Tag Archive for "london" tag

David and the band performed on three consecutive nights at the Royal Albert Hall back in May 2006, the first of these concerts being two years ago today.

If you were lucky enough to catch one, two, or even all three of these shows, please share what stands out most clearly in your mind.

Was it one of the surprise guest appearances? ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’? Getting to hear a new album performed in full? That delightful fusion of lights, lasers, dry ice and screaming guitar on everyone’s favourite best-part-of-half-an-hour-long piece, ‘Echoes’?

Whatever it was, we’d like to hear about it.

The chatroom is closed today, but will be open tomorrow between 13:00 and 15:00 (UK).

As if you didn’t already have enough to look forward to from the ‘Remember That Night’ DVD, here’s something else. (Don’t say that David isn’t good to you.)

In January, David recorded a new version of ‘Island Jam’, with Richard, Stevie and Guy.

I’m sure that you’ll love it. So sure, in fact, that it will be on disc two.

‘Remember That Night’ is released worldwide in September. Disc one contains 23 songs from the Royal Albert Hall, London. If you still don’t know which songs are on there, please click here.

By the way, for those who were confused: ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ is plain old ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ on this DVD. End of story.

A summary of what’s on disc two will follow tomorrow.

Today’s scheduled chat has been cancelled, sorry, but the chatroom will be open for business again next week. Please see the calendar for details of future sessions, and accept my apologies for any disappointment caused.

David brings his triumphant three-night residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall to a climactic close tonight.

If you’ll be there, cheering the band on (at all the right moments, of course: not until ‘High Hopes’ has fully ended being just one example), let us know.

There have been some surprises throughout the tour and who knows what’s in store tonight?

As always, the songs performed will be revealed below. If you don’t want to know which songs were performed, please don’t read on.

Judging by the comments made, and general reaction by, some fans during the shows, it seems that many people are genuinely surprised to hear certain tracks. Naturally, we don’t wish to spoil the surprise for anyone who might be clueless as to the possible set.

Here’s a surprise that we are happy to spoil…

Tonight’s concert is being professionally filmed for a DVD, which is hopefully due out later this year, so we would be very grateful if you could leave your cameras, PDAs and mobile phones at home.

People putting their arms in the air and bathing white light everywhere has been a constant topic of discussion since the tour began in Germany on 10 March. The consensus appears to be that it’s selfish, rude and disrespectful to wave something that emits a bright light at eye-level and above, thereby blocking the view of the person or persons sitting behind you.

RAH staff will confiscate your equipment if you repeatedly annoy audience members, so please show some common courtesy for the people seated around you and let them enjoy the concert without bothersome distraction.

If you are being irritated by such actions, please let it be known by discretely requesting the assistance of a member of staff. Other fans will no doubt thank you for it.

The blog’s meeting place of choice is still the Queen’s Arms pub, located at 30 Queens Gate Mews, so drop in at around 7PM and see who’s there if you have time before the concert.

Have a wonderful night and don’t forget that tonight’s show starts an hour later – at 8:30PM.

Please note that no comments will be published until tomorrow afternoon.

Finally, after reading what seems like thousands of reviews, I see what you mean about these shows being a bit of alright. David’s not a bad guitarist, is he? Not bad at all…

But bias aside, we do love reading what you thought of the performances, so please keep it up.

The setlist will obviously be mentioned, blah blah blah… If you don’t want to know what will be performed tonight, then please don’t read the comments below.

Tonight’s concert is being filmed, so please don’t use cameras, mobile phones, PDAs etc. to try and capture footage of the band. These things are incredibly annoying for the people sitting behind you, not to mention the people on stage who put their hearts and souls into the music for you.

A DVD of the London shows will be out later this year, so whatever you film is going to be pretty pathetic in comparison. For everybody’s sake, just don’t bother.

Have a super time tonight, everyone. You are surely in for a treat.

Once again, if you want to meet with other blog readers for a drink and a chinwag before the show, then pop in the Queen’s Arms at 30 Queens Gate Mews.

David and his band play the first of three concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall tonight. Although these have been ‘sold out’ since day one, the RAH has released more seats in the choir area, right behind the musicians, for all three nights. See davidgilmour.com for more details.

If you’re going to this evening’s show, do let us know how you’re feeling at the moment.

When you get back and feeling has returned to you your fingertips, do let us know how the night went.

You know what we’re like here at davidgilmour.com – we want to know every little detail, so don’t be shy.

As always, the setlist will be mentioned among the fan comments below. If you don’t want to know which songs were performed, don’t read the fan comments.

As you know, tonight’s concert is being filmed for inclusion on David’s new DVD. Please refrain from using cameras and mobile phones! They will be especially irritating tonight.

You’ll see posters around the Hall requesting the same thing. Please pay close attention to them.

RAH staff will be particularly strict over the next three nights and anyone found to be breaching these rules will have their offending camera/phone confiscated immediately.

No matter how many pictures or videos you record, they won’t match the quality of the DVD that will be out later this year, so please don’t use any cameras during the performance.

This request comes not only from us, the people who will be filming, the RAH staff and the fans who have already commented on how annoying people with cameras are. It also comes from the band members who have been irritated by flashing lights throughout the tour. They are trying to perform for us, after all.

So no cameras tonight, thank you.

Enjoy the concert, everyone. If you want to meet with other fans before the show, then the Queen’s Arms at 30 Queens Gate Mews seems to be the place for it.

Following on from Monday’s blog entry, we’d like to address your concerns about being denied entry into the Royal Albert Hall if you have a ticket you swapped for another, received as a gift or purchased from an unauthorised seller.

Although we have been strongly discouraging all dealings with unauthorised sellers (such as eBay) since December, we acknowledge that many people still went ahead and purchased tickets against our advice.

This made our task of challenging the profiteers even harder.

The Royal Albert Hall staff have diligently monitored online auctions for months and have forced a great many to close early, meaning that the would-be seller’s only option was to return his ticket to the RAH for a refund, making an extra ticket available to the public at a fair price.

This was, clearly, to stop touts from profiteering and fans from being exploited. We did not want you to obtain tickets in this way and at this cost.

If you purchased a ticket from eBay and are now in receipt of it (assuming it’s a genuine ticket, which we cannot confirm – you’ll have to take your chance on the night and see what RAH staff have to say), then you’ve slipped through the net. In this case, you will be admitted. The seller has made his profit, you are, quite likely, out of pocket, but you will be able to see the concert.

In part and in principle, we would like to deny you entry as, by bidding on eBay, you have exacerbated the problem of ticket profiteering. But this would seem unfair. We have always understood the desire to obtain tickets by any available means and have no wish to deny the fans from seeing David in concert.

As you can imagine, this has been a real dilemma for some of us.

Our concern has always been to stop people from selling tickets for personal profit at the expense of David’s genuine fans. We do not want fans to have to miss out.

The same applies to anyone who has purchased a ticket from an unauthorised seller, such as a ticket agent or broker. Assuming that your ticket is legitimate, you will be allowed into the venue.

If you were given a ticket as a gift, you will not be denied entry. We have not stopped people from purchasing tickets on another person’s behalf, so you have nothing to worry about.

If you have arranged ticket swaps with other fans and have concerns over being refused entry, then you are also safe from threat of being turned away.

Lastly and very importantly, if you have tickets that you do not want, then by no means should you consider selling them as an option. As we have said all along, please return them to the point of sale for a refund so that other fans – the fans who have played by the rules all along and patiently contacted the authorised sellers, as we advised, to enquire about returns – may be given the opportunity to purchase them at a fair price.

By selling tickets privately, you are exacerbating the problem of ticket profiteering.

And yes, we’d like to see lots of appreciation and gratitude for making this difficult decision…

We have had many requests recently from fans wishing to sell their Royal Albert Hall tickets to fans on the blog.

After some consideration, we have decided that this is not a good idea, for several reasons.

First and foremost, after our stance on eBay-type profiteering, it would be hypocritical of us to allow a miniature eBay to exist here.

Please see the ‘Your ticket concerns’ entry of 2 February, for more on this.

Even though many of the requests have clearly stated that these tickets are available only to "real fans" at face value, sadly we cannot guarantee that this will always be the case. We are not prepared to put fans at risk of exploitation, nor are we prepared to intervene should things go wrong. Too many things can go wrong.

Frankly, what we have done in challenging eBay profiteers is already over and above what anyone else has done. Tickets are not usually refundable. That our authorised sellers have accepted returns is a big deal. That we have taken tickets from would-be profiteers and made them available to fans at the normal price is a very big deal.

So, if you have spare tickets that you wish to sell, then instead of looking to sell them privately to individuals – which is risky for both parties – we once again urge you to return them to the point of sale for a refund.

This will mean that those fans who telephone the Royal Albert Hall box office daily with their fingers (and toes) crossed will have a better chance of successfully acquiring tickets.

It also prevents the risk of failed payments, tickets being lost in the post and refused entry into the Royal Albert Hall on the night of the show.

Please note that no requests to sell, or even swap, tickets will be considered from now on.

More tomorrow on what to do if you have purchased a ticket from an unauthorised seller, such as eBay, and are worried about being refused admittance on the night, or if you have already arranged ticket swaps with other fans and want to know where you both stand.

The extra tickets for the three Royal Albert Hall shows, which were released today, had completely sold out by 2:30PM.

Congratulations to all those who were able to snap up the last of the tickets. We hope you will have a great night, whichever show you will be attending.

Commiserations to those who missed out, but we might just have something to cheer you up. Keep reading and all will be revealed shortly….

Another rehearsal photo for you now, and this time it’s Richard Wright, Guy Pratt and Jon Carin.

Many more coming soon.

As you’ve probably seen from the Latest News page, we are delighted to be able to release some reissued tickets for the London shows at the Royal Albert Hall.

Thanks to the dedication of Royal Albert Hall staff, who have been monitoring eBay, closing auctions and encouraging people to return their unwanted tickets instead of reselling them (so that they may be reissued and give fans the chance to attend a concert when they thought they had missed out), we can now give you advance warning that these tickets will be going on sale on Monday 27 February.

You can only get them from the Royal Albert Hall’s Box Office. Their telephone number is 020 7589 8212 and staff will be available to take your calls from 9am. You can also order online.

Apologies for previously suggesting a trip to the Box Office – this won’t now be necessary.

For further details, please see the Royal Albert Hall website.

There are tickets for each of the three shows (so that’s Monday 29 May, Tuesday 30 May and Wednesday 31 May), the majority of which are in the ‘choir’ section of the stage, so you will be behind the musicians.

You can see a seating chart here.

Unless you are sure about purchasing these tickets, please do not contact the Box Office on Monday morning. These tickets are not returnable and we only offer them now because of our efforts against individual sellers who have been caught trying to sell their tickets in order to profit from them (and also because so many people from outside the UK purchased tickets that they found they could not make use of, and nobody wanted there to be any empty seats). We will not be giving refunds in return for these tickets, so do not buy unless you are certain that you can attend.

Please note that all of the above refers to the three London shows only and does not apply to any other venue. We will, of course, let you know if we hear of any other tickets going on sale for any venue worldwide, so please do not ask us for details. We will let you know the details when we have them.

The very best of luck to everyone who hopes to snap up a pair of tickets, and hats off to the hard-working staff at the Royal Albert Hall who have made this possible.

We are lucky to have the vast knowledge and assistance of someone who cares a great deal about how the fans fare when trying to purchase tickets, and she has kindly been answering many of the concerns you have expressed. Please see the points below before asking any other questions. We are doing this voluntarily to try to be of help, so please don’t make more work for us!

First of all, SEE Tickets have told us that they will give refunds, but you will lose your booking fee. They usually refuse to exchange, refund, transfer or return tickets unless the event in question is cancelled, but they are making an exception for David Gilmour’s London shows. Whether you booked online or by telephone, please see the SEE Tickets website for contact details and staff will be pleased to help you.

Obviously, this means that more tickets will become available as SEE Tickets accept returns, thus giving hope to those without tickets and reducing the need for anyone to consider unauthorised sellers. More on brokers tomorrow.

We have also been informed that, if you sold your unwanted tickets privately and at face value, then the sale would be valid. We are only trying to stop people from touting the tickets at higher than face value prices. That’s why eBay auctions are being monitored closely.

In response to the few rogue comments we have received mocking our stance on internet auction sites and individual profiteers, then have no doubt: we can indeed find out enough about which tickets are being offered for sale and force auctions to close. Anyone found to be selling tickets for obscene amounts will not receive their tickets when they are despatched. It’s as simple as that. If you are thinking of obtaining a ticket from such sites, we urge you not to take the risk, as the seller will never receive the ticket he is trying to sell you.

If you have tickets and do not wish to return them to the point of sale for a refund, then you are free to give your tickets to a friend. Names will not be checked on the door unless you have ordered tickets for collection from the Royal Albert Hall on the night. If you are collecting your tickets on the night, then remember that you will need the credit card used to purchase them in order to collect them. Again, we do not wish to stop people from circulating tickets if they are not able to use them. We want a full house. We just don’t want tickets being sold for personal profit at the expense of genuine fans.

Royal Albert Hall staff will not admit anyone who does not have their ticket with them, regardless of where they got it or who bought it for them. So if you have a pair of tickets and are planning on meeting a friend inside the venue, make sure that your friend has his or her ticket. Alternatively, please arrange to meet outside the venue. These are simple suggestions, but these things do happen frequently and cause unnecessary delays.

We cannot arrange trades or get involved in personal agreements conducted through this website. We have been happy to allow fans to post details of their situations here and to invite e-mail correspondence from others who may have spare tickets. Please be sensible if you are going to do this and appreciate that we cannot intervene or act as a middleman in any deal.

We hope that’s of some use and, as always, we wish you the best of luck in locating tickets in a fair manner.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: A FURTHER CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR  A LUCKY FEW

If you have received an e-mail this afternoon from David Gilmour (yeah, right, I thought the same), which congratulates you on being "One of the lucky few to have access to ticket sales for the David Gilmour Tour 2006," and includes a link which offers you the chance to purchase a pair of tickets for the Royal Albert Hall show on 31 May, as well as giving you a personal draw number to allow you to proceed with the sale, then please do not treat it as spam.

It is not fraudulent and you are not at any risk. It is legitimate and completely correct. Trinity Street (the facilitators of the Advance Ticket Booking system) managed to discover a very few extra tickets, so were able to send out an additional message to a choice few.

So, if you are one of the lucky ones to have received this message today, then feel free to purchase your tickets following the simple instructions. Congratulations!

If you did not receive this e-mail, then I am afraid there are no tickets left for you to purchase as the concert is now, officially, a sell out.

A slight change for you today. We will be throwing in the odd ‘Theatre of the Day’ among Polly’s exclusive studio shots, so you can find out a little more about the venues that David has chosen for his tour of Europe and North America.

Many of you have questioned David’s reason for opting for theatres instead of large arenas. As this feature hopes to show, David has chosen to perform at beautiful locations before smaller crowds instead of re-visiting those vast halls where he entertained thousands of people for so many years in his Pink Floyd days.

Today’s featured theatre is South Kensington’s finest, the Royal Albert Hall. David will be visiting this grand setting three times in May. The historic building, which was first opened to the public in 1871, is an arts venue dedicated to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, whose reigned lasted more than 63 years.

With a maximum permitted capacity of 7,000, it hosts the Proms each summer and the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in November, as well as a multitude of events raging from concerts to conferences, ballet to boxing. Built almost entirely of red brick and terracotta, the hall is oval in shape, measuring some 272 feet by 238 feet around the outside, and has a glass and iron dome roof which is 135 feet high.

If you’ll be seeing David performing here in May, then you’re in for a treat, because – as you can see from this picture – it truly is a beautiful venue.

And yes, the music should be pretty good, too.

We hope you enjoyed ‘Three Men in a Boat’ last night. For those who couldn’t see it, David played a snippet from ‘Smile’, which is one of the tracks from ‘On An Island’, describing it as "quiet and acoustic-y." However, he made a point of saying that not all of the songs on his new album are like that, so make of that what you will. We also got a tour around parts of his houseboat studio, Astoria, and some history on the boat thrown in for good measure.

That’s all for today, but there’ll be one of Polly’s pictures tomorrow.