About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

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Hadrian
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About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by Hadrian »

The way David Gilmour promoted his first two solo albums (David Gilmour from 1978 and About Face from 1984) on the concert podium is well known.

For David Gilmour there was only one live show, held on 1 May 1978 at The Roxy in London. Album material was played live for video cameras, without any audience.

For About Face there was a first proper concert tour, lasting from 31 March to 16 July 1984, with 73 shows in total (the largest number of shows on any of his solo tours to date), spanning both Europe and North America. The set list there was essentially both solo albums, with a few Pink Floyd numbers mixed in, early on as encore only.

While poking around on The Setlist Wiki and looking at David Gilmour entries, I spotted something quite interesting. From late 1984 to late 1992, over the next 8 years, Gilmour continued to do solo gigs in small venues, a small number of them each year, with a set list that is essentially a continuation of what one would witness whilst attending his About Face Tour (material from his first two albums, plus a little bit of Pink Floyd, usually as encore). The Set List Wiki is a work in progress (so there might be missing dates), but after the tour ends, during the 1984-1992 period, there are 27 such gigs. There are further solo gigs but unfortunately there are no set lists yet for the 1993-2001 period, so there is no way to tell if the same approach continued beyond 1992. Sometimes these gigs happened in towns where Pink Floyd was touring at the moment, at other times they occurred during Pink Floyd tour breaks.

What was Gilmour's motivation with all this? Has anybody seen one of these 1984-1992 shows? Who was playing with Gilmour, and what were they like?
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by theaussiefloydian »

Wow - old David was really busy around that time, wasn't he?
If I were to take a guess, I would imagine originally the motivation would have been preparation for the release of A Momentary Lapse of Reason - if my Floyd history was correct, that album was a Gilmour solo record that the execs pushed him to release under the Pink Floyd name, which explains it's, ah, dated approach to production. After that I'm guessing he just did it for the fun of it, but again I'm only speculating here.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by Hadrian »

I think you are correct on both accounts.

On a side note, I have no problem in general with band members doing solo albums (and related gigs for them) as long as that solo material is different from what the band is doing.

In Gilmour's case, I truly wish that all his solo albums were instrumental records devoted to his guitar playing, sound and style, a kind of thing that Joe Satriani is doing. Gilmour was definitely on the right track with instrumentals "Mihalis", "Raise My Rent" and "Deafinitely" on his first solo album, but when I hear songs on his solo albums I cannot escape that overall "poor man's Pink Floyd" feeling about them. I also enjoyed some of the released instrumental Barn Jams more than the later album materials, and for the same reason. Releasing and solo touring such instrumental records while Pink Floyd exists and does its own thing would not raise an eyebrow at all.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by Hadrian »

p.s.

There are some solo Gilmour songs that would've been great additions to the Pink Floyd catalogue. One example is "Near the End" from About Face (1984), a serious number which includes a great acoustic guitar solo that escalates into an electric one (before going into an unfortunate premature fade out).
Last edited by Hadrian on Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by theaussiefloydian »

Hadrian wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:51 pm p.s.

There are some solo Gilmour songs that would've been great additions to the Pink Floyd catalogue. One example is "Near the End" from About Face (1984), a serious number which includes a great acoustic guitar solo that escalates into an electric one (before going to into an unfortunate premature fade out).
That one is one of my favourite solo Gilmour songs.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by Hadrian »

One of my favourites too. Bizarrely, it sounds like something from The Final Cut or The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by DarkSideFreak »

Hadrian wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:46 pm One of my favourites too. Bizarrely, it sounds like something from The Final Cut.
As does "Out of the Blue", if you ask me...

I noticed those gigs on setlist.fm too, really curious.

I don't agree re: AMLOR though. Some of the demos may have been kicking around with possible intentions for another solo album, but I think a large chunk of those tracks was done with the clear idea of making a Pink Floyd album. "Yet Another Movie" apparently was suggested for The Final Cut - but rejected by Roger. If that is true, it puts a slightly different light on the whole "David didn't have any songs" situation...

(And they've been all mixing solo and band stuff before. The basic ideas for CN and RLH were originally intended for David's solo debut...)
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by Hadrian »

I don't buy Waters' statement that Gilmour had nothing to offer for The Final Cut for a second - a year later, Gilmour releases a solo album. It is far more likely that Waters presented a fully written song cycle to Gilmour and Mason, expecting it to be recorded.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

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Hadrian wrote: Fri Feb 15, 2019 6:32 pm I don't buy Waters' statement that Gilmour had nothing to offer for The Final Cut for a second - a year later, Gilmour releases a solo album. It is far more likely that Waters presented a fully written song cycle to Gilmour and Mason, expecting it to be recorded.
I think Rog was so far up his own arse at the time that if David had presented him with Dark Side of the Moon we would have rejected it saying it was inferior
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

Most of these are dates that Gilmour made live appearances, but almost all of the setlists are incorrect from '86 onward - they're just copied and pasted from one of the About Face tour dates. The Momentary Lapse tour band, sometimes with Gilmour and/or Wright, would often take over the hotel bar or a nearby club after that night's Pink Floyd concert and perform as "The Fishermen". The most notable night was on February 17, 1988, when Roy Buchanan was also touring in Australia, and Gilmour reached out ahead of time to make sure they'd get a chance to play together. Buchanan set it up at the Corner Hotel, where he'd just played the night before, and he said that everything they played was improvised, and they played for about 50 minutes. Setlist.fm lists two nights for Gilmour at the Corner Hotel, but none for Buchanan. It gives the same setlist for Pete Townsend's 1986 Rockpalast appearance. He did say that he took About Face on the road because while he'd been the musical director for The Wall tour, he suspected that Roger wouldn't be a part of whatever Pink Floyd did next and he'd be taking on much more responsibility. But after that tour, he just had a habit turning up at anyone's charity gig or making a random appearance on other artists' songs - after jamming with B.B. King, B.B. asked him, "Are you sure you weren't born in Mississippi?"

Contrast that with Roger, who...does not? He even offered to play at Live Aid and he was turned down. Maybe the only exception was in 1999, when he gave Marianne Faithful a song he'd supposedly written in 1968, called "Incarceration of a Flower Child" - notable for containing the same "Do you remember me / how we used to be" line and melody from "Your Possible Pasts". He also apparently played bass and keyboards on the track, but neither part is very...apparent.

https://youtu.be/LxQkWa82Fpg
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

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ZiggyZipgun wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:41 pmContrast that with Roger, who...does not? He even offered to play at Live Aid and he was turned down..
He played at 'Guitar Legends, Seville 1991'. A concert held over five nights, from October 15 to October 19, 1991. The event featured 27 top guitarists. Roger played C. Numb(and some other songs) where Gilmour's part sang Bruce Hornsby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki-ds5S_Vdk
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by space triangle »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:18 pmYou failed to mention that the lead guitarist was Snowy White! Possibly the only other person that should even touch that song.
Yeah, you are right Snowy White played the lead guitar.

And, also don't forget the biggiest show of all time 'Roger Waters - Berlin 1990'. A plentiy of most famous guests artist at that time were there. Snowy played lead guitar in Berlin as well.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

It's interesting that, like the bootlegs of their '70s shows, you can find certain Gilmour shows that turned out particularly well. With Waters it seems like any recording of any night of the tour would be the same. With that said, I haven't listened to any of Roger's live recordings more than once.
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by DarkSideFreak »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:41 pm But after that tour, he just had a habit turning up at anyone's charity gig or making a random appearance on other artists' songs - after jamming with B.B. King, B.B. asked him, "Are you sure you weren't born in Mississippi?"
Wow - high praise indeed!

Devi/ation but actually Deuces Wild was the first time I'd ever heard of David Gilmour. I was really smitten with B.B. at the time, a young kid who went and saw him in concert three times.

I thought this Gilmour chap played well but wondered why he was the only guest artist who didn't sing (Paul Carrack, who already had a lead vocal on Bring It On Home, did the vocal duties). "Maybe he's not a good singer?" 8-[
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Re: About Face Tour, extended (1984-1992)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

DarkSideFreak wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:18 pmI thought this Gilmour chap played well but wondered why he was the only guest artist who didn't sing (Paul Carrack, who already had a lead vocal on Bring It On Home, did the vocal duties). "Maybe he's not a good singer?" 8-[
And Paul Carrack sang David's parts on the Radio KAOS tour!

The Wider Horizons BBC documentary is where Gilmour tells the story, straining himself to do an impression of B.B.'s voice. There are promo photos of the band from '71 where Dave is wearing an Indianola Mississippi Seeds t-shirt.