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Capacity: 5,272 (maximum; depends on configuration of seating)
Concert starts: 7:30pm
Address of venue: Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP. MAP
Website: www.royalalberthall.com
COMMENTS
Back in 2004, David Gilmour joined Jools Holland and friends (including Ronnie Wood, Tom Jones and Jeff Beck) for that year's headlining Teenage Cancer Trust concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.
This incredible charity puts on an array of shows every year, with a variety of performers mainly from the world of music, as well as a comedy night, all held at this historic venue. This year's performers have just been announced, and as well as evenings headlined by The Vaccines, Simply Red, Bring Me The Horizon and New Order, the final night is devoted purely to David Gilmour, making it a fifth performance to take place at the venue this year.
David's concert for the Trust takes place on Sunday, 24th April, and tickets - priced from £25 - went on sale at 9am (UK) on Friday, 19th February through the following official agents:
Our thanks to Terje Aukland for sending in the ticket scan shown to the right - to see the ticket in more detail, just click on the thumbnail.
SET LIST - highlight the following with your mouse to read...
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FIRST HALF: 5am, Rattle That Lock, Faces Of Stone, Wish You Were Here, What Do You Want From Me, A Boat Lies Waiting, The Blue, Money, Us And Them, In Any Tongue, High Hopes.
SECOND HALF: Astronomy Domine, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Fat Old Sun, Coming Back To Life, The Girl In The Yellow Dress, Today, Sorrow, Run Like Hell ENCORE: Time / Breathe (reprise), Comfortably Numb (with Purple Rain segment). |
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!
Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!
Last night, David Gilmour's sell-out concert at London's Royal Albert Hall saw him turn things purple during Comfortably Numb, in a personal tribute to Prince, who passed away this week.
 The concert, the final night of the string of shows designed to raise awareness and all-important funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity, featured a superb performance. The audience, including a mixture of Pink Floyd fans, Teenage Cancer Trust representatives, and those currently undergoing cancer treatment, found themselves regularly on their feet. The set list itself was the full Rattle That Lock, with the added songs What Do You Want From Me and Coming Back To Life, both additions to the set that ran from September 2015 when the tour started in Brighton, England with the preview show.
The performance throughout was exemplary, and clearly the band are in a groove with the material. The interplay between the musicians is fun to watch, with Guy, Jon, Stevie and the combined backing singers all regularly giving each other meaningful looks and the odd jokey comment. David's voice had a gravelly edge to it, giving some added grit to some of the lyrics, and overall the sound was excellent. The hall was a little hot - maybe they'd turned the heat up to counter the chilly April night outside?
The night did see some interesting highlights, both in terms of performance, and audience reaction. Today was a good case in point. Toward the start of the tour, back in September, the song was not an audience favourite, and performances then didn't have the power of last night's rendition of the track - when it came to its powerful crescendo at the conclusion of the track, few seemed to remain sat down in the crowd. Even The Girl In The Yellow Dress got a very positive reaction (one which seems a bit of a 'Marmite' song for some audiences on the tour).
As expected, the visual side of things was as excellent as ever, with the lasers introduced during last year's Royal Albert Hall shows and used subsequently, in full force. Mr Screen also featured something that started in the South American shows - the use as a video screen showcasing some of the performers when not employed for film footage or lighting effects. Much of the time it was focused on David and his guitar, but I'm certain much of the crowd was happy with this situation.
The Teenage Cancer Trust shows these days are much less likely to include guest performers and so it was with last night's show; however, for those familiar with the show, David was able to spring an announced surprise. During Comfortably Numb, a lighting change saw the stage dramatically change to a purple wash, as the song took a new direction, fairly quickly identified as an instrumental chunk of Prince's Purple Rain.
It wasn't the first time that David had performed this track - in 1992, he played guitar for Sir Tom Jones' rendition of Purple Rain for a television show - although the timing of this new tribute was perfect, and well executed.
A couple of final points: the first (and well reminded by BD contributor, Daniel Earnshaw), there were notices up around the hall that the show was being filmed, with the normal legal disclaimer about the attendees' approval of this. Cameras were seen actively capturing things all around the stage, but this might have been (in part) for the Mr Screen feed...
Secondly, for those merchandise collectors, other than standard Gilmour tour t-shirts, there were a number of special items for this show (and the rest of the week's TCT shows):
- Programme - this was free, and covered all the performers, not just David
- Poster - a limited edition (numbered and limited to just 100) poster for David's show. There were similar posters for earlier shows in the week.
- T-shirt - a generic TCT concert shirt, which was the same as the 2015 design
The posters and shirts all raised money for the charity, as did the programme (if obtained from one of the volunteers taking these round, accompanied by a collection bucket). The pictures here showing the bright cover of the programme, the Gilmour pages within, and the poster, are all thanks to Nicola from the dual language Italian/English Floyd fanzine, Heyou.
It's entirely possible that the programme will be made available to buy from the TCT site, and they also have the t-shirts. If any of the posters remained, they too will be sold online.
CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Paul Gribble
CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Patrick Seymour
CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Riccardo Tripli
CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ray Morrissey
This was Day 6 of The Teenage Cancer Trust shows at this venue. They always say 'save the best until last'.
I last saw David Gilmour three times when he last played The Royal Albert Hall in Sept 2015. His recent fourth solo album 'Rattle That Lock' hit the number one spot in the UK and ten other countries and was Top 10 in America and many other countries.
An amazing result tonight as I end up FRONT ROW CENTRE on the floor for the entire show...Just mega... Direct in front of me is bassist Guy Pratt and a bit to the right is David Gilmour. It reminded me of the front row view I had when working at Hammersmith Odeon through the 1980s.
The show was on for around 2 hours 35 minutes, over two sets of 70 minutes and 85 minutes. It is the same production and pretty much the same setlist as the shows in September 2015. There were a couple of changes though as solo track 'On An Island' was dropped and Pink Floyd tracks 'What Do You Want From Me' and 'Coming Back To Life' were added.
I was watching Guy Pratt quite a bit as I could hear all the bass lines through his bass monitors as I was so close to them. He seemed to be smiling the most although David Gilmour looked relaxed. David's guitar playing was stunning as usual and the overall sound was perfect. Being so close to the circular screen was hypnotic at times when the lights fully kicked in.
There was one extra very special moment that was added tonight at the end. For the encore the crowd rushed the front of stage and I claimed my place leaning up against the stage. In the middle of a stunning 'Comfortably Numb' the stage lights went purple and David played the guitar solo to 'Purple Rain' and the backing singers sang the bit near the end of the track: "whooo oooh ooh ooh, whooo oooh ooh ooh, whooo oooh ooh ooh, whooo oooh ooh ooh, whooo oooh ooh ooh". Watching this special moment so close up was just incredible. A mega gig with a mega view for me that has to go down as best gig of the year so far for me.
Pictures and more information on the show will be on this show page shortly. As ever, we welcome any contributions from those who attended; please contact us on our normal email address. For more information on the wonderful work that the charity does, please visit TeenageCancerTrust.org.
CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ian Fox
CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Jon Harris
CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ian McKenzie
YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover David's concerts the best we can, to share the experience with everyone, especially those who won't be able to attend the shows. We'd love to see ANY pictures, tickets scans, reviews, newspaper reports, and anything else you come across for this show - we look forward to hearing from you!
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David Gilmour 2016 
