Konzerthaus, Dortmund

Ticket scans - thanks to Franziskus, Nigel Bradder, and H. Acker

Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Brückstrasse 21, 44135 Dortmund. MAP

Website: www.konzerthaus-dortmund.de

Last night saw the opening show on David Gilmour's 2006 tour - and what a show it was! Reports are still arriving from those who attended the concert, but on the whole, the reaction is one of elation over the material selected to be played, and the performance itself.

Philipp Wunscher told us: "I just came back from Dortmund and I have to say it was absolute brilliant. The sound, the songs, the light show... all was perfect. David had some problems with his voice during the first two or three songs but later he was great as always. It felt a little like seeing Pink Floyd in 1972 before they had that huge success."

Certainly, the set list bears that out. Using your mouse, highlight the box above to see what was played... we've done it this way so as not to spoil the surprise for those who don't want to know!

A very interesting set, and a good balance of old and new.

TV REPORT - VIEWABLE ONLINE

View the German TV station ZDF coverage of the Dortmund concert in the German news show Heute Journal, including an interview with David on stage before the show, through THIS LINK. Also, there's a review of the first night from a Cologne newspaper:

David Gilmour is back again
 
Dortmund - He kept his fans waiting for a long time. It´s been over 12 years since his last tour. But now he is back again. On Friday evening David Gilmour started his world tour in Dortmund/Germany. An audience of 1200 cheered the comeback of the Brit in the sold out Konzerthaus. With him came his new album "On An Island", published on March 3rd.
 
Gilmour, who celebrated his birthday only a few days ago, is the voice of "Pink Floyd", which is the legendary band, making history with their allbum "The Wall", having been in the American Billboard-Charts for over unbelievable 14 years with their album "Dark Side of the Moon", being the posterboys for the invention of the Art-Rock, whose live-shows could only be manged by a logistical mastermind. But that is all over now- David Gilmour is taking a smaller approach. But nevertheless, fans have been flocking the "Philharmony of Westfalia". The gigs of his tour have been sold out since last year.
 
If you are a rock star for one time, you are forever. Not surprisingly a light-show and fog announced the beginning of the evening. Already the silhouette of the guitarist enthused the mainly older audience, which cheered Gilmour frenetically, a long time before the first sound could be heard. However, the musical mastermind of "Pink Floyd" is no entertainer, and he isn´t very talkative either. But his performance left no doubts that Gilmour is a truly gifted musician, singer and songwriter.
 
The Brit began his perfomance with the title song of his new CD. And he stuck to his new pieces. Those appealed to his loyal fans, who had paid between 55 and 85 EUR for the tickets, but didn´t lift them from their chairs.
 
But the genius is aware of the preferences of his fans and played "Oldies but Goldies" at the second part of the evening. And by this, after an hour, now the grey fans of the psychedelic rock could shake their hair to the sophisticated guitar-solo. The distinctly voice of Gilmour and the songs like "Wish You Were Here" or "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", accompanied by a great light-show - it almost had been like in the good old times.

SHOW REVIEWS

By Simon Rosenberg

David was right on time. 8.03pm and the lights dimmed. The crowd cheered and the first sounds of Castellorizon could be heard. The stage was yet dark, but one could see the silhouette of a dark-clothed man walking towards the guitars. And all of a sudden there he was: David Gilmour in Dortmund playing Castellorizon’s heartbreaking solo and straight into the title-track of his latest album “On an Island”.

It was a great feeling. The light show was subtle, yet dominant. The crowd cheered again, David thanked his fans and told us the structure of this night’s concert: first half pretty much everything of the new album, and after the intermission all the oldies n’ goldies.

And it worked: the new album, a quiet one gained power on stage: most of all, “This Heaven” and “Take A Breath”, the latter being the only rocking track on the album. This one got the most cheers of all the new tracks, and David had to admit: “You guys like to rock!”.

After the fifteen-minute intermission, the tension was high since most people obviously came for the oldies n' goldies. And David kept his promise. He came back onstage and started with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond in a stunning new rendition. The diamond came of age and beautifully too: the singing part is only David and his guitar. Some guitar licks are slightly changed and give an overall new quality to the song. A brave decision by David. I salute him for that.

Shine On was followed by another surprise: “Wot's... Uh The Deal”, from the Obscured By Clouds album. Afterwards, it’s time for Richard Wright to take over the lead vocals on “Wearing The Inside Out”. Time for some Dark Side Of The Moon: “Breathe” enters “Time”, and “Time” goes straight into “Breathe reprise”.

And then yet another surprise: David announces a “very old song written by Syd whom we owe very much”. And there goes “Dominoes”, a cool laid back version. Nice.

The division bell rang afterwards to present us a great live version of “High Hopes” with a stunning slide guitar solo of David. But nothing prepared me to what was going to follow: a stunning 20-minute rendition of “Echoes”! Blown Away!

Absolutely magnificient. Unable to put into words! You gotta go and listen to it. But twenty minutes can go by so soon, and when the lights went up, the band was off-stage, only to return for Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb as an encore.

Throughout the show the light effects were stunning. Not overblown, but intelligently used to stress the music and not vice versa. The musicians were all wonderful, the show did not reveal that it was indeed the first concert of the tour. Dick Parry’s parts were all beautifully played. Shivers down your spines guaranteed!

Sad it’s over! Glad I did not miss it! Shine on, David!

Review by Mario

I went to yesterday's show, and I can barely say how awesome it was.

The first half they played "On An Island" (Take A Breath was a rocker!!!, nice slide guitar solo from Jon Carin, and an amazing light show). The second half began with Shine On You Crazy Diamond (much like the 2001/2002 acoustic version, but with electric guitar), after that they played "Wot´s .. Uh The Deal", who could have guessed that?!

Like the acoustic shows in 2001/2002, David played "Dominoes" - a tribute to Syd - with a great guitar solo by Phil Manzanera, followed by "High Hopes", but after "High Hopes" the show turns from really really great to AMAZING! the first notes of "ECHOES" start, combined with a great visual performance! Now the audience is treated with the full 20 minutes version! For me this was the climax of the show.

After the final notes were played, the audience honors the song, or in fact the complete second half with standing ovations.

As an encore they played "Wish You Were Here" and of course "Comfortably Numb". What more can you ask for? It was one of the best shows I´ve seen. David and the band were awesome. The setlist was amazing. Thank you for this great experience! By the way, the audience did a great job, too, a really nice atmosphere.

Review by Jens Libach

David Gilmour starts off with playing the whole of the new album, which is also the first set of the show. I myself don’t think too highly of the new album, which I find to be lyrically an embarrassment. But apart from the stupid songs and dull compositions it is filled with amazing guitar work. However, the songs come so much more to life live, even more than I was expecting them to.

Castellorizon is loud and clear and a very convincing opener. You immediately get the feeling that Gilmour is in control of his guitar as much as ever. The Blue definately has the most convincing solo of the first set. It reminds me a lot of Marooned and is a beauty.

It is funny to witness how needed Take A Breath is to the crowd, the middle section of this song works just perfect with the lighting giving you the impression of being under water struggeling to get to the surface for a breath of air. A surprise for me was how convincing Then I Close My Eyes was; it is very much extended and is indeed beautiful. However, the whole of the first set comes off as being all too low and dull, the last two songs are simply so lame it is indeed an embarrassment.

The second set is an amazing one. Takes off with a very special version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts.1-5). I guess you can call this version a mix of the PULSE and the Meltdown version. It is very very nice indeed.

Wot’s...Uh The Deal then follows, it comes off as a very fresh version with Gilmour playing the most amazing slide solo in the end, very true to the original version from Obscured By Clouds. Even the piano part by Rick Wright is thrilling to witness. One of the highlights of the show for me.

Wearing The Inside Out, sung by Rick, is beautiful and haunting. It is a very quiet version, and indeed very mellow. The whole of the band really delivers on this one even though it is so quiet.

Breathe, Time and Breathe (reprise) is then played. The drummer doesn’t do an impressive job on the intro on Time and Guy Pratt is too fast on the tic-toc, but when the song kicks off you find yourself rocking of course. Gilmour’s solo on Time is loud and has a very raw feeling to it. It works. It's a nice threesome.

Dominoes, the Syd Barrett song, is then played which is very different from the Meltdown version. The bass part is very anonymous I might add. Phil Manzanera plays the backwards guitar solo, which is done very nicely. It is however an unfulfilling version to me, the Meltdown version is much better in my opinion.

High Hopes is fresh and very impressive. The ending slide solo is just massive and possibly the strongest I’ve ever witnessed. The outro on the acoustic is an extended one, and comes off being very dramatic and mellow taking it to the end. Very impressive version of this song.

The second set is ended with a COLOSSAL version of Echoes lasting for no less than 19 minutes and 44 seconds (I timed it on my mobile phone). It is without a doubt THE highlight of the show with Gilmour and Wright singing duet. The first part of Echoes is filled with Gilmour's amazing guitar work; he totally delivers. The middle keyboard section is loud and mindblowing to sit through. The second part is enormously impressive. The build up is undescribable to me, the peak is crystal clear and very very loud. You find yourself sitting there in total awe. I must stress that it is simply just so impressive and amazing I lack words to describe it. The piano intro is shortened but sweet and the build up also seems shorter than on the early 70’s versions.

Encore. Wish You Were Here is very nice but also comes off as a very simple version. However it's a crowd pleaser. Comfortably Numb closes the encore with Rick singing Roger’s vocal part and Gilmour delivering a staggering massive solo.

To sum it up I must say that the first set lacks tension and speed. It is simply too boring at times to sit through the whole of the new album. The second set is just mindblowing, especially due to Echoes being played.

I find bass player Guy Pratt to be very unconvincing in his playing, he lacks personality and approach very much in my opinion. The drummer is very anonymous, which I find to be a pity. It is to me very nice indeed not to have the background singers there, the band comes off much better without. I just love to look at Rick there on the stage.

The venue was small and the seating was very steep; the acoustics was amazing. They had difficulty at times with the lighting and some members of the band seemed a bit nervous at times, especially Rick who had trouble with getting his singing across. Gilmour didn’t get the lyrics right on Echoes.

Review by Lorenz Grünewald, aimed at our German friends!

Ja da war ich also gestern: In Dortmund im Konzerthaus. Nachdem ich seit 4 Jahren beim Hören der Pulse CD oder beim sehen der DVD immer eine Träne im Auge hatte, weil ich bei dieser bombastischen, musikalisch wie visuell perfekten Show nicht dabei sein konnte (wofür ich nichts konnte, 94 war ich sieben Jahre alt und hatte mein erstes Michael Jackson Tape), freute ich mich umsomehr auf dieses Ereigniss meinen Lieblingsgitarristen Live sehen zu können. Nach 4 jähriger Wartezeit und einigem Bangen, die Jungs von Pink Floyd würden nie mehr kommen, war ich also mit meinem Papa (der meine Floyd Leidenschaft ausnahmsweise teilt) im Foyer des architektonisch ausgefuchsten Konzerthauses und ärgerte mich über die Merchandising Preise. Mann nimmt doch immer gern ein Tourprogramm und ein T Shirt mit. Ersteres kostete 15 €, letzeres 35 und aufwärts. Beides habe ich dann am Merchandising Stand gelassen. Eine Frechheit wie ich finde.

Um kurz vor Acht sind wir dann in den Saal. Wir hatten Plätze in der zweiten Reihe des Balkons von wo aus man sehr gut sehen und noch besser hören konnte, da die Hauptlautsprecher des Konzerthauses, das 1000 Besucher fasst, genau auf unserer Höhe hangen. Pünklich um kurz nach Acht gings dann auch Los. Das Konzert besteht aus zwei Sets. Beim ersten Spielt Gilmour einmal die neue Platte "On An Island" durch. Das zweite Set beinhaltet dann Floyd Klassiker und zwei Barrett Songs (Whats The Deal und Dominoes). Wie das Album begann es also mit "Castellarisation". Die ganze Zeit werden wie bei der Studio CD die Soundcollagen und Orchestersounds vom Band eingespielt, sodass Gilmour beim ersten Song Quasie Playback zum Album machte was ich nicht so gut gelöst fand. Sein Strat Sound begeistert aber schon nach der ersten Note. Wer das Album kennt weis, was ich meine. Die Songs sind allesamt sehr schön, aber ruhig.So war auch das erste Set, abgesehen von "Take A Breath" einer genialen Rocknummer aus schrägen Akkorden mit einer dermaßenen Power gespielt und gesungen das es einfach gefetzt hat. Ein geiles Solo und die hammermäßige Lightshow kam so richtig in Fahrt. Hier bekam Gilmour seinen größten Applaus im ersten Set "You like ro Rock" meinte er lächelnd dazu. Zwischen den Sets gab es eine 20 Minütige Pause in der die Techniker noch etwas Feinarbeit erledigen konnten, sodass die Technik und der Sound im zweiten Set besser waren als im ersten.

Das zweite Set begann dann wie konnte es anders sein mit Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Gilmour interpretiert den Song etwas neu. So spielt er die ersten beiden Teile kommplett alleine ohne Band. Die sphärischen Sounds die den Song prägen macht er selber, indem er zwischen Sologitarren Sound und einem anderem Amp, auf der er einige Effekte und einen Sampler laufen hat. Er spielt also erst seine bekannten Linien und fadet dann Stufenlos in wunderschöne Akkorde über. Erst im späteren Verlauf des Stückes kommt dann die Band hinzu und lässt es richtig Krachen. Das Publikum ist jetzt in bester Laune und so geht es mit Breathe/Time und der Reprise. Man merkt wir Gilmour und auch Rick Wright der zu meiner großen Freunde die Keys bedient hat wieder in ihrem Element waren. Auch Guy Pratt, der Bassist der die Floyds seid 89 begleitet, war hammer in Form hat sehr tight gespielt und sich als einziger wirklich auf der Bühne bewegt. Er hatte sichtlich seinen Spass.

Danach Kam Inside Out. Ein Wright Song von der Division Bell. Wrights Gesang hätte lauter sein können aber der Song war auch so wunderschön mit einem tollen Solo und wunderbaren Saxophoneinleigen von Floyd Sax-Spieler Dick Parry (auch in die Jahre gekommen).

Sehr gut gefallen hat mir danach "Wot's... Uh The Deal" von der Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Ein schöner Folk Song mit Psychodelic Einflüssen. Dominoes einen wunderschönen Barrett Song hat die Band leider verhunzt- Klang mir nach wenig geübt und schlecht abgesprochen. Rhytmusgitarrist Phil Manzanera hat hier ein Solo gespielt das absolut daneben war. Er schien zunächst seinen Einsatz verpasst zu haben, hatte dan Probleme mit seinem Pedalboard und dann klags auch noch scheisse. Er hat den alten Trick (Gitarre, viel Delay und dann die Töne mit dem Volumepedal einfaden) gemacht was nicht zum Song passte der eigentlich viel Drive entwickeln (kann). Gilmour hat man das Entsetzten auch engesehen. Na gut es sei ihnen verziehen.

Jetzt kam High Hopes von der Division Bell mit einem gnadenlos guten Slide Solo und schönen Linien auf der spanischen Gitarre. Auch hier schien man das Ende nicht geprobt zu haben, denn Rick Wright spielte langsam ausfadend ein paar Streichen zu denen Gilmour Improvisierte und sie fanden kein Ende. Irgendwann kam der Musikertypische "Istjetztschluss"-Blick von Gilmour zu Wright und so haben sies dann irgendwie geschafft.

Echoes. Ja. Meiner meinung nach der Höhepunk der Show. Einer meiner Lieblingssongs gnadenlos geil gespielt in seine vollen Länge mit Mordssound. Das Gefühl am Höhepunkt des Stückes, wo auch die Lightshow explodierte ist unbeschreiblich. Diesen Moment werde ich nie vergessen.

Als Zugabe gabs dann noch Wish You Werde hier in gewohnter Fassung und auch Comfortably Numb. Wie bei der 94er Tour singt hier Wright die Waters Parts. Mit dem Solo, das ich für das beste, je gespielte Gitarrensolo halte endete das Stück. Hier zeigt sich einfach warum ich Gilmours Spiel auch mit 60 Jahren noch liebe.

Insgesammt ein sehr geiler Gig. Vielleicht mein bestes Konzert. Es zeigt sich allerdings, dass es das erste Konzert der Tour war. In den Pausen sind noch wildfuchtelnd die Roadies mit ihren Lampen hin und hergerannt um hier und da etwas umzustellen, die einspielungen vom Band waren noch nicht 100& sauber und die Band hat hier und da noch Fehler gemacht: Zum einen das verpatzte Dominoes und der Schluss von High Hopes, aber auch das vergeigte Solo von Phil sind Beispiel dafür. Auch sehr sympatisch war, das Gilmour selber sich hin und wieder vergriffen hat. Auch bei den mehrstimmigen Gesängen gab es manchmal unreinheiten) but: Live is Life!

Gerne wäre ich auch heute in Hamburg dabei, wo die Band sicher diese Fehler ausgemerzt hat, wobei der Sound kaum besser sein kann als im Konzerthaus.