Pink Floyd's Gilmour Gives Walls to the Homeless

Reuters (via Yahoo) ^ | 05/20/03

[Drew68]

Pink Floyd's Gilmour Gives Walls to the Homeless

LONDON (Reuters) - Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour (news) donated $5.88 million to charity on Tuesday to house hundreds of homeless people and low-wage workers in central London.

The 59-year-old rock star said he was inspired by a similar community project developed in New York.

"I've seen what has been achieved in New York and am passionately behind this London project," he said in a statement.

The "urban village," administered by the Crisis charity, aims to house 400 residents, including the homeless and public service workers like nurses and teachers who have been priced out of the soaring London housing market.

Crisis said a site for the scheme has yet to be chosen.

Gilmour's searing guitar work featured on Pink Floyd's biggest albums, including "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here."

His personal fortune from a hugely successful career in music has been estimated at $122 million.

[wardaddy]

His dad was killed in WWII was he not?

I think the rest of them were all the kids of Cambridge area academia were they not and had "public" schooling?

That sort of explains the fairly gentry sounding accents.

As for Gilmour, he has been giving away money for a long time to a variety of folks but he seems to be most concerned with housing....not just for the homeless but poorer working class folks who can't afford to live in areas they once did on their salaries. I'm not sure that would be my goal were I him but it's his money and at least he's not giving it to ANSWER or something like that...I hope.

I'm not sure about his family life....I think he's married with children.

Funny....he always sort of looked like the classroom hooligan to me. A model?....I'll have to tell my wife.

I remember another story where he had to drive an old Land Rover (like me) from Cambridge to Morroco to rescue Syd after Syd was tripped out somewhere in the early days.

I think all these fellows knew each other from like preteens more or less and having lived some lifelong friendships myself, I can tell you that it can be up and down. My lifelong best friend whom I have known since 12 and who traveled the world with me thru thick and thin for all those years hasn't spoken to me in nearly 2 years...and I don'teven know why. Our lives diverged seriously and I guess he just got pissed....it's hard to chase after folks over deep rooted issues. I'm not sure which one of us would be Waters...lol...and I'm not as folksy as Gilmour.

[wardaddy]

The wailing slide.....I'm not a guitar player.

And I'm not an Allman Bros worshipper

And I liked Dickie Betts as well as Duanne.

But I was more of a Skynyrd fan as far as Southern Rock...

Although they all owe a great debt to Gram Parsons....oh well.

I like Clapton though....his version of Johnson's Crossroads and Badge are timeless.

[shempy]

Everybody talks about Syd Barrett being the guy that went nuts, but if you ask me, Roger Waters is the one that went off the deep end at some point. He got swallowed up by his crybaby existentialist funk. He had taken the band's themes to the point of every song being about his messed up childhood, the evils of capitalism, and other such nonsense.

[oyez]

Jimi Hendrix had BIG chops.

[Drew68]

Which licks on "Layla" were Allman? I know he played slide guitar, but I thought a good number of the electric parts were Clapton.

As a rule of thumb (but by no means definite) Allman preferred a Gibson Les Paul which has a "fat" sound with increased sustain. Clapton preferred (and still preferres) a Fender Stratocaster, which has a thin, liquidy sound.

Each guitar has a very distinctive sound.

In case you are not familiar with these guitars:

This is a Gibson Les Paul:

This is a Fender Stratocaster:

FYI, Gilmore preferred a Stratocaster as well.

[wardaddy]

73....my junior year...I think....I can barely remember....where am I btw?

[MarkL]

I still love his work. He still gets sort of choked up when talking about Syd's cliffdive from sanity.

David Gilmour has an amazing DVD out, "David Gilmour in Concert." It's a mostly acoustic show, and is really awesome!

Mark

[Yardstick]

You're right, it was '73. Still early but later than I was thinking.

[Yardstick]

Yep, '73. It's hard to believe it was made three decades ago. It's held up really well. In terms of the quality of the recording, it was definitely better than anything that Hendrix or Zeppelin or the Who had put out. I think it was Alan Parsons who engineered it, and he was real scientific in his approach.

[wardaddy]

Thanks....this thread made me think about reupping some of his work....guess I'll have to hit Tower.

[Drew68]

It's hard to believe it was made three decades ago. It's held up really well. In terms of the quality of the recording

DSOTM is being re-released in Dolby digital Surround Sound 5.1.

A definate bong-passing event.

[GrandMoM]

....still love to hear their music!

[TheKost]

I think I read somewhere that Gilmore collects Stratocaster's. I think he owns serial #1 though he believed it probably wasn't the first one made.

I loved Gilmore's solo stuff but found the first Floyd albums after Waters left seemed to me to be very monotone.

Gilmore was never above singing about politics though; His Song Cruise on "About Face" was lyrically a great little satire piece on nuclear war. It is well written where he sings to the cruise missile as if it’s a person.

[GrandMoM]

....which one is David?

[wardaddy]

Parsons is right.

I can still recall the Sunday afternoon in the Fall of 73 sitting at the Hippie Park(Riverside) and the local FM album rock radio WJDX announcing Floyd's new album coming up in it's entirety and that it was to be monumental...and they were right.

We were all blown away....figuratively and literally...lol

[Yardstick]

That should be a fun listen. Didn't they originally release a certain number of DSOTM LP's in Quad format? Now that would be cool to hear. Of course, to find a good quad LP and a functioning quad system to play it on would be tough -- you'd have to find someone who really got caught in the 1970's time warp.

[MikeD]

Add Brian Wilson to that list. He dropped acid around the time of Pet Sounds and went completely bonkers...

MD

[MikeD]

Waters has played a number of Final Cut songs live. Check out his "In the Flesh" DVD.

MD

[RightOnline]

I've been slinging rock guitar myself for well over 30 years. There are very, very few machine-gun axe slingers that can make a guitar truly emote the way Gilmour can do in a fraction of the pick strokes.

The finest compliment a guitarist can be paid, and I'll hereby publicly give it to David Gilmour: The man has taste.

About the only "flashy" player that can move me in the same way......or even more so than Gilmour, which is saying a lot........is Gary Moore. When Gary is 'on', no one in the world can touch him. Period. Hands down. End of story.

I congratulate and salute the esteemed Mr. Gilmour for such generosity. I wish Hollywood and our own crop of "rock stars" would take note.

[MikeD]

Depends on the song -- Dave used a Telecaster on a number of tunes (Run Like Hell comes to mind) and played plenty of Gibsons in the studio (see the footage from the Pompeii video).

Clapton switched to the Strat in 1970 (at least, I don't think he was playing it with Delaney and Bonnie), but I wouldn't put it past him to pick up the Les Paul if he wanted the sound. My question was more "Can you separate the two players by tone, or is there more to it than that?"

Speaking of tone, I love the solo on "Nobody Knows You." I'm not even sure Clapton used an amp on that one...

MD