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Rating: The memory is alive…
One day in May 1994, my mother returned from her work day with a CD of a band I had only heard mentioned and of which I knew some covers printed on my dad's vinyls. It was "The Division Bell" by Pink Floyd. I put the CD in the stereo and fell in love with this band from the first notes. I was seven years old.
March 2006: twelve years after listening to that album I began to lose hope of ever seeing even a single member of my favorite band on tour, as I had missed my one chance to see David Gilmour in Milan. The prices were high, I said back then, and what a pity because I would have liked to go to the Arcimboldi.
May 2006: preparation for final exams had already begun when I heard that David Gilmour and Roger Waters were doing two summer tours covering several Italian cities, and my reaction was spontaneous: this time I don't care: I MUST see at least one of their concerts. The prices were not very affordable once again, and I found myself having to choose between one of the two musicians. I chose David Gilmour: his way of playing the guitar has always fascinated me so much, and he has written songs that I will never forget the first time I listened to them on those 33s that I still jealously keep. I immediately called a friend of mine who loves music, convinced that the Queen concert with Paul Rodgers at the Forum in Assago was the best he had ever heard: yes, nice, but I thought there was something even better to listen to on planet Earth, and that was the concert of the last leader of Pink Floyd. I convinced him to spend eighty euros for the concert, another 55 for a Eurostar train ticket from Milano C. Le to Florence S. M. N. round trip, and another 45 for a hotel room in Florence for August 2, 2006. “Sure, the cost for this concert isn't the best, but definitely well spent," I said that mid-May day.
August 2, 2006: almost three months after buying the ticket, the day arrived. Wake up at 4:00, train from Rho to Milano C. Le at 6:28, Pendolino from Milano C. Le to Napoli C. Le at 8:00, arrival in Florence S.M.N. at 11:00. The sky above our heads didn't seem the best at that hour, and as we arrived at Piazza del Duomo, the first drops began to fall. Arrival at the hotel and rest until late afternoon. At 19:35: arrival at Piazza Santa Croce: the tension began to rise, and looking at the sky, the morning clouds had disappeared.
The place is not one of the closest, but the stage can be seen entirely, and very well too! At 20:55: people continue to take their seats on the chairs when suddenly the sound of a heartbeat starts to grow stronger with each passing second. Oh my God, IT BEGINS!!!
"Breathe" is the first track the band prepares to play. The adrenaline is at its peak, and the sensation of seeing one of my favorite musicians up close thrills me as never before. As the first song ends, the audience isn't given a moment to breathe because the clocks of "Time" immediately start playing, another iconic song by Pink Floyd. The audience is already thrilled with what they hear, and yet we're only at the second song. The execution is perfect, and the guitarist thanks the audience at the end of the played song. The sun has now set, and the light show begins to stand out at the start of the third performance "Castellorizon". In this instrumental track, David Gilmour gives his best on the guitar, delivering one of the best solos of the entire concert that serves as an introduction to the wonderful "On An Island". The song is wonderful on CD, but in the live version, Sir Gilmour is able to recreate the same atmospheres that characterized the mammoth live performances of the band he was a part of until a few years ago.
After this performance, the guitarist introduces the band: Phil Manzanera on guitar and vocals, Guy Pratt on bass, Steve DiStanislao on drums, John Carinn on keyboards, Dick Parry on saxophones. The presentation of Richard Wright, another important member of Pink Floyd, on keyboards and Hammond, is left for last, welcomed by a long applause from the audience. The historic English guitarist also explains that the concert will be divided into two parts, and in the first, his entire latest LP "On An Island" will be performed. A few seconds later, "The Blue", a "different" piece compared to the first songs played by the group, but manages to involve all the listeners present in the square at that time.
Of this part, some excellent performances of "Then I Close My Eyes" are noteworthy, greatly reevaluated in this performance, as it was certainly not the best piece on the CD, "This Heaven", perfectly performed blues piece, and the beautiful "Red Sky At Night", truly made wonderful in this Florentine concert. The first part concludes: the music is expertly performed, the notes played by the group greatly engaging the listeners throughout the duration of the performed songs, the atmosphere is magical, and the enthusiastic crowd gathered was enthralled.
My happiness was immense, I was still convinced the ticket price was worth it, even though in front of me a sort of woman with hair that made her look more like a cocker partially obscured my view. Despite everything, I waited eagerly for the second part to start. The lights in the square went out about a quarter of an hour after the end of the first part, and David Gilmour himself thanked the audience once more for the warmth shown to him and the band, but at the same time asked them to be quiet for the first part of the piece they were about to perform. The first notes began to echo in the air, and the spotlights illuminated four people sitting around a table playing the intro to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with glasses. Yes, exactly, glasses!!! In fact, the album "Wish You Were Here", from which this piece is taken, was initially supposed to be played with kitchen objects, and the live intro was therefore the original one never published anywhere. Furthermore, the Florence concert was one of the first times ever that the band performed this part of the song in public.
All the attendees wanted to burst into a long and warm round of applause dedicated to the musicians and the person to whom it was dedicated back in 1975 and who had died just under a month before the concert date: Syd Barrett. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is simply an extraordinary piece even in the version proposed by the guitarist, with a central part where only voice, guitar, and Richard Wright's Hammond can be heard.. At the end of the performance, the audience finally bursts into the applause they had ready for almost fifteen minutes. It is followed by "Wearing The Inside Out", taken from the last Floyd work "The Division Bell", which was also reevaluated thanks to David Gilmour's final solo which always makes every song wonderful.
The music pauses for a few seconds, and then it begins to be heard a voice that seems to come from space and a Morse code signal. The audience explodes once again: "Astronomy Domine" has started, a piece written by Syd Barrett and a masterpiece of music, not just psychedelic but timeless. The execution is once again perfect, and it does not seem that the group of musicians on the stage can outdo themselves further. Instead, the English guitarist picks up an acoustic guitar, strumming it for a few seconds to see if it is tuned, and then begins to play something that is more than just a song: "When the fat old sun in the sky is falling Summer evenin' birds are calling Summer's thunder time of year The sound of music in my ears Distant bells, new mown grass..." It is a great performance of a piece that seems to have no age, perfectly completed with a mind-blowing final electric guitar solo, or simply "Fat old Sun". David Gilmour had dedicated this performance to his high school friend Barrett.
"Coming Back To Life" and "High Hopes" keep the level extremely high, and the audience appreciates it immensely, but something extraordinary was yet to begin. PIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGG A single sound is enough to make the audience explode with a roar never heard throughout the concert PIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGG Someone was still thinking "Oh my God, could it be…" PIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGGG After this third toll, Richard Wright also began to play, and anyone who had any doubts about the song that was starting received a great confirmation: the large group of musicians on the stage had begun to play a musical masterpiece: "Echoes". Perfect start, and at the end of the first chorus and on the highest note played, the lights went out. Blackout? Effects specifically created? During the second verse, the two ex-members of Pink Floyd were illuminated by two blue lights, and the group had not missed a beat, making it thus thought that the light effects were specifically created.
The minutes passed, and the audience was now crazy: some were playing an imaginary drum, others a guitar, and others (including myself) a bass bobbing their heads to the rhythm of the music. At this point comes the most important part of the masterpiece: the famous echoes coming from the infinite composed of bass, keyboards, and guitar, millennia lasting seconds: the live dimension is mammoth, and every time the guitar echoed, it seemed like the people were about to reach an orgasm soon. And then, this song resumes in crescendos until the end, at the definitive suspension in keyboards that led to the final ovation from the audience, lasting more than five minutes. An epic piece, mammoth, inimitable.
I was now in a trance, and I could not believe what I had just listened to and seen, thanks to the truly remarkable light show. The group returns to play after more than five minutes when the standing ovation was still ongoing. The first notes lead to one of Pink Floyd's most famous songs: "Wish You Were Here". Some people begin to get emotional, while others seem to want to remember someone who is no longer there. However, thanks to these notes, everyone sings the lyrics of this piece, which has become one of the greatest of all time, a song that anyone would have wanted to compose.
The concert ends with another great composition called "Comfortably Numb", to which no adjectives are needed to describe it. The concert was perfect, without a glitch, epic, grand, not played, but painted. Gilmour and his group thank all those people who came from all over Italy to see them. A long applause reciprocates once again. My hands are red from the applause, my head is no longer present, blurred by the emotions created during the concert. On the way back to the hotel, my friend also declared that he never expected a concert like that. After these three hours of concert, all those days when I listened for hours to Pink Floyd's music, from the first to the last, came back to my mind, wondering how the hell they managed to compose such pieces.
But if I think about the vinyls I own by this group, the passion for music that was injected into me from a young age also thanks to you even though I only saw you for the first five years of my life if I think about how I pointed to a star in the sky during the last notes of "Wish You Were Here" and if I think that the band in question was also your favorite band and you never got to see them, I went to see David Gilmour's concert even for you.
I hope you enjoyed it too, right?… and it will never fade away.
Review dedicated to M.T. (1952-1993)
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