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 final show. 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.

Our thanks to John Johnstone for the ticket scan shown to the right. 

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

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

Well, the old maxim is that you should always go out on a high, a principal clearly on display last night. The Rattle That Lock tour, which started just over a year ago with the "Preview Show" held at the Brighton Centre, has journeyed around Europe, and North and South America, to huge acclaim from critics and fans alike. During that time, the band personnel has undergone a few changes here and there, and the basic format and presentation of the show has been enhanced time and again as each date took place.

You sometimes feel on final nights, that the band and crew are desperately keen to get back home to family and friends, or maybe have already started thinking about their next project, or maybe relative inertia has crept in to material that they've performed too many times. Absolutely none of this here - everyone, from band to sound crew to lighting to roadies - were clearly performing at the top of their games, making this a final night to remember.

The friendship, camaraderie, call it what you will, was so evident throughout the tour and last night saw some emotions on display. Indeed, in David's band introductions after the song On An Island, he did seem to be getting quite choked up about all the people involved in the production, not just name-checking each member of the band (as he normally does) but also thanking those people behind the scenes who can work just as hard (if not harder) to ensure everything runs like a well-oiled machine. A nice touch to remind people it's not just the ten people on stage, but a much larger team of people that all play a vital part.

But, back to the show last night. After three shows including Us And Them, there was a return to David's little jazzy interlude, The Girl With The Yellow Dress, which as the tour has gone on, has seemed to have won over a number of fans who weren't initially comfortable with this quite different song being part of the set.

The rest of the set was unchanged and its a great balance of old and new. Songs have moved around in the set, and the arrangement seemed to work extremely well. It must always be tricky coming up with a set list but the blend here was great. Of course there are always things fans would want to hear - from the new album, Dancing Right In Front Of Me was only briefly performed live, and Beauty didn't get an airing at all. Material from his first two solo albums would be wonderful to hear live by the current band and it is a shame he doesn't choose to perform any of those gems.

As normal for the final batch of shows, Comfortably Numb featured Bryan Chambers on vocals as The Doctor. After Benedict Cumberbatch's guest spot on Wednesday, there were (potentially alcohol fuelled!) rumours circulating in various pubs that Kate Bush was also due to guest on vocals, either on Thursday or Friday - not to be, and may have been too much of a distraction from the song and event, anyway.

One additional final, last night flourish was a 1994-esque firework burst from around Mr Screen as Comfortably Numb came to its climatic conclusion. A lovely touch, a reminder of this great effect, and a perfect way to end a wonderful night.

So, sadness that it is all over now, lots of great memories (with many old friends met, and new friendships forged), and thoughts of what chances there are of future shows - and if there are, what songs will carry over to the new set list...

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 by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Heather Fenton

We were at RAH last night and glad to say the performance was brilliant, especially the second half. David works really well with Chester Kamen. Not sure about Great Gig as in recent times Carol Kenyon has always been very good but the vocalists certainly gave it a good shot. Great to get One of these Days and see David on drumming duty for a bit!

Guy was on top form as always and the atmosphere was great. David's playing and singing was perfect and the lights were stunning. We suppose though that the few 'fireworks' at the end will probably ensure another ban from the RAH as per 1968...though we hope not!

At the end it looked as though no one in the band wanted to leave and with some of the tracks being beautifully extended neither did we! What a superb last night.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Dave Bassett

Saw David Gilmour on Friday night at the Royal Albert Hall. As usual, he was excellent, relaxed and in full control. Good set list.

At the end he seemed a bit emotional ,and I was half expecting him to make some announcement. Possibly no more tours, that sort of announcement. Anyway, he did not say anything of the sort, and lets hope it is not the case, but wonder if anyone else had this impression at the end?

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR Ian McKenzie, PICTURE by Erin McKenzie

We've been looking forward to this show since buying our tickets way back in December of last year. However, I couldn't wait that long, so I managed to attend David's Teenage Cancer Trust concert in April. This meant Friday's was the fourth show that I've attended on this tour; one in Brighton and three at the RAH. For the first time, I managed to get tickets in the Arena part of the RAH and we were seated about half way back from the stage. This meant that, on entering the arena, we were surprised at just how big and high up the circular screen was. It was certainly a good location for taking in the stage, the lighting and the sound too.

As it was a Friday night in London and also the last concert of the tour, I thought things might be a little more 'emotionally charged' than usual, and I certainly wasn't wrong from what I witnessed both on and off the stage. I've been to a fair few Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and David Gilmour concerts since my first one at Earls Court back in 1980, and I believe Friday night's concert had probably the most audience participation than any that I've seen. The overall atmosphere was amazing and it is great to be able to sing along with thousands of other people to the songs that have been a huge part of my life. Having my wife and daughters with me made it very special too.

HOWEVER, the atmosphere was tainted on numerous occasions by ignorant drunk people who kept spoiling the show for the people who had the misfortune to by sitting near them. At previous concerts I've been to at the RAH, the venue staff have been quite strict and have curtailed ridiculous and dangerous behaviour. This didn't seem to be the case on Friday night, when they appeared to be turning a blind eye to some of the ludicrous behaviour that was going on around them. I won't bore you with the details, but my teenage daughters were amazed at some of the stuff that was happening in the audience. The vast majority of these idiots were around 60 years of age, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that they'd never touched a drop of alcohol before or they hadn't had a night out since 1985. Anyway, I was determined to ensure that none of these selfish idiots would stop us from enjoying the show. So, if you were two drunk people who were sat in front of me talking incessantly throughout the concert, I have absolutely no regrets for singing very loudly (and badly) in your ears every time you started rambling on about what you'd been doing that week. Sit in the bloody bar if you just want to get drunk and talk crap, rather than actually watching and listening to the show.

Okay, rant over......though I could have written many paragraphs detailing all of the stuff that was going on in our vicinity on Friday.

The show itself was great. The performance was excellent and you could certainly tell that the band were enjoying themselves. When addressing the audience, David got quite emotional on a couple of occasions. I hope that his passion for performing, together with his still amazing guitar skills and voice, are enough to make him want to tour again in the future. I particularly enjoyed the extended guitar solos of most of the songs. Too many of these are cut short far too early on the actual Rattle That Lock album. The guitar on the live version of In Any Tongue is exceptional. Myself and my family were also blown away by the vocals on The Great Gig in the Sky. Actually, the three backing singers were superb all night, and I really liked Bryan Chambers' voice on the verses of Comfortably Numb. I think I've seen that song performed live around 15 times now, and that was definitely one of my favourite versions. Our other favourites on the night were the following for audience participation; Wish You Were Here, Money, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Time and Comfortably Numb. For pure emotion we liked The Great Gig in the Sky and High Hopes and for the performance and musicianship we particularly liked What Do You Want From Me, One of These Days and Sorrow. In all honesty though, there were no bad songs, even when I take account of the two he played that I've never particularly liked, even on the original albums.

So, all-in-all it was a great night and a fantastic tour. I'm really hoping they'll be a DVD released from the tour. Preferably, I'd like this to be from the Pompeii concert, with a few extras from some of the other great venues he played at.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Charles Whalley

What a night...

Sound superb, band superb, audience superb. One I'll remember for the rest of my life. Maybe his last ever live "band" performance. Let us all hope not.

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, John Johnstone

I'd been looking forward to this night for a long time. I was out of the country when DG played his first set of shows at the RAH last year so was really pleased that this set were subsequently announced and even more pleased to get seats in one of the boxes on the second floor for the last night. I was fortunate to see DG in 2006 (when Bowie guested) and it has been a long ten years before getting to see him again.

The first set started a couple of minutes after the planned start time and after the pleasant 5AM, Rattle That Lock was superb, a great omen for what was to come. This set was a perfect mixture of songs from his solo and PF albums. The return of Mr. Screen was a good move, the film slips and close-ups really added to the atmosphere, and the sound was very clear. I have to say that In Any Tongue was a real emotional highlight (especially with the accompanying film), together with High Hopes (an all-time favourite). It's fair to say that the audience appeared to be loving every second, especially when singing along to Wish You Were Here.

The second set started with a blistering version of One Of These Days (I was in heaven), followed by a more PF-like rendition of Shine On. Then came one of the real highlights for me - Fat Old Sun. I have always liked this song, but the addition of an extended keyboard break before an incendiary guitar solo took it to another level. To a man, virtually all the crowd got to their feet in appreciation. The fantastic music kept on coming - Coming Back To Life, On an Island (another superb guitar solo), The Girl In the Yellow Dress (mean jazz), Today (funky or what?) and then Sorrow (could heavy metal be played any better?), finishing up with the excellent Run Like Hell.

The encores were predictable and again featured blistering guitar work from DG, topped with the lasers finally being fired up for Comfortably Numb.

The band were so tight and at the top of their game but it was clearly DGs show and he didn't disappoint. He certainly got emotional when stating it was the last night of the tour and again when introducing the band members, I just hope that this is not the last that we will ever see of his live shows.

It was a fantastic night, how could this ever be topped? I'm just glad and was fortunate to be there to experience it.

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Phil Austin

I attended RAH last September to see David Gilmour with my wife, both our first time to the excellent and historic venue, very impressive. I enjoyed it so much, that when I heard he was heading back for the final stretch of the tour, I had to make a return visit (solo this time though)...which just so happened to be the very final gig.

Getting into the venue and seating was painless, staff very helpful and polite (door 9 and stalls M); I'd heard other people's entry wasn't so smooth. I was closer to the stage and slightly higher, my seat put me slightly off centre to Mr Screen - still a great spot, and it didn't affect viewing of said screen - and just that bit closer to Mr G, result.

David and the band were as great as ever, really tight (tighter than at Nimes), with a usual selection of fantastic songs. The only song I'll add a note about, is The Girl In The Yellow Dress, this has grown on me more than expected; but I really think it worked better in France than in the UK. I lied, I'm really loving the extended live versions of Rattle That Lock, Faces of Stone and In Any Tongue. Sound, lighting and visuals all as excellent as ever - top marks to all concerned. However, towards the end, a bit too much smoke was used.

Okay, I was fortunate enough to see him 3 times on this tour, the second time being at Arenes de Nimes in France (review listed for 21st July show on BD). It has been interesting seeing how the band changes have affected (positively) the tour; the first time at RAH, it was truly a magical experience - band and set list very good. Nimes blew the first gig and venue away (sorry RAH) - I heartily recommend a visit to Nimes - again, band changes seemed to bring things even tighter and set list slightly revised. And RAH for the final time, I guess visiting again wasn't as special as the first time, but still it was a very memorable visit - band and set list completely spot on, well done DG and band :-)

I guess it was a shame no special guests appeared in the final show, but I don't see how that would have improved an already perfect evening. Like a lot of others I didn't want the night to end, but it did, it was inevitable. After helping thank David and the band for the wonderful evening, exiting RAH was equally quick and painless - staff at the doors all seemed in good spirits as before, so I made sure to thank them on the way out.

#Pause...

I witnessed numerous people wandering off to the WC and returning with or without drink(s), whilst this didn't affect the area I was seated in, I've heard other's weren't so lucky (like in the other review); I don't understand why people pay a lot for a ticket, and get drunk - spoiling it for others and at the same time not having the faculties to enjoy something that may never happen again :-S If you want to get drunk, go to the pub, if you want to enjoy a quality concert then lay off the alcohol.

#Resume...

I really enjoyed seeing David for the final time on this tour. At the end, David (especially) looked a bit emotional that it was over, I was expecting him to announce no more tours, but he didn't...interesting. IF he performs again, I'll be there without doubt. Seeing the cameras there, I presume a DVD will be released, one can only hope for a live album also.

I'll end with this - Don't cry that's it over, rejoice that you were there to witness something special :-D

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!