At the moment I am reading Miles Copelands super entertaining autobiography from 2021 "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back", and chapter 18 starts with this cool little story about Dave:
"In December of 1987, I was invited by a promoter to see Pink Floyd at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. It was the typical Pink Floyd spectacle to a sold-out crowd of twenty thousand. After the show, I went armed with my backstage pass to the dressing room area and ended up talking to Dave Gilmour, the band’s guitarist and leader. As people began to leave, I suggested that a group of us come back my house in Hollywood, and, to my surprise, Dave wanted to come along. We continued our conversation at the house, and it turned out Dave was very interested in the story of The Police and why they ‘broke up.’ He was thinking The Police would someday re-form, and he told me of his experiences with Pink Floyd.
According to Dave, he and Roger Waters used to leave all the early Floyd shows complaining that the band’s drummer, Nick Mason, and keyboardist, Rick Wright, were, in their view, below par. When the band broke up in 1981, Dave launched his solo career with a fine set of musicians he was proud of. He built up to selling out the Hammersmith Odeon in London to some three thousand people—obviously not the Floyd’s huge numbers, but very respectable numbers nonetheless. Then his manager suggested that since Nick Mason was in town, the fans might really go wild if he was invited to play with Dave at the end of the set. Dave’s heart sank at the thought, but he agreed. When the time came, he introduced Nick, and the fans loved it. Nick sat on the drums and the final song started. Then a funny thing happened.
‘It was like putting on an old comfortable shoe that fit perfectly,’ he said. Dave realized at that moment that what the Floyd had was not about the individual musicianship—it was something that they had together that just worked. His point to me was that as good as Sting was, and as good as his current musicians were, he felt Sting would one day realize what he had in The Police.
I will always remember that moment of wisdom from Dave Gilmour."
Thought I'd share this with you all.
PS - I'm so happy that we can seamlessly keep on discussing here.
Just another quick thanks from me to Nils and everybody else who helped with this amazingly fast transition!!
"In December of 1987, I was invited by a promoter to see Pink Floyd at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. It was the typical Pink Floyd spectacle to a sold-out crowd of twenty thousand. After the show, I went armed with my backstage pass to the dressing room area and ended up talking to Dave Gilmour, the band’s guitarist and leader. As people began to leave, I suggested that a group of us come back my house in Hollywood, and, to my surprise, Dave wanted to come along. We continued our conversation at the house, and it turned out Dave was very interested in the story of The Police and why they ‘broke up.’ He was thinking The Police would someday re-form, and he told me of his experiences with Pink Floyd.
According to Dave, he and Roger Waters used to leave all the early Floyd shows complaining that the band’s drummer, Nick Mason, and keyboardist, Rick Wright, were, in their view, below par. When the band broke up in 1981, Dave launched his solo career with a fine set of musicians he was proud of. He built up to selling out the Hammersmith Odeon in London to some three thousand people—obviously not the Floyd’s huge numbers, but very respectable numbers nonetheless. Then his manager suggested that since Nick Mason was in town, the fans might really go wild if he was invited to play with Dave at the end of the set. Dave’s heart sank at the thought, but he agreed. When the time came, he introduced Nick, and the fans loved it. Nick sat on the drums and the final song started. Then a funny thing happened.
‘It was like putting on an old comfortable shoe that fit perfectly,’ he said. Dave realized at that moment that what the Floyd had was not about the individual musicianship—it was something that they had together that just worked. His point to me was that as good as Sting was, and as good as his current musicians were, he felt Sting would one day realize what he had in The Police.
I will always remember that moment of wisdom from Dave Gilmour."
Thought I'd share this with you all.
PS - I'm so happy that we can seamlessly keep on discussing here.
Just another quick thanks from me to Nils and everybody else who helped with this amazingly fast transition!!
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