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

David's 2016 tour concludes with a return to this historic venue, one year after his last visit, and this is the first of four shows. Could he be intending to film one or more of these new shows for future release? We certainly hope so!

Tickets go on sale on Friday, December 4th at 10am UK time, and the DavidGilmourblog.co.uk presale started Wednesday, December 2nd for those who are regular contributors there. For the main sale of tickets, you can use these links: Ticketmaster, Eventim, Seetickets, Stargreen and RoyalAlbertHall.com although please be aware that demand will be incredibly high so you might need to be patient and keep retrying. Tickets are subject to fees and conditions, and are limited to four per person, across all the nights (so, you can buy one for each show, or two pairs of tickets for different shows, and so on).

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!

Night two at the Royal Albert Hall - the second of five September shows to close the Rattle That Lock Euro tour, and a hall packed with people from all corners of the globe. London Floyd-related shows always seem to be a great opportunity to catch up with old friends from various places, and being the end of the tour, the shows in this fine old venue have proved an added draw for many.

With a performance of Verdi's Requiem (with three choirs and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) held the evening after the first night, a full stage breakdown, removal, and then load back in would have been required, which must be a pain for all involved. Once things are all set up and in the right place, it must be far easier to leave everything in place, with all settings untouched. Of course though David's team are professionals who are well used to the logistics of all this, so whilst not moving to a new venue, it would have been all in a day's work to them to do this.

If anything, maybe the refresh of the stage set-up helped - certainly from my perspective, the sound was a lot better than Friday night, clearer, punchier, and this seemed to help bolster the crowd reaction. Whilst Friday had a good crowd, last night's show (on a Sunday evening: not normally a recipe for an audience really "up for it") had a wildly enthusiastic reaction from everyone, floor to ceiling. This seemed to impress David who - unlike Friday night - was more chatty with the audience and looking at the various band members, the ovations seemed to take some of them by some surprise at times.

The first half - as ever - seemed to fly by, but particular comment can be made of Rattle That Lock, Faces of Stone, and In Any Tongue. All new songs, but played with what felt like a determination to be stand-out performances, and each received suitable ovations. It's funny to think that the album (Rattle That Lock) is just a year old, as a number of the tracks can now be considered concert classics and highlights of the set.

The second set has more focus on older tracks, and indeed, last night was the first show not to include David's jazzy interlude of The Girl In The Yellow Dress, moving way for a return of Us And Them, which doesn't seem to have such regular outings these days. Again, aside from the classics, some more recent material is getting some major audience love. The title track of On An Island has really come alive on this tour; I don't recall the 2006 tour audiences greeting the song as strongly, although is this due to the wonderful interplay between Chester Kamen (superb throughout) and David, that we now get?

On that note, the current line up of the band seems to work incredibly well together, gelling and taking some of the music in interesting new directions. The previous line-ups have been excellent, but with each change of personnel, the music has changed accordingly, keeping things nice and fresh. The jam section of Money for example seems a voyage of discovery each evening, with some extended work that is always a joy to hear.

There's a genuine friendship and enjoyment of the show on display between the musicians (and singers), all clearly having a great time. If you find yourself fortunate enough to be fairly close, keep an eye on the cheeky grins, mouthed asides, exaggerated movements, and other things that take place throughout the show. Seeing these things adds to the pleasure of witnessing the show - too often one goes to a show when the musicians look bored and seem to be in their own "bubble" going through the motions. Not David's band! It looks a fun thing to be involved in.

The laser start to Sorrow, introduced on Friday night, was absent last night. I thought it was pretty effective, and harked back to the 1987/88 tour with the droid lighting units playing their colourful fingers over David as he performed the intro to the song. Irrespective of that, a wonderful performance of this track and most present would not have even been aware that the first of the five nights had the added lighting effect, and that it had been dropped (albeit maybe just for last night).

From beginning to end, the quality of the show was plain for everyone to see and hear. Some of the songs ran longer than normal (Shine On is a good example where you can see how they are - or aren't - keeping to the 'script' as the video finished before the band had. Another song had David in "the zone", with the rest of the band keeping the song going, and going, looking at each other wondering when it would eventually finish.

A great night, and now a couple of days off before the final stretch - Wednesday to Friday - and then the chance for them all to put their feet up with the satisfaction of a job well done.

As ever, we'd love to know in more detail how the concert went from other people's perspectives. So, did you go? Let us know what YOU thought!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Kevan Porter

Raw Energy...

What a difference a one night break can make! Although I thought Friday night's gig was excellent tonight's gig stepped up a gear and that included the audience too. From the first notes peeling out of David's guitar it was clear that we were in for a fabulous concert and it was. The sound quality too was much clearer and punchier which might be why the audience were louder and more vocal tonight.

No changes to the first set which included stunning versions of RTL and IAT from David's most recent album which is now just over a year old. The new album tracks are sounding more and more like old classics, particularly during the extended soloing which is sounding very Floydian at times. David seemed overjoyed to be on stage and was much chattier than Friday night which added a lot to the atmosphere of the evening.

The second set too proved to be a real stunner with David really stretching out during many of the wonderful solos, every note sounding better than the last. This is when the sound quality comes into its own so that you can really hear the subtleties of the playing by all the band members.

Speaking of which, hats off to every person on stage who delivered perfect performances time and time again.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear Us And Them replace The Girl In The Yellow Dress tonight. As much as I like the jazziness of Yellow Dress, I find it doesn't really fit the set too well for my tastes. OAI and Today, again for fairly new songs, were superb. I particularly love to hear David and Chester trading guitar licks during OAI, it's a real highlight for me, especially as Chester is such a great guitarist and probably the best that David has shared a stage with in recent years. Today live is a much better track now than the LP version, that song has really developed into something else, it really 'rocks'!

The laser pyramid seen on Friday night during Sorrow was absent tonight which was a bit of a shame but the Comfy lasers were in full effect again and really help to finish the concert in such a superb and climactic style.

Can't wait for Wednesday's gig!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Stefan Leunis

The show started with "5 A.M." and ended with "Comfortably Numb" just after "Time". That sounds like it was a very short show and in fact, it's always too short even when it takes 3 hours. The order of the songs between start and end varied like they have been doing in his past performances this year with the exception of the start, end and that you have either "One Of These Days" or "Astronomy Domine" right after the 15 minute break.

The team of musicians had a lot of fun performing all songs and the public felt very happy too, you just had to look at all these smiling faces to understand everybody was on the same frequency.

This time, the older songs came a bit later after a couple of songs from the new album. Oddly enough, there was no "Girl In The Yellow Dress" today! Right after the break and during the first part of "One Of These Days", David was 'working' the cymbals, and reminded me of a similar scene with Roger during their performance in Pompei many years ago.

Money had a rather long jam session between David and Chester, but every note sounded right. "The Great Gig In The Sky" was one of the first songs they played and the vocals by this threesome of wonderful background singers were spot on, but something completely different compared to the original version, but hey, music evolves too and they did absolute justice to the song. More in general, with these younger musicians (influenced by other genres), most of the songs were played slightly different, especially the parts for saxophone, background vocals and keyboards. The guitar solos at the beginning and the end of Sorrow were played very close to the original recording and was a proof of David's amazing skill of mastering the effect pedals!

During "Wish You Were Here", the audience didn’t sing along as hard/much as they had been doing in other countries, a bit strange to see as a visitor to a concert in the UK. On the first notes of "Run Like Hell", the audience in the arena got up and ran towards the stage, encouraged by the lyrics I presume. The Royal Albert Hall is a very nice venue for witnessing David's concert, the band plays very close to the audience, the acoustics are excellent and the quality of the seats is great.

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!