Bowie surprise guest at Gilmour gig

 

“Silhouettes and shadows…”

 

Around this time exactly ten years ago, people were travelling home from a David Gilmour gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London, having just witnessed a special guest appearance by David Bowie. In the event, that show of May 29th, 2006, would prove to be his last public performance in the UK.

 

The event was reported the next day by Total Blam Blam on DavidBowie.com. We’ve posted that brief review below.

 

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“David Bowie’s on the phone, dad… ,” my daughter Holly casually announced late yesterday afternoon, “though it’s probably somebody messing around,” she reasonably suspected.

 

“Blam, what are you up to this evening?” Well, it certainly sounded like HIM. “Erm…nothing,” I spluttered. “Well, I’m doing a bit of an impromptu at the Royal Albert, grab your camera and get over here as soon as you can!” And he wasn’t messing around.

 

I got there in lunatic time and sat through two accomplished sets by David Gilmour and his collection of even more accomplished musicians, who boasted Roxy man Phil Manzanera among their number.

 

The first set kicked off with the Pink Floyd favourite, Breathe/Time/Breathe (Reprise), and continued with the whole of David Gilmour’s latest solo offering On An Island from start to finish.

 

The unsuspecting audience seemed most appreciative of the vocal contributions from guests David Crosby and Graham Nash and who could fail to be impressed by Robert Wyatt and his distinctive cornet? Little did they know what was to come.

 

A second set of six Pink Floyd favourites followed, from the sublime ode to Syd Barrett, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, through to the mind-expanding space jam of Echoes…and then they were gone.

 

So, two whole sets, and no sign of DB. Was he winding me up? There were certainly no whispers of his name from where I sat.

 

But, in no time at all, the band was back on stage for an encore which kicked off with a quite beautiful Wish You Were Here, followed by a very short interlude of Crosby and Nash’s own Find The Cost Of Freedom.

 

Normally the audience would have expected an end to proceedings round about now, and I’m not sure many of them actually believed Gilmour when he said something along the lines of: “We’re not done yet, please welcome our very special guest…David Bowie!”

 

David bounded on to an immediate standing ovation and was straight into a cracking version of Syd’s Arnold Layne…his grey suit and black scarf with crimson top even seemed to echo the hip clobber of the London scene of the time.

 

The song is well-suited to David’s voice, and his love of all things Syd was more than apparent in the brilliant delivery.

 

The crowd was more animated than at any other point in the evening, but the temperature rose even further in the well sold out hall as the audience recognised the intro to Comfortably Numb, and David took the microphone once again… “Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home?”

 

Another superb delivery which saw David vanish into the shadows as Gilmour went in to that epic solo that completes the last few minutes of the song.

 

Inevitably the news filtered out via mobile phones and message boards…but still people seemed disbelieving until Sailor himself confirmed his appearance shortly afterwards via the BowieNet MBs, thus:

 

“Great stuff! Gig rumour is true. I had a ball tonight singing with David Gilmour and the band. He invited me up to do Arnold Layne and Uncomfortably Numb. Sailor.” He returned shortly after to say that the deliberate mistake of “Uncomfortably Numb” was “jus my little joke.”

 

It was great to finally see David sing in this fine old venue…how cool would it be to have a Bowie show there? And no, I’m not hinting at anything…just thinking aloud.

 

The official David Gilmour site posted a brief mention last night, including this line: “Best-kept secret of the night was the appearance of David Bowie, in the encore section, who gained a standing ovation after his unique renditions of both Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb. Who knows what new thrills await in the next two days? Keep tuning in for the latest…”

 

Well, while we’re on the subject, I can tell you that DB doesn’t plan to join the proceedings again over the next two RAH Gilmour gigs.

 

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If you’ve never seen DB’s performance, you can view both songs here on the RAH site.

 

 

#BowieRAH  #BowieGilmour