36and I wouldn't dream of influencing that in any way.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41Gabriel wants to be a set designer, maybe an actor as well.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43Romy definitely wants to be an actor.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46SLIDE GUITAR PLAYS
0:20:07 > 0:20:09I use this on Breathe,
0:20:09 > 0:20:14and on Great Gig In The Sky, on Dark Side Of The Moon, this one.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16- This machine.- This actual one, yeah,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19and have used it ever since, occasionally.
0:20:21 > 0:20:28When was... Your first guitar, were you yet in your teens or not?
0:20:28 > 0:20:31My next-door neighbour had a guitar, was given a guitar,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33he was completely non musical.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36- I borrowed it and played it for a while.- How old were you?
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Probably 12, 13, and I think I gave it back to him
0:20:40 > 0:20:42a couple of times and then I borrowed it again,
0:20:42 > 0:20:43and thought, "Oh, never mind."
0:20:43 > 0:20:47- And he never asked for it back and I kept it.- You stole it.
0:20:47 > 0:20:48Basically, yeah.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06My parents moved to America permanently when I was 18 or 19,
0:21:06 > 0:21:10and they lived in Greenwich Village, from 1965 onwards.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12So, you know, they could see the end
0:21:12 > 0:21:14of Bleecker Street out of their window.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18So, I mean, I got Bob Dylan's first record for my 16th birthday,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22which they sent me from Greenwich Village.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Before then, they'd sent me Pete Seeger's guitar tutor record.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Which is the...my only actual instruction
0:21:28 > 0:21:31was with the Pete Seeger guitar tutor record.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36- PETE SEEGER:- For most of us, playing a guitar can be about as simple as walking.
0:21:36 > 0:21:37Of course, remember it took us
0:21:37 > 0:21:40all a couple of years to learn how to walk...
0:21:40 > 0:21:44There's an LP with a big book, with all the chord shapes you might need.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49It started out with a pitch pipe playing the six notes of a guitar,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53so the most important thing was to learn how to tune it.
0:21:56 > 0:21:57And now we're in business.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00The second band was teaching you how to play a D chord, which is
0:22:00 > 0:22:03three fingers on the guitar, which you then strum.
0:22:03 > 0:22:09And then he sang some words, so you could do a song, instantly,
0:22:09 > 0:22:10with just one chord.
0:22:10 > 0:22:18# I gave my love a cherry that has no stone
0:22:20 > 0:22:28# I gave my love a chicken that has no bone... #
0:22:28 > 0:22:31So from the beginning of learning the guitar
0:22:31 > 0:22:33I was learning singing as well.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36And singing is just as important to me.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41That's your vinyl collection, is it?
0:22:41 > 0:22:44There's vinyl over there, well, it's mine and Polly's mixed
0:22:44 > 0:22:49together in a sort of obsolete pile of tea chests and shelves.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Loads of stuff here, going way, way back.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58That's the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, which I was given,
0:22:58 > 0:23:00on my 16th birthday, by my parents,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04who were in America at the time, along with Bob Dylan's first record,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08which I've...I think I've got somewhere but I can't it any more!
0:23:08 > 0:23:10So I've had these since my 16th birthday,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15- as you can see by my youthful possessive writing on the back.- Yes.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20I was very into folk music. Leon Bibb, some great people.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23And then you can go straight on to something like the Shangri-Las,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26you know, girl group in the '60s, early '60s.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Produced by a guy called George Shadow Morton,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33who painted aural pictures.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37I mean, Remember (Walking In The Sand), Past, Present And Future,
0:23:37 > 0:23:39they are like movies.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46# Whatever happened to the boy that I once knew... #
0:23:46 > 0:23:50So is that where you got your interest in extra natural
0:23:50 > 0:23:52sounds of even unnatural sounds?
0:23:52 > 0:23:58It's the idea of creating a picture or something like a movie with
0:23:58 > 0:24:01the story that's being told that I love.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Who were the guitarists who you...
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Well, you talked about Pete Seeger, obviously.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, I was very keen on at a very early age,
0:24:10 > 0:24:1212-string he played mostly, brilliant.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15# Me and my wife can pick a bale of cotton
0:24:15 > 0:24:17# Me and my wife can pick a bale a day
0:24:17 > 0:24:19# Oh, Lordy, pick a bale of cotton
0:24:19 > 0:24:21# Oh, Lord, I can pick a bale a day... #
0:24:21 > 0:24:26You know, later, Hendrix, of course, Clapton, Joni Mitchell's
0:24:26 > 0:24:32guitar playing, her use of different guitar tunings was a big influence.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37# There's a man who's been out sailing in a decade full of dreams
0:24:37 > 0:24:43# And he takes her to a schooner and he treats her like a queen
0:24:43 > 0:24:46# Bearing beads from California... #
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Another Side Of Bob...
0:24:48 > 0:24:50The first Dylan album, just called Bob Dylan,
0:24:50 > 0:24:56was recorded in December '61, and I got it in March '62, which was
0:24:56 > 0:25:00when it...probably about a week after it came out in the States.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02That's pretty quick going,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04definitely long before it came out over here.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08# Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door
0:25:14 > 0:25:16# Highway 51... #
0:25:16 > 0:25:18When I went into the sixth form at school,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21the music teacher had given up doing music lessons
0:25:21 > 0:25:23by then for the sixth form, he just said to people,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26"Bring in a record, we'll play it and we'll talk about it."
0:25:26 > 0:25:31And so I brought Bob Dylan's first record in. I absolutely loved it.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Played it.
0:25:33 > 0:25:34Silence.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38I was the only one who liked it.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40I went to see him at the Festival Hall.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43At one point he lost a harmonica.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46- IMITATES DYLAN:- Has anyone got a harmonica in C?
0:25:46 > 0:25:48And half the audience came rushing to the front like this,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51with harmonicas.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53MUSIC: Seamus The Dog by Pink Floyd
0:26:13 > 0:26:16- Everyone went that way. - We're going this way.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26- Just whatever.- Whatever...
0:26:26 > 0:26:33'Family is everything, and you have to devote time and yourself to
0:26:33 > 0:26:37'raising children, if that's what you elect to do in your life.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48'So, yeah, I'm loving my life with my family, raising these children.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51'When I was a young man, ambition,
0:26:51 > 0:26:56'the desire to be together with these other guys in a pop group,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00'you're very driven and ambitious, otherwise you won't get anywhere.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04'And I certainly was and I'm sure there's still vestiges of that
0:27:04 > 0:27:08'sort of ambition still around, but I'm not as ambitious as I was.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11'I've had that. It's been fantastic.'
0:27:12 > 0:27:16I put just as much work and effort into making a record
0:27:16 > 0:27:19but I can prioritise my time better.
0:27:21 > 0:27:22ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYS
0:27:27 > 0:27:28Play Postman Pat.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29DAVID LAUGHS
0:27:29 > 0:27:30HE PLAYS POSTMAN PAT
0:27:34 > 0:27:37# Postman Pat, Postman Pat
0:27:37 > 0:27:40# Postman Pat and his black-and-white cat... #
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Please stop!
0:27:42 > 0:27:46# ..Early in the morning Right as day is dawning
0:27:46 > 0:27:50# Pat puts all his post bags in his van. #
0:27:53 > 0:27:54LAUGHTER
0:27:54 > 0:27:55GUNFIRE
0:28:01 > 0:28:03MUSIC: In Any Tongue by David Gilmour
0:28:07 > 0:28:10In Any Tongue came into the mix really late on
0:28:10 > 0:28:14and it was immediately clear
0:28:14 > 0:28:16what that song needed to be about.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18There isn't a day when one isn't affected by war.
0:28:18 > 0:28:26# No sugar is enough to bring sweetness to his cup
0:28:26 > 0:28:32# I know sorrow
0:28:32 > 0:28:37# Tastes the same on any tongue... #
0:29:02 > 0:29:04TRACK CONTINUES WITH VOCALISATION
0:29:11 > 0:29:17When I'm signing this sort of vocal I try not to constrain myself
0:29:17 > 0:29:20and if consonants feel like coming out they do.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22Completely meaningless, you know.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27You say meaningless, you mean you've not given them any kind
0:29:27 > 0:29:32of status at all but they are something, obviously.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35There's something in there, I suppose you could say,
0:29:35 > 0:29:40trying to get out. And Polly is so brilliant at picking them out, but you can hear
0:29:40 > 0:29:43consonants that she's taken that were there,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45and put a proper word to.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Anyway, we'll have a quick...
0:29:48 > 0:29:50'# Da da da dum...'
0:29:50 > 0:29:52# What has he done?
0:29:52 > 0:29:54'# Da da da doo...'
0:29:54 > 0:29:56# God help our son
0:29:57 > 0:29:59# Stay a while... #
0:29:59 > 0:30:00Yes.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02TRACK CONTINUES
0:30:04 > 0:30:08What's it like, that first time that you hear, not the scat
0:30:08 > 0:30:09- but the words?- That's the best...
0:30:09 > 0:30:14That's an incredibly...wonderful moment.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16It's really exciting and that is...
0:30:16 > 0:30:19It tends to be just the two of us, and, you know, I give him
0:30:19 > 0:30:23the sheet of paper and he sticks it up and sings it and...
0:30:24 > 0:30:29Yeah, I think that is the most enjoyable moment of the whole thing.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33There's a very special guest joining us for the next song.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36This man gave me my first guitar
0:30:36 > 0:30:39and was also one of the first people to play in this venue.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42Please welcome Mr David Gilmour from Pink Floyd.
0:30:42 > 0:30:43CHEERING
0:30:46 > 0:30:48- WOMAN:- Oh, my God!
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Some of my earliest memories are staying at his and Polly's
0:30:53 > 0:30:54house in the countryside,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58and we'd kind of stay there for whole summers.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02And I guess I was too young, initially, to understand
0:31:02 > 0:31:05who Pink Floyd were or who he was.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09I guess he was just a friend of my parents, with a nice house!
0:31:09 > 0:31:10This is crazy!
0:31:12 > 0:31:15HE PLAYS THE OPENING TO WISH YOU WERE HERE
0:31:15 > 0:31:17CROWD ROARS
0:31:17 > 0:31:20He was the first person that told me I had a nice voice.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25Which I probably didn't appreciate at the time,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27but looking back, that was pretty cool.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31So, so you think you can tell... #
0:31:31 > 0:31:34CROWD SING ALONG
0:31:34 > 0:31:35# ..Heaven from hell
0:31:37 > 0:31:40# Blue skies from pain... #
0:31:40 > 0:31:42We have a very young fan base.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Initially, I was a bit worried that all these 16-year-olds would
0:31:45 > 0:31:49have no idea who he was.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51But as soon as he walked on stage,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54I just have this very vivid memory of this 16-year-old boy in
0:31:54 > 0:31:58the front row, like, tears streaming down his face with happiness.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03# We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl... #
0:32:03 > 0:32:06When we were actually learning the song, I went on YouTube to look up
0:32:06 > 0:32:09a live version to see how he'd done it live in the past,
0:32:09 > 0:32:11and the first thing that came up was him
0:32:11 > 0:32:14and my dad playing it at the Royal Festival Hall.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16It had something like 20 million views
0:32:16 > 0:32:20and it suddenly all felt quite familial
0:32:20 > 0:32:21and circular in some way,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24that my dad had done it and now I was doing it.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26# So
0:32:26 > 0:32:29# So you think you can tell
0:32:31 > 0:32:34# Heaven from hell... #
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Pretty much everyone on my dad's side in the family is a musician.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41He's a guitarist called Neill MacColl and his parents were
0:32:41 > 0:32:45Ewan MacColl the folk singer and Peggy Seeger, also a folk singer.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48Um, and her brother was Pete Seeger.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55And strangely, I think David actually learned to play guitar initially
0:32:55 > 0:33:00by listening to these instructional records that Pete Seeger had made.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06So, yeah, it's all connected in some strange way, I think.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28- So, here we are, rehearsal room. - So there's a lot of stuff here.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33Well, this is basically pretty much what we have on stage.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35We all have our full sort of stage kit.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37Are you going to take all these on tour when you go?
0:33:37 > 0:33:39Yes, all these things come with me.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44OK, let's...
0:33:44 > 0:33:45John, you play it off the thing,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49cos I can't really remember what I should be doing.
0:33:51 > 0:33:52Ooh.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56Start... Just play it again, yeah.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07Trying to remember these fucking chords.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20'Without forgetting the words all the time or forgetting what
0:34:20 > 0:34:23'I'm supposed to be playing all the time,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25'and gradually, as you relax into it, you get more
0:34:25 > 0:34:29'and more close to what you're doing, but I'm constantly, I'm listening to
0:34:29 > 0:34:34'what everyone else is doing, trying to remember to say this at the end.'
0:34:34 > 0:34:38Or I just stop and we do it. And I have all the lyrics here.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41All of these I need to know by the time we get going.
0:34:41 > 0:34:42I have...
0:34:42 > 0:34:47Shine On You Crazy Diamond, I have a bit of a mental block about that,
0:34:47 > 0:34:49so that is here.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52And that sits on the floor during every show,
0:34:52 > 0:34:54with the start of the lines,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57so I get the right lines in the right order.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02For some reason, I can remember 50 songs word perfect all the way
0:35:02 > 0:35:04through, and I have a rotten memory.
0:35:04 > 0:35:05Got that on the F.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07One, two, three, four.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12Bam bam, ba ba ba...
0:35:14 > 0:35:17Bam bam, ba ba bam...
0:35:25 > 0:35:29Great. Much better without me playing.
0:35:29 > 0:35:30OK.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59# Whatever it takes to break... #
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Rattle That Lock came out of the work that I'd done for the last book
0:36:03 > 0:36:05I wrote, which was a novel called The Kindness,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08because the main character in the novel is a student of Milton.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12I knew that I wanted to write a song about the need to protest
0:36:12 > 0:36:15and I suddenly remembered Book Two of Paradise Lost
0:36:15 > 0:36:18and Satan's heroic journey to go and challenge God.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21And I thought, well, that would work really well,
0:36:21 > 0:36:23within that is everything I want to say.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26And I ran back and picked up the book, and there it was,
0:36:26 > 0:36:28and it was a huge, huge help.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32It's a sort of, not exactly a call to arms, but it's encouraging
0:36:32 > 0:36:37people to stand up for themselves and shake it about a bit.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39# Rattle that lock
0:36:39 > 0:36:41# Lose those chains
0:36:41 > 0:36:42# Rattle that lock
0:36:42 > 0:36:45# Gonna lose those chains
0:36:45 > 0:36:46# Rattle that lock
0:36:46 > 0:36:49# I'm gonna lose those chains
0:36:49 > 0:36:51# Rattle that lock... #
0:36:53 > 0:36:55OK, let's do Today.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58Just to cheer ourselves up, and then we can fuck off.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03HE SCATS
0:37:03 > 0:37:04THEY HARMONISE
0:37:07 > 0:37:08Do we stay up?
0:37:10 > 0:37:12# Today
0:37:12 > 0:37:16# Always
0:37:16 > 0:37:18# Today
0:37:18 > 0:37:20# New day...
0:37:20 > 0:37:24# Just a day when the weight of the world... #
0:37:24 > 0:37:25Do that.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29# Just a day when the weight of the world. #
0:37:32 > 0:37:34BELLS CHIME
0:37:41 > 0:37:48# When that fat old sun in the sky is falling
0:37:49 > 0:37:54# Summer evening birds are calling... #
0:37:56 > 0:37:58Way back when you were living in Cambridge,
0:37:58 > 0:38:00that's when you met Syd Barrett, isn't it?
0:38:00 > 0:38:04Well, there was an art school for kids in Homerton College.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09They ran for, I guess, five-year-olds and above, or six-year-olds
0:38:09 > 0:38:13and above, they ran art classes on a Saturday morning.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16And I went to that until the age of 11 and, apparently,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19I didn't know it at the time because I didn't know them,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22both Syd and Roger were in the same class in the same room as me
0:38:22 > 0:38:25for probably three or four years.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28But I got to know Syd when I was about 14 or 15, which is
0:38:28 > 0:38:30three or four years after that.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35We both went to the Cambridge Tech. I was there doing A Level languages.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40And Syd was doing arts and we would meet up in the art school
0:38:40 > 0:38:44- every lunchtime.- What was Syd like at that time and that age?
0:38:44 > 0:38:48Syd was just... Had a real, real magnetic personality.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51And a spring in his step and a glint in his eye.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54And was very, very sharp and very, very funny.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Everyone wanted to be friends with Syd. Me included.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06By then, musically, did you have any sense what your destiny was,
0:39:06 > 0:39:08what you wanted to do with your life?
0:39:08 > 0:39:11By the time it got to taking my A Levels, I think
0:39:11 > 0:39:14I had pretty much decided what I wanted to do.
0:39:14 > 0:39:21And I thought that if I passed my A Levels, there'd be no way out
0:39:21 > 0:39:24and I'd have to go off to university,
0:39:24 > 0:39:28and the moment for my rock and roll career might pass.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32So I stopped going to the exams.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35- You just stopped, did you?- Yeah, in the middle of the A Levels...
0:39:35 > 0:39:39- For fear that you might pass. - Yeah. Essentially.
0:39:39 > 0:39:40THEY LAUGH
0:39:40 > 0:39:46# When that fat old sun in the sky... #
0:39:46 > 0:39:52I've heard people saying that they got into popular music
0:39:52 > 0:39:57because of the girls, the drugs, all the rest of it.
0:39:57 > 0:40:03But I... Having thought about that, I think that it was definitely
0:40:03 > 0:40:09the music that was the absolute main priority for why I got into it.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15And when was the first move into performance?
0:40:15 > 0:40:17I suppose when I was 17 or 18.
0:40:17 > 0:40:22I started...joined a band or two, you know.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26You sort of flit in the door and out of the door very quickly.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30One or two bands, an early one was called Newcomers.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34Then after that I met some more people who wanted to do something
0:40:34 > 0:40:38a bit more ambitious. And we formed what became Jokers Wild.
0:40:38 > 0:40:44We did a lot of harmony music, Beach Boys, The Four Seasons,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47and we did your regular R and B, the Stones numbers,
0:40:47 > 0:40:51Beatles numbers, and there were five of us and we could all sing.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53How did you keep pace with what was happening
0:40:53 > 0:40:56- if you were doing all these covers? - It was competitive covering.
0:40:56 > 0:41:01A new Beatles record, for example, would come out and we'd rush down to
0:41:01 > 0:41:04Millers Music Store and we'd gather together
0:41:04 > 0:41:06in one of the little booths.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09They used to have those stand-up booths where you could fit
0:41:09 > 0:41:11three people in like that, listening to a single,
0:41:11 > 0:41:13but they also, at Millers, had bigger room booths
0:41:13 > 0:41:15which were about six foot by six foot,
0:41:15 > 0:41:16and you could get four or five people in
0:41:16 > 0:41:19and you could listen to a whole LP.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23And we would listen to a whole brand-new Beatles LP
0:41:23 > 0:41:29and we'd be writing the words down and making notes on the chords
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and stuff as it went through and we'd try to get them
0:41:32 > 0:41:33to play it to us again.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38And if the serving girls were in a good mood or you smiled at them
0:41:38 > 0:41:41nicely, they might play it a second time.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46And then, while you're setting up for a gig that night, you'd
0:41:46 > 0:41:49rehearse one or two of the ones that seemed easiest
0:41:49 > 0:41:53and you'd got to know well and then you could announce, you know,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57over your PA, and this is one, a song called such and such
0:41:57 > 0:42:01from the new Beatles album, which is out today. And it was...
0:42:03 > 0:42:06You know, it would be massively exciting,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09to play a really bad rendition with all the wrong words
0:42:09 > 0:42:13and all the wrong chords, but all you could manage to pick up in one,
0:42:13 > 0:42:14maybe two listens.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17Can we hear some of Jokers Wild? Have you got any...
0:42:17 > 0:42:20You can hear a bit of my embarrassment.
0:42:20 > 0:42:26This is me singing a cover of a song by Manfred Mann.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32# I give you all of my loving
0:42:32 > 0:42:34# Everything I could
0:42:36 > 0:42:38# And now you say you don't love me
0:42:38 > 0:42:41# Well, there's no reason why you should
0:42:41 > 0:42:44# But, baby, don't ask me what I say
0:42:45 > 0:42:47# Don't talk about it
0:42:47 > 0:42:49# You make my heart... #
0:42:49 > 0:42:51NEW TRACK PLAYS
0:42:51 > 0:42:53Oh, yeah, Four Seasons, three by then.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56# Hey, girl
0:42:57 > 0:42:59# They don't mi-i-ind
0:42:59 > 0:43:02# They don't mind... #
0:43:02 > 0:43:06Focusing on this popular stuff, dissecting it,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09and working out how all the harmonies work,
0:43:09 > 0:43:14how all the instrumentation was done and how it was produced,
0:43:14 > 0:43:16this is my musical education, really.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20My parents came to shows.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24I mean, they would drive me to things, you know,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27in the early days when I couldn't get myself to places.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31Sometimes they even towed a cart full of equipment
0:43:31 > 0:43:33on a trailer to gigs.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37And they became big fans, you know.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41Couldn't get away from them later on!
0:43:41 > 0:43:45MUSIC: Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun by Pink Floyd
0:43:45 > 0:43:49So, there was Jokers Wild and then, of course, there was Pink Floyd.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54Jokers Wild had done a few gigs on the same bill with the early
0:43:54 > 0:43:56version of Pink Floyd.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00We played in a couple of art colleges in London
0:44:00 > 0:44:02and a couple of gigs in Cambridge
0:44:02 > 0:44:07and we played in a marquee in Shelford, just outside Cambridge.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11The bill was Jokers Wild, Pink Floyd and Paul Simon.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15So what next?
0:44:15 > 0:44:17After I packed up with Jokers Wild,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20I started moving between London
0:44:20 > 0:44:25and Cambridge a lot, and some people I ran into in London offered me
0:44:25 > 0:44:29a job with a band in a nightclub in Saint-Etienne in France.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Then we just hung around in France for the best part of the next year.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37- And then, you lucky chap, you got to work with Brigitte Bardot.- Yes.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41I went in and sang a couple of songs for a film soundtrack,
0:44:41 > 0:44:43which was called Two Weeks In September,
0:44:43 > 0:44:45which starred Mike Sarne and Brigitte Bardot.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47I've never heard them since.
0:44:49 > 0:44:50I hope you haven't found them.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53I think we may have done.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55# In my small country
0:44:55 > 0:45:00# Working all day until the night
0:45:00 > 0:45:03# They had no worries of any kind... #
0:45:03 > 0:45:06I don't think they're dancing to this track at all,
0:45:06 > 0:45:08they're dancing at a different... Look.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12# I never tried to ask more questions... #
0:45:12 > 0:45:14More questions.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20I just turned up at a studio in Paris
0:45:20 > 0:45:24and sang the words they put in front of me and went home.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30DIALOGUE IN FRENCH
0:45:32 > 0:45:35HE PLAYS THE OPENING TO WISH YOU WERE HERE
0:45:55 > 0:45:56# So
0:45:56 > 0:45:58# So you think you can tell
0:46:01 > 0:46:03# Heaven from hell
0:46:05 > 0:46:07# Blue skies from pain
0:46:09 > 0:46:11# Can you tell a green field... #
0:46:11 > 0:46:14How did joining Floyd happen, because it was really to do partly
0:46:14 > 0:46:17with Syd's sort of inconsistency, or whatever you want to call it?
0:46:17 > 0:46:23Well, Syd, you know, I knew the guys from the Pink Floyd pretty well.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29I called Syd and he invited me to go along to a recording session.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31They were recording See Emily Play.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34# There is no other day
0:46:34 > 0:46:36# Let's try it another way... #
0:46:36 > 0:46:38- But he was very strange.- How?
0:46:38 > 0:46:42You know, the light had gone out of his eyes.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44He was monosyllabic and...
0:46:45 > 0:46:47Yeah, it was very shocking.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52So how did this transition... how did it happen?
0:46:52 > 0:46:56I went to see them playing at a party at the Royal College Of Arts,
0:46:56 > 0:47:00just next door to the Albert Hall, and at that party,
0:47:00 > 0:47:04which must have been November, maybe, Nick came up to me
0:47:04 > 0:47:10and said, whispered in my ear quietly, "If at some point soon,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13"you know, we asked you to join, what would you say?"
0:47:15 > 0:47:18I said, "Well, I'd probably say yes."
0:47:20 > 0:47:23We did five gigs together as a five piece,
0:47:23 > 0:47:27which was pretty strange, I can tell you.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29And then, one day we were going to play,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33I think it was at Southampton University, with T Rex
0:47:33 > 0:47:36and people, Tyrannosaurus Rex then, on the bill.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39And someone said, "Right, shall we go and pick up Syd?"
0:47:39 > 0:47:41And someone else said, "Nah."
0:47:41 > 0:47:44And we didn't, and that was the end of that,
0:47:44 > 0:47:48in that sort of wonderful, callous way that you have
0:47:48 > 0:47:50when you're young and ambitious.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53Were you as bad as the others, then?
0:47:53 > 0:47:56I'm sure I was just as bad as the others, yes.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58MUSIC: Echoes, Part 1 by Pink Floyd
0:48:06 > 0:48:10We became gradually more and more successful.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13There was five years, really, from when I joined to when Dark Side
0:48:13 > 0:48:18came out, which was when the sort of stratospheric leap happened.
0:48:18 > 0:48:24# And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
0:48:24 > 0:48:30# I'll see you on the dark side of the moon... #
0:48:30 > 0:48:34My mother threw herself into it, and loved every bit of it, and loved
0:48:34 > 0:48:41you know, the so-called glamour of the life that I had taken on.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43My father less so.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47Only because it could have emasculated him a little bit.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50A serious scientist doing brilliant work
0:48:50 > 0:48:54but not earning anything like as much as his guitar-strumming son.
0:48:54 > 0:49:01And the thrill my mother got out of that couldn't have been that
0:49:01 > 0:49:03nice for him at times, I think.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05PLAYBACK OF BRAIN DAMAGE TRACK
0:49:05 > 0:49:06MUSIC FADES OUT
0:49:08 > 0:49:10- Can we run back and drop in a bit? - Yeah, you can if you like.
0:49:10 > 0:49:11Just turn it down a bit.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15I mean, I didn't really make a specific mistake, but...
0:49:15 > 0:49:17- Turn it down? - Yeah, my guitar's too loud.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21And that working relationship at that time between you and Roger
0:49:21 > 0:49:25and Rick and everyone, how was that at that period?
0:49:25 > 0:49:29It was, um, sort of a microcosm of what went on later.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32We all found our place in the hierarchy
0:49:32 > 0:49:36- and made it work for ourselves, you know.- You call it a hierarchy.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41Well, it is. These things always have a hierarchy, I think.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46Roger at the top, me next, then Rick, then Nick in terms of who did
0:49:46 > 0:49:49the most commanding, bossing of things around.
0:49:49 > 0:49:55But I felt that in my position that I was more the leader of the musical
0:49:55 > 0:50:01side of things, and Roger was definitely in terms of the lyric
0:50:01 > 0:50:06and the driving force sort of way it was.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09Yes, we have some pretty good arguments from time to time, yes.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14- And do you manage to get over them? - Yep, we're pretty durable.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19I never had that moment of thinking,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22no, I really am a part of this fully.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26I always thought that I was the new boy, and they enjoyed that.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30- They enjoyed playing on that. - Really?
0:50:30 > 0:50:34Yes, but, you know, in that sort of jokey way that you do, you know.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37They would always tease me for being the new boy,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40even when I'd been in it for 20 years, you know.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43And what about the next stage, you know,
0:50:43 > 0:50:48post Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, what happened after that?
0:50:48 > 0:50:51Well, that's ancient history, all that old, ancient Floyd history,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54the arguments, the fights and...
0:50:54 > 0:50:55Well, you get over it.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58We did get...
0:50:58 > 0:51:04We did get on pretty well as work people, as work associates,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07if you want to call it that, throughout those years,
0:51:07 > 0:51:12but there were changes, you know, everyone's little problems
0:51:12 > 0:51:17and dissatisfactions all started coming more and more to the fore.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21Boring. Let's move on to something else.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34In September 2009, David Gilmour's friend and musical partner,
0:51:34 > 0:51:39Rick Wright of Pink Floyd, sadly passed away after a long illness.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43Let's... let's do A Boat Lies Waiting.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49# And a boat lies waiting... #
0:51:51 > 0:51:55The first song to be written was A Boat Lies Waiting.
0:51:55 > 0:51:56A beautiful piece of music,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00it was instantly suggestive of something to do with the sea.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04And...I went for a walk with it in my headphones
0:52:04 > 0:52:07and then I walked back and David was walking towards me,
0:52:07 > 0:52:09and I said, "Just come and sit on the beach with me,
0:52:09 > 0:52:11"I just want to talk to you about this piece of music."
0:52:11 > 0:52:14And I said, "David, just try to put into words for me,
0:52:14 > 0:52:16"what you think it's about."
0:52:16 > 0:52:18And he sort of stared off into the distance,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20and then he looked at me and said,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23"Well, I think it's about mortality."
0:52:23 > 0:52:26And what had just been happening was, he'd been trying to find other
0:52:26 > 0:52:30keyboard players and he'd come back having tried a few out,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33and say, "It's just not the same."
0:52:33 > 0:52:36And I think he realised, you know, really after Rick died,
0:52:36 > 0:52:37just what it was he'd lost.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40And so that then sort of mixed with this idea of the sea,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43and Rick spent most of his life on a boat, sailing the Atlantic.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47And so the song became a song about David missing Rick.
0:52:49 > 0:52:50This is the original recording.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59This is Gabriel making an appearance.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01BABY CRIES ON RECORDING
0:53:01 > 0:53:06So that dates this track to 1997.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09Cos that's Gabriel as a baby, and he was born in '97.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13- What made you put that in? Did you add that later?- No, that was...
0:53:13 > 0:53:17- That was here.- That I did on a mini-disc on the piano in the house.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19- Yeah.- And you can hear people wandering around
0:53:19 > 0:53:21and crockery being washed up, and...
0:53:21 > 0:53:22RECORDING PLAYS
0:53:28 > 0:53:31- And you've left all that on the track.- Yeah, it's all on.
0:53:37 > 0:53:38Anyway.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42# Silence I'd hear you
0:53:42 > 0:53:47# And a boat lies waiting... #
0:53:47 > 0:53:52'On the last album, On An Island, I managed to get David Crobsy
0:53:52 > 0:53:56'and Graham Nash to sing on a couple of tracks from that,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00'so I thought it would be great to get them in again
0:54:00 > 0:54:02'and recreate their sound with me,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05'cos we seem to fit quite well together.'
0:54:05 > 0:54:10And that big harmony thing is something I've always really loved.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12# Something
0:54:12 > 0:54:15# I never knew
0:54:16 > 0:54:18# In silence
0:54:18 > 0:54:21# I'd hear you
0:54:21 > 0:54:27# And a boat lies waiting
0:54:27 > 0:54:34# Still your clouds are flaming... #
0:54:48 > 0:54:52The first solo album that I did in 1978 wasn't what
0:54:52 > 0:54:55I was going to be then subsequently doing as my career.
0:54:55 > 0:55:02It was something to fill in a bit of loose-end time and to have some fun.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06Oh, look, mushrooms. Mmm.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10# There are no boundaries set
0:55:10 > 0:55:14# The time, and yet you waste it still... #
0:55:14 > 0:55:16'That was to take a simpler approach,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19'just go with a couple of old friends
0:55:19 > 0:55:21'and just play some songs'
0:55:21 > 0:55:24and have a bit of fun and see what happened.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29I mean, these things were really off the cuff, just sit me down,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32play around a bit and say, "Right, record."
0:55:32 > 0:55:36But the last thing I did was what became Comfortably Numb.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39We didn't have time to work on it any more,
0:55:39 > 0:55:44and it was still around when we got to starting The Wall the next year.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51- So this is the original recording? - Yeah.
0:55:54 > 0:55:55# Put it on the line
0:55:55 > 0:55:58# Put it to the test
0:56:01 > 0:56:05# I'm just the same as all the rest
0:56:10 > 0:56:14# I'm not the worst, I'm not the best... #
0:56:14 > 0:56:18I'd forgotten I'd written words... of some sort.
0:56:18 > 0:56:19HE SCATS ON THE RECORDING
0:56:22 > 0:56:23Ran out of...
0:56:26 > 0:56:28# There's nothing to live
0:56:28 > 0:56:31# And nothing to die for
0:56:33 > 0:56:35# There is no future,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38# No past to cry for
0:56:41 > 0:56:45# I'm just dust flown away on the wind... #
0:56:50 > 0:56:53- Getting used to that now?- Yeah. - It's good, isn't it?
0:56:53 > 0:56:54It sounds amazing, I love it.
0:56:57 > 0:56:58I actually....
0:56:58 > 0:57:02I wrote Comfortably Numb on that... on that guitar, with that tuning.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05- On this guitar?- Yeah. - I'll call this an honour!
0:57:09 > 0:57:12Do you think that your solo songs draw on a more emotional
0:57:12 > 0:57:13side of yourself?
0:57:17 > 0:57:20That's hard to say, I don't know.
0:57:22 > 0:57:23Not yet. Wait.
0:57:29 > 0:57:30Somewhere round here.
0:57:33 > 0:57:38His emotional centre is musical, it isn't...
0:57:38 > 0:57:42You know, most of us express our anger, love, hate,
0:57:42 > 0:57:44whatever it is, we express it in words,
0:57:44 > 0:57:48and David really, really doesn't but he does express it musically.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51And I don't know what came first.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54You know, did the language part of his brain not evolve
0:57:54 > 0:57:56because the musical part of his brain was so busy,
0:57:56 > 0:58:00or was he just born with a brain that worked in that way?
0:58:00 > 0:58:04It's really hard to know, but it's certainly true that emotion,
0:58:04 > 0:58:06for him, is expressed musically.
0:58:08 > 0:58:09Every once in a while,
0:58:09 > 0:58:14an idea will force its way to the surface of my mind
0:58:14 > 0:58:21that I will try to write a lyric or song about, but I've got no
0:58:21 > 0:58:24way of predicting where that's going to go in the future.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28I keep thinking that there is a little door,
0:58:28 > 0:58:32a little key that... that I could open
0:58:32 > 0:58:35and I would suddenly find a way that would make it slightly
0:58:35 > 0:58:39simpler for me to move those things forward and to find them...
0:58:40 > 0:58:44..because there's plenty to write about but I haven't yet really
0:58:44 > 0:58:45pinned that down.
0:58:49 > 0:58:53- You wrote the lyrics for Faces Of Stone yourself, didn't you?- Yes.
0:58:53 > 0:58:54What prompted it?
0:58:54 > 0:59:00Faces Of Stone was prompted by a memory of a day walking
0:59:00 > 0:59:03in Ladbroke Gardens with my mother,
0:59:03 > 0:59:06when she was suffering from dementia.
0:59:06 > 0:59:09And she... As were walking through the trees,
0:59:09 > 0:59:13under the trees and the hedge, she was saying, "Oh, isn't it lovely?"
0:59:13 > 0:59:18She could see pictures that weren't there, hanging in the trees.
0:59:18 > 0:59:22That was a moment that sparked it off and I had a line that went,
0:59:22 > 0:59:30"Faces of stone that watch from the dark as the wind swirled around
0:59:30 > 0:59:32"and you took my arm in the park."
0:59:32 > 0:59:38So, it's basically about my mother's decline and, you know,
0:59:38 > 0:59:41the ending of one life and the beginning of another,
0:59:41 > 0:59:45cos Romany was born nine months before my mother died,
0:59:45 > 0:59:50so there was a short period where they were both alive together
0:59:50 > 0:59:51and...
0:59:53 > 0:59:56She came back to our house
0:59:56 > 0:59:59and held Romany in her arms as a tiny baby.
1:00:01 > 1:00:02And I have a picture of that.
1:00:02 > 1:00:06And so the moment in the park, which is a mental picture,
1:00:06 > 1:00:09and the picture I have of her holding Romany in her arms sparked
1:00:09 > 1:00:11a little thing which became that lyric.
1:00:13 > 1:00:16So this is some of what became Faces Of Stone.
1:00:16 > 1:00:23This has got the original vocal that I did on my iPhone late one night,
1:00:23 > 1:00:26which is where the lyric spark came from.
1:00:31 > 1:00:33# Faces of stone
1:00:35 > 1:00:37# Bleached white by the sun
1:00:41 > 1:00:44# As the wind swirled around
1:00:44 > 1:00:47# And you took my arm in the park
1:00:50 > 1:00:52# Your Hollywood smile
1:00:54 > 1:00:57# Shone light on the past
1:01:00 > 1:01:03# But it was the future
1:01:03 > 1:01:06# That you held so tight to your heart. #
1:01:14 > 1:01:18I suppose when you write a song about something specific that has
1:01:18 > 1:01:20got some emotional content,
1:01:20 > 1:01:25I mean, that one, Faces Of Stone, that is related to my mother
1:01:25 > 1:01:32and her declining years, yeah, there's an emotional thing in there.
1:01:32 > 1:01:36I mean, our relationship was very difficult and tricky and...
1:01:39 > 1:01:41It's good at the moment, right now,
1:01:41 > 1:01:45to be putting that back into a slightly different perspective.
1:01:47 > 1:01:50Trying to find the affection that was there.
1:01:50 > 1:01:53I must have loved her but, er,
1:01:53 > 1:01:55a lot of the time it didn't feel like I did.
1:01:56 > 1:02:01- Do you miss her? - Do I miss my mother? I...
1:02:01 > 1:02:03No.
1:02:05 > 1:02:08No, I don't miss her, I don't think, no.
1:02:11 > 1:02:14It wasn't a closely-knit emotional type family,
1:02:14 > 1:02:20and when my mother wanted to be closer when she was getting old,
1:02:20 > 1:02:24I found it difficult to deal with and I wanted her to...
1:02:24 > 1:02:27"Get off, get off, leave me alone."
1:02:30 > 1:02:33Now is not the time to be trying to do this.
1:02:33 > 1:02:36The time to be doing that stuff was when I was five.
1:02:56 > 1:03:00It's just days away from his first live show and David
1:03:00 > 1:03:05and the band are catching up, rehearsing new songs and old.
1:03:07 > 1:03:08# Money
1:03:10 > 1:03:11# Get away
1:03:13 > 1:03:18# Get a good job with more pay and you're OK
1:03:21 > 1:03:23# Money... #
1:03:23 > 1:03:27Tell me about playing live, because you haven't played live for a while.
1:03:27 > 1:03:31- Do you enjoy the experience of playing?- Yes, it's terrific.
1:03:31 > 1:03:33It's almost like a completely different thing,
1:03:33 > 1:03:36though, to recording in the studio where you slave away
1:03:36 > 1:03:40hermit-like for years and years perfecting little things.
1:03:40 > 1:03:43This you have to do the work in this rehearsal room,
1:03:43 > 1:03:47getting it as good as you can get it, but then you bash it out
1:03:47 > 1:03:53and mistakes don't matter, as long as you get the right overall feel
1:03:53 > 1:03:59and excitement and emotional depth to what you're doing.
1:03:59 > 1:04:02The performance is a great part of it.
1:04:23 > 1:04:28There's a lot that he has to do to be the frontman on this show.
1:04:28 > 1:04:31It's a big job being David Gilmour!
1:04:36 > 1:04:38And here we are in Croatia.
1:04:38 > 1:04:40Never played in Croatia before, never been here,
1:04:40 > 1:04:43but...the Romans got everywhere.
1:04:44 > 1:04:46- Beautiful, isn't it?- It is.
1:04:49 > 1:04:51How did you find this place?
1:04:51 > 1:04:56Well, I set my team off to find me beautiful places, you know.
1:04:56 > 1:05:00I just think it's fantastic for people's memories of an event
1:05:00 > 1:05:06to be something special, not be just another sports arena or stadium.
1:05:07 > 1:05:09They're going to go away again afterwards,
1:05:09 > 1:05:12assuming I do a reasonably good show, they're going to go away
1:05:12 > 1:05:14and they're going to remember it,
1:05:14 > 1:05:17partly because of the place and the setting they're in.
1:05:17 > 1:05:19And from here, you go...
1:05:19 > 1:05:21From here we're off to Italy and then off to France
1:05:21 > 1:05:24and off to Germany. And then we'll be back to London,
1:05:24 > 1:05:27where we'll do some more dates at the Albert Hall.
1:05:27 > 1:05:31And then, we'll have a little break
1:05:31 > 1:05:35and after this school term is over we'll head to South America.
1:05:35 > 1:05:37The school term comes in the middle of it
1:05:37 > 1:05:40because you've got to be in London for the school term.
1:05:40 > 1:05:43I want to be around and not be too absent.
1:05:43 > 1:05:47I've had my moment, you know, of doing all those things
1:05:47 > 1:05:49and letting my career come first,
1:05:49 > 1:05:53but, um, I'm established, I think, aren't I?
1:05:53 > 1:05:54Yeah!
1:05:54 > 1:05:59There are some performers for whom the crowd is incredibly
1:05:59 > 1:06:02important, but I sense that it's not just about the excitement
1:06:02 > 1:06:06of the crowd, it's more about the moment and the music.
1:06:06 > 1:06:09It is, well, we try very hard to get the music really...
1:06:09 > 1:06:12heartfelt when we do it.
1:06:12 > 1:06:15But you can never get above sort of 70% or something
1:06:15 > 1:06:17without an audience.
1:06:17 > 1:06:21Whatever you do in rehearsal, there's a whole massive lift of gear
1:06:21 > 1:06:22when there's an audience,
1:06:22 > 1:06:25for everyone, and for me definitely.
1:06:25 > 1:06:28It's likely to be slightly less perfect, but more fun.
1:06:28 > 1:06:30CHEERING
1:06:34 > 1:06:36CHEERING INTENSIFIES
1:07:57 > 1:07:59CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:08:14 > 1:08:15PIANO PLAYS
1:08:38 > 1:08:40OK.
1:08:54 > 1:08:57Guard the meat, don't eat the meat.
1:08:57 > 1:08:59"I'll guard it in my stomach very well."
1:09:02 > 1:09:05There's potato salad over here.
1:09:08 > 1:09:12'I'm a control freak. I confess, I can't do anything about it.
1:09:12 > 1:09:19'I try to stop but I just am that person who does want to man
1:09:19 > 1:09:23'the barbecue and does want to light the fire and do all those things.'
1:09:29 > 1:09:34- 'Do you have any regrets?- Can you get through life without regrets?
1:09:34 > 1:09:38'I don't think you can. I've got tons of regrets!
1:09:38 > 1:09:39'Tons of regrets.
1:09:39 > 1:09:41'I mean, that silly song.
1:09:41 > 1:09:44'I've got a few but then again too few to mention.
1:09:44 > 1:09:49'I've got many regrets but you... You get on, don't you?'
1:09:50 > 1:09:52There are things I could have done better,
1:09:52 > 1:09:54things I should have done better.
1:09:59 > 1:10:03'What is your favourite musical memory?
1:10:03 > 1:10:07'Oh, God, there are just far, far too many.
1:10:07 > 1:10:10'I mean, I did play at a Les Paul tribute
1:10:10 > 1:10:13'once in the New York, in the '80s I think it was,
1:10:13 > 1:10:15'and I was playing a blues number
1:10:15 > 1:10:19'and BB King sort of wandered into the room and stood on the side.'
1:10:19 > 1:10:23And at the end of the song he came up to me and said,
1:10:23 > 1:10:26"Hey, boy, you sure you wasn't born in Mississippi?"
1:10:32 > 1:10:33- Play Hey Jude. - Hey Jude by Romany, yes.
1:10:33 > 1:10:36# Don't make it bad
1:10:38 > 1:10:43# Take a sad song and make it better
1:10:45 > 1:10:49# Remember to let her into your heart
1:10:49 > 1:10:52# Then you can start
1:10:52 > 1:10:55# To make things better
1:10:59 > 1:11:01# Anytime you feel the pain
1:11:01 > 1:11:04# Hey, Jude, refrain
1:11:04 > 1:11:11# Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
1:11:11 > 1:11:16# La la la la la... # That's too high!
1:11:16 > 1:11:17LAUGHTER
1:11:23 > 1:11:26Cor, she knows how to seize her moment, that girl!