70s rock icon announces live comeback with first UK shows in almost a decade-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

David Gilmour is returning to the Royal Albert Hall (Picture: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty)

British rock icon David Gilmour has announced that he’ll be playing his first UK shows in almost a decade later this year.

The legendary songwriter and guitarist, 78, rose to fame in the 1970s as part of the progressive rock group Pink Floyd, becoming one of their leading members.

He’s now announced that after almost a decade away, he’ll be returning to the stage with a run of six shows at the Royal Albert Hall in October.

The series of concerts will begin on October 9, with shows also slated for the 10th, 11th, 12th, 14th, and 15th, eight years on from when he last played at the iconic venue.

Early access to tickets is available to people who pre-order a copy of Gilmour’s latest album, while general sale begins on Friday, May 10.

The On An Island singer and songwriter called the Royal Albert Hall his ‘favourite venue in England’ in a promotional video, citing its ‘wonderful atmosphere’ and describing it as a ‘beautiful place’.

He last played there in 2016, with the show proving to be his last in the United Kingdom for eight years – he did play private shows during the Covid-19 pandemic that were live-streamed at the time.

Joining in 1967, shortly after the release of Pink Floyd’s first album, Gilmour became one of the band’s principal songwriters alongside Roger Waters.

After the group’s eventual split in 1994, Gilmour focused on a solo career that eventually spawned four albums – he had already released two solo records while part of the band.

It’s the first time he’s played shows in the UK since 2016 (Picture: Lester Cohen/Getty)

Gilmour won’t be performing much music he wrote with Roger Waters (Pictreu: Dave M. Benett/Getty)

And in an interview with Uncut he has warned fans not to expect too many Pink Floyd songs, with his solo sets primarily focusing on the songs he wrote for albums such as About Face, Rattle That Lock, and new album Luck and Strange.

‘[I have an] unwillingness to revisit the Pink Floyd of the 1970s,’ he told the music magazine. ‘[The 1980s or the 1990s] might be better represented,’ he added, saying the 1960s might also get a look in.

The root of Gilmour’s decision not to play the band’s most famous material, from albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall might stem from his fallout with former bandmate Roger Waters.

Waters dramatically left the band in 1985, saying about his departure: ‘If I hadn’t [split from the band], the financial repercussions would have wiped me out completely.’

In 2022, Waters re-recorded the entirety of The Dark Side of the Moon, and the two also got into an argument about the re-release of the band’s 1977 album Animals.

Speaking of the feud, Waters took to Twitter in 2020 to explain his side of the story: ‘David thinks he owns it. I think he thinks that because I left the band in 1985, that he owns Pink Floyd, that he is Pink Floyd and I’m irrelevant and I should just keep my mouth shut.’

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