Capacity: 5,272 (maximum; depends on configuration of seating)

Concert starts: 7:45pm

Address of venue: Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP. MAP

Website: www.royalalberthall.com

COMMENTS

A late addition, in June, of this show; David's 2016 tour concludes with a return to this historic venue, one year after his last extended visit (of course, April saw him taking part in the run of Teenage Cancer Trust concerts), and this is the first of now five shows. Could he be intending to film one or more of these new shows for future release? We certainly hope so!

As before, tickets for the Royal Albert Hall shows are strictly limited to 4 tickets per person, and photo ID for the lead ticket buyer will be required. Tickets will be on sale at 10am UK time (BST) Thursday, June 30th, from the Box Office: 0845 401 5045 or +44 20 7589 8212, or RoyalAlbertHall.com. Please note tickets will not be available in person from the Royal Albert Hall box office. Tickets will also be available from Stargreen: 020 7734 8932 (Stargreen.com). Tickets are subject to fees and conditions.

The organisers have pointed out that "for the London concerts, as with the 2015 shows, the name of the lead booker will be printed on each ticket. The lead booker must attend the concert and photo ID will be required to gain entry to the venue. There will be no exceptions to this rule. This is to try and stop secondary selling by ticket touts at high prices." This is exactly what happened with the Kate Bush concerts in London in 2014, and it seemed to work really well. It ensured that fans were there, and ticket touts/scalpers didn't get much of an opportunity to make a killing buying tickets for a show they would have no intention of seeing!

We also understand that there will be a limited number of VIP packages available for this venue. Again, this is subject to fees and conditions.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!

The first of five final nights on David’s Rattle That Lock European tour was held in front of a packed Royal Albert Hall, clearly ready for a good night to kick off their weekends. Thankfully, despite a gap since the last shows, David definitely delivered!

As you’ll see from the set list above, no major surprises as the set doesn’t change much with the exception of a few songs which come in and out, with some shuffling depending on which ones are performed. With Chuck Levell having left the band to perform keyboard duties for The Rolling Stones, who are shortly to be performing at the Desert Trip festival (where Jon Carin will be with Roger Waters), the London shows have seen the return of Kevin McAlea to partner Greg Phillinganes either side of the stage. As Chuck was the “voice” of the doctor in Comfortably Numb, those duties have (quite successfully) transferred to singer Bryan Chambers - he did a great job, putting a new spin on the delivery.

Musically, no surprises. From the first half, after a slightly rusty start of 5am, Rattle That Lock had a very strong reaction from the crowd, as did The Great Gig In The Sky. In Any Tongue again cemented its status as a modern day live classic, if anything getting a much bigger ovation than High Hopes, which closed out the first half.

The start of the second half - Stevie DiStanislao and his wind machine heralding One Of These Days - had the crowd on its feet, and Shine On proved a perfect song to follow. Sorrow featured a great new laser-filled intro, akin to the delivery during the Momentary Lapse tour. A nice surprise.

Talking of lasers… as Comfortably Numb began, a very pale “fan” of laser light could be seen from a central position on stage, as the song began. The first major laser display happened as normal, but unusually it seemed the lasers then failed as the song featured virtually no lighting, particularly during the climatic solo. However, this seemed to be a slight alignment issue, so for safety reasons, the lasers were switched off to protect the audience. This did focus people of Gilmour’s guitar work (rather than looking at the pretty lights!) and made for a different atmosphere on this concluding epic.

So, one show down, and four more to go. The band are playing really well, the song selections are right (at this stage, I cannot see us getting surprised by new songs) and the audience - last night at least - are having a ball…

We'd love to know from others how they felt the concert went. Did you go? Let us know what YOU thought!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Kevan Porter

A triumphant return...

What a great start to David's triumphant return to the magnificent Royal Albert Hall for another five nights of lock rattling in London.

With a gap of almost two months since his last summer gig in Belgium, David launched into his stride with confidence and swagger from the first note and, apart from a couple of bum notes here and there, showed he's still firing on all cylinders with some fantastic soloing, particularly during Money where the trading of solos with Chester is fast becoming a real treat to witness.

The set list in the first half provided no surprises (no surprise there then!) other than David didn't address the audience at all until its conclusion.

Remarkably for the RAH, the sound quality tonight was also superb, right from the start. I'm led to believe that it's a difficult venue to get a good sound with amplified music but the crew were dead on the money tonight, more so, to my ears at least, than any of the previous gigs David has performed there.

Again, no surprises in the set list for the second half either but with playing as fine as we heard tonight it doesn't matter. Every song in the second half was flawless particularly during On An Island where, again, the guitar interplay between Gilmour and Kamen was absolutely astounding. I hope, that should there be a DVD of these shows, they are with Chester as he is such a fine match with David, it's almost as though they have a similar 'telepathic' connection as David and Rick had. Other highlights included a haunting Shine On, a raunchy Fat Old Sun and a very smooth and extra jazzy The Girl In The Yellow Dress. The penultimate number of the second half, Sorrow, sounded magnificent and was all the more incredible with the newly added laser pyramid above David as he peeled out those huge, booming chords we're all so familiar with. Sadly, I had to leave after Sorrow for my train but I'm led to believe the excellence continued until the final notes of Comfortably Numb were left ringing around the hall proving, once again, that David still knows how to Rattle That Lock.

I'm really looking forward to the next four nights...

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!