LIVE IN GDAńSK

Well... this is as professional as it gets! A perfect live performance with main man David Gilmour and special guest Richard Wright. This review is based on the two cd's and the two hour dvd with most of the songs of the show. David Gilmour has gathered some great talented musiscians and even an orchestra for the perfect live show. The production has a perfect score, everyting is so professional!

The first half of this release is from the later soloalbums of Gilmour and the second halve are songs from the Pink Floyd eara. I find this radical cut very pleasent for listening. The only-Pink Floyd interested folks can listen to the second cd. I have never listened to the later soloalbums of Gilmour so I did not recognice songs from the first half of the concert. Not very open minded for the new songs I came out suprised in a nice way. Some very good material is played here! The almost legendary guitar solo's of Gilmour have always been a bit overrated in my opinion. Well... that was my opinion. After this release I must conclude that his live performed solo's are indeed unique. Not as fast as Joe Satriani, but ten times as accurate. He just hits the right string (as the Dutch say). A lot of emotion in his solo's make even the very slow themes feel like an extravangza! Some themes played on cd 1 sound a bit like music for old man, but overall is succesfull. A very special moment for me is the saxaphone solo by Gilmour for it is very good. Ofcourse the perfect arangements helps the music to sound at its best.

The main reason I got into this album was the tracklisting of disc two. Astronomy Domine, recorded recorded 47 years ago, is still a masterpiece. It's a challenge to play a song so old (and important!) with totally other equipment and with other possibilities. Gilmour and Wright succeed with an 100% score playing this old gem! The sound is warm and full, the meaning of the song as clear as recorded in 1967. One word: Brilliant! The same can be said for Echoes, wich is extented to a 25 minute version with longer solo's. Totally modern warm sound and still it can actually be a real opponent in the race with the Live at Pompeii version for best live version ever recorded. The music on this cd's is very good and about 1/3 part is plain brilliant.

The DVD. The only thing I want to say the video is perfect. Beatifully filmed and put on a disc. The light effects are in use of the music and give it an extra magic vibe. Every member of the band is filmed in proportion and the most important instruments are filmed when needed, like during solo's. Nothing to complain here! A bit of a dissapointment is that a lot of songs are missing. But OK.. a two hour show is long enough.

So in summary. A magical live performance, with great camara work and a great production. Four stars well deserved here. A lot of the quality is here because of the financial possibilties other bands don't have, nontheless this is a great liveshow.