LIVE 8
On July 2, 2005 at 6:00 PM EST US, Pink Floyd played for the first time in 24 years. Pink Floyd as Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. It was the first time in 11 years that Pink Floyd has played as Pink Floyd. I will get into the gear used in a bit but I'd like to comment on this momentous occasion.
Live 8 as everyone in the world knows, was created to make the public aware of the poverty and hunger epidemic sweeping Africa. Bob Geldof, together with many of the worlds top artists untied for a world event held over 9 stages in 9 different countries. Now on to Pink Floyd....
After watching the performance I was awe struck. These four men played to near perfection and did not miss a beat. It was like there was no 24 year gap. By all accounts, all four of them looked like they really enjoyed themselves. David Gilmour, perhaps the most tenuous of the bunch, looked concerned about how the show would come off, the transition from lap steel to his black Strat, and how the band would perform, but as the set wore on, things settled, and they looked like they were having a grand time. Roger Waters sang along to every tune, moved around and rarely did not have a smile on his face. David Gilmour played fantastically, tone immaculate.
A little bit of Floyd trivia for you...
It was the first time since 1981 that Roger Waters had
performed Comfortably Numb live with Pink Floyd
It was the first time since 1975 that Roger Waters had performed Breath and
Reprise live with Pink Floyd
It was the first time since 1977 that Roger Waters had performed Wish You Were
here live with Pink Floyd
It was the first time since 1981 that David Gilmour used his 1970's Black
Stratocaster live with Pink Floyd, and first time since 1984 that it was used in
a live performance
It was the first time ever that Roger Waters played bass on Comfortably Numb
live with Pink Floyd
It was the first time since the early 70's that the four of them played alone on
stage without a slew of accompanying musicians
It was the first time David Gilmour ever used a pedal steel live on Breathe (Renwick
played it on 1994 tour and Gilmour didn't play one live in the 70's)
I'm not going to get into what will happen next, I will however state that a lot of positives came from this performance and as for the future its up to David and Roger.
Now on to the gear...
David Gilmour used the Pete Cornish All Tube Effects Board detailed on this site. In addition he also used the Univibe which was heard on Breath and Reprise. Coupled with two HIWATT DR103's into a WEM 4 X 12 and a Marshall 4 X 12 Cab.
David Gilmour resurrected his black 70-71 Fender Stratocaster. This guitar has seen many changes in necks over the years, but it now has a '57 reissue Fender neck similar to his '57 Candy Apple Red Fender Stratocaster. It has original 70-71 pickups, a shortened tremolo arm and a modification which is a toggle switch between the volume pot and the 5 way switch which when activated gives him the ability to use the neck and the bridge position together. See my page on the mod for this.
For guitar cables, David Gilmour used Evidence Audio Lyric HG cables . They are also reportedly used in his amp combos aboard his Astoria house boat recording studio.
For both the "Big" solo's, Money and Comfortably Numb, David Gilmour used the Pete Cornish G-2 as the main distortion, which was a departure from the Big Muff. Quite Frankly they were phenomenal tones on the Live 8 set.
This incidentally was the same set up for the Strat Pack DVD, However he only used one DR103 for that show and switched between his #1 Strat and the Candy Apple Red Strat with EMG Pick ups.