Customer Reviews

David Gilmour: Remember That Night - Live At The Royal Albert Hall [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(195)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Literally worth five times the price and an equal in it's own way to PULSE, with intimacy and a freer feel offsetting the more minimal lighting (although enormously impressive in its own right.)

As the other reviewers have given an accurate overview I'll just mention one cut, that being "Comfortably Numb," which you and I know every second of by heart, it's in our blood.

This performance features David Bowie sharing lead vocals. Now the idea of anyone but Mr. Gilmour taking over vocals on this song is enough to make my hair catch on fire, but THIS WORKS. It actually becomes a Bowie song while remaining a Floyd epoch. It's thrilling, it's almost dreamlike to watch a singer of equal caliber and credibility to Mr. Gilmour share this song and to take it's inherent drama and mystery to another level entirely.

The DVD also points out what a superb disc "On An Island" is, sadly overlooked by too many Floyd fans for not being heavy enough (man.)

And it's in high def - you can almost reach out and shake Rick Wright's hand.

Extras are top flight, set is an incredible bargain and you'll have trouble turning it off and going to bed. Mr. Gilmour once again proves that he's in a class all by himself, a category of artist of which there is only one.

Another reviewer mentioned that having Echoes here was worth the price of the DVD alone. I would agree, and add that having Wots..Uh the Deal also makes this worth the bucks. Too many of these songs he has done before ad infinitum (do we really need another take on Coming Back to Life or High Hopes??), but having this great track from my favorite Floyd album "Obscured By Clouds", is just great! Since that album is probably their least known (and certainly most underrated, in my book), it may serve to convince people to go back and see where this beautiful song came from. Other than that, great picture and sound, and a ton of extras (not to mention what must be 3 1/2 hours of music), makes this one a must-have! And I only paid $11.99!!!

...AbsolutelyPositively Stunning!

Try not to sit there in complete awe as Gilmour and his band (and a few guests) flawlessly execute the entire ON AN ISLAND album, as well as a goodly portion of PF material that will have you scratching your head and saying to yourself...Hmmm...Waters / Gilmour...Gilmour / Waters...

I was a bit skeptical of this offering initially, and having seen Roger Waters and HIS band back in June, I was prepared to accept Gilmour's show as "another" in their little back and forth.

But I realize, and happily, that there's more than enough room for the two of them, and you can never get enough great music, no matter who's interpreting it.

The full-length ECHOES alone is worth the cost of this package.

What does that tell ya?

And when rock royalty (Gilmour) invites Rock Royalty (David Bowie) in to participate...you feel a bit privileged just to be a part of the action.

A stunning package and a must-have for any David Gilmour or PF fan.

One thing that does puzzle me tho' is this...why does he virtually ignore the first two solo records...DAVID GILMOUR and ABOUT FACE?

I'd love to hear anything from either of those two albums.

BUT.........I ain't complaining...jessaskin'...

...is all.

Enjoy.

Any way you look at it, this DVD package is a great value for the money - the sticker on the outside says it all - "Over 5 hours of footage plus bonus content, including additional tracks, music videos, documentaries and photo gallery." Given the wide variety of songs, it's difficult to characterize this DVD. I guess you could say this is a combination of the heartfelt On An Island songs, with Pink Floyd classics. A considerable amount of work went into it - there is something here for everybody.

Director David Mallet (who also did the highly acclaimed Pink Floyd Pulse DVD) has put together a great mix of shots from the many cameras in the Royal Albert Hall, and which combines a selection of clear shots of the band with the artsy/abstract ones (I especially liked the closeups of Gilmour's fingers working the guitar). This is not Pulse (an arena extravaganza show), but rather a rendering of the On An Island tour show which was geared for theaters (many lights all around the stage, lots of smoke, and some lasers during the later Floyd songs). This show is more moody and personal, with more feeling, than an in-your-face arena show. More about the people and the music - more genuine or intimate in a way (I do love arena shows too). It was filmed at the end of the tour, so the band had the songs down to perfection (and this is the best from the 3 nights of Albert Hall shows). They obviously enjoyed doing it. Amazon provides a good example of the video with their excerpt from Breathe.

David's band includes Richard Wright from Pink Floyd, Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music (an excellent addition, who also co-produced and played in the OAI CD), Jon Carin, Guy Pratt, and Steve DiStanislao. Guests include David Crosby and Graham Nash, David Bowie, and Robert Wyatt.

Disk One is all concert, and is a full 2 ½ hours long (no filler breaks between songs, like on some DVDs - Sir Paul are you listening?!). Songs are: Speak To Me, Breathe, Time, Breathe, Castellorizon, On An Island, The Blue, Red Sky at Night, This Heaven, Then I Close My Eyes, Smile, Take A Breath, A Pocketful of Stones, Where We Start, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Fat Old Sun, Coming Back To Life, High Hopes, Echoes, Wish You Were Here, Find The Cost Of Freedom, Arnold Layne (w/Bowie) and Comfortably Numb (w/Bowie). The performance of Echoes (23 minutes) is worth getting the DVD alone. The fast moving band silhouettes during the strobe sequence of Take A Breath are brilliant. Bowie makes Comfortably Numb his own.

Disk Two has lots of extras: 30 minutes of Albert Hall extras (Wot's Uh The Deal, Dominoes, Wearing The Inside out, Arnold Layne (w/Richard Wright) and Comfortably Numb (w/Richard Wright)); Europe tour documentary; Dark Globe performance from the tour; acoustic studio Echoes (not listed); Astronomy Domine (Abbey Road); This Heaven (AOL sessions); BBC Mermaid Theatre concert (Castellorizon, On An Island, The Blue, Take A Breath, High Hopes); Making of OAI documentary; West Coast tour documentary; music videos (On An Island & Smile), Island Jam 2007; a photo gallery.

There has been talk of Easter Eggs. The "hidden" material I'm aware of are a 7-minute fun acoustical studio version of Echoes that runs right after Dark Globe on Disk Two, and that you can click Enter when the wire-man appears during the documentary for extra material (love to know if there's anything else - comments?).

The package is a tri-fold digipak, containing two DVDs and a 20-page booklet. The booklet is a cool collection of photo collages, including lots of band pics, news clippings, and tour paraphernalia. Audio options are Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Stereo. Amazon also shows a Blu-ray version of the DVD coming out later this year (the concert was filmed in high definition).

Overall, this is a generous package by one of rock's greatest guitar masters - excellent music, audio and video - highly recommended!

Why in the hell do so many feel compelled to rip on one or the other? I saw Pink Floyd in Phoenix on their Division Bell Tour and then Waters in Vegas on his In the Flesh tour. Both of them are geniuses. Pure and simple.
Gilmour was recently voted "Best Guitarist of all time" by Guitar magazine, UK and desrves it. No one has a feel for lead guitar melody like him.
Waters is superb on lyrics and really knows how to put music together [listen to him and Jeff Beck on Amused to Death]. It just doesn't get any better. The fact that these two are no longer together does not mean one is a loser, or one is better, or any damn thing. It just means we now have two different sources of listening pleasure.

I love David Gilmour and all that he brought to Pink Floyd. His solo work is stellar. The fact that this great performance and line up of guests is thwarted by a poor video source/capture/transfer is a real disappointment on BluRay. The grainy look on the distant camera angles is distracting when run through PS3>HDMI>Sony XBR4 LCDtv(true 1080p/120hz). Even the 'on stage' close ups lack the vivid feel you expect with high definition. If you have seen the Cream 2005 HD DVD shot at the Royal Albert Hall, you know a true high definition concert experience. The video is pristine. This Gilmour compilation has stupendous audio quality, but it just does not make up for the non-hi def looking vid.

I knew this DVD would be great, but I had no idea it would be brilliant! As much as I liked Pulse, I like this show much better. I think I may have watched Echoes 20 times since I bought it. I couldn't believe it was only $12 bucks (Best Buy Version). I think David Gilmour is timeless. He sounds amazing after all these years. I don't think there is any doubt that he is one of the best Guitar players of our generation. I think almost every review I read said that Echoes alone makes the DVD worth buying and of course they are right. Rick Wright and David still harmonize beautifully together and Dave's guitar and Ricks Keyboards were amazing. I enjoyed all of the Documentary as well. Another highlight of the DVD was David's performance of "Dark Globe". I believe that it was Dave's tribute to Syd after he heard the news that Syd passed away. It was very emotional, you can see Syd Barrett meant a lot to Dave and it showed on that song. All in all, this DVD is spectacular and it is highly reccomended for all Floyd fans.

I saw the DVD release premier in Arlington, VA. WOW!!! David is as great as ever!! It was wonderful watching it on the theater screen. The whole showing was about two and a half hours long, but somehow the concert portion seemed kind of short. Or, maybe it was my perception - time flies when you are having a good time.

In the beginning, the band plays several songs from David's solo works with Crosby and Nash (I am not a big fan of david's solo music, so I don't know the titles... but they sounded great!). Then comes "Arnold Lane" featuring David Bowie, "High Hopes", "Shine On....", "Wish You Were Here", "Time", "Breath (reprise)", and then, the band ends the concert with amazing rendition of the masterpiece "Echoes". I got emotional from the beginning, but "Echoes" really did it - Wow! I don't know how to describe it... it is amazing! Richard Wright seems to have great fun with this piece incorporating more interesting variations on his keyboard. The pyrotechnique on stage is at it's peak during this piece, too.

Those of you who missed the concert like myself, get this DVD - it's a 'must' for any Pink Floyd/David Gilmour fan.

Well, initially I had a similar problem with this DVD that other reviewers were having since High Hopes and Coming Back To Life were skipping. However, I exchanged it and so far there aren't any problems. There must be a few defective DVDs out there. I still watched the rest of the defective DVD of course. Putting all that aside, this DVD is just incredible. I agree with some of the other reviewers that it is better than Pulse (which I also love). I feel in this DVD, you get a much clearer picture of what a brilliant guitarist and musician Gilmour is. He is one of the best guitar players ever and you get plenty of close ups of him playing the guitar. The focus is on Gilmour and the band playing the music instead of the visualization that exhibits Pulse. Yes, there are many lighting effects but I feel that they don't distract the viewer from the brilliance of the performance. The music is outstanding. Great performances of Time, Breathe, Echoes, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, High Hopes, Coming Back To Life, Fat Old Sun, Arnold Layne, and On An Island in its entirety. This DVD even has alternate versions of most of the songs plus a great version of "Wots..Uh the Deal." While the album On An Island isn't as good as the best albums by Floyd, it is still a fantastic album and it is even better when Gilmour performs it live. A definite plus for this DVD is the fact that Gilmour had Wright with him so you get half of Pink Floyd performing. Those two have always been the best MUSICIANS in Pink Floyd anyway. Waters is a very gifted songwriter but I wouldn't call him an outstanding bassist since Gilmour played many of the complicated bass parts for many Floyd songs. Other highlights of this DVD include the tour documentary and the documentary of the making of On An Island. You even get to witness Gilmour and Waters talking to each other and shaking hands although they both looked a little uncomfortable. Mason even has a cameo apperance. I also must add that you get to see the band play the intro to Time (instead of having to watch the clock video), you get to see the musicians play High Hopes (instead of having to watch that video like on the Pulse performance), and you get to see much more of Gilmour's second solo on Comfortably Numb. I can't say enough about the brilliance of this DVD. It has turned into one of my favorite DVDs in a matter of only a few days. If your a fan of David Gilmour and Pink Floyd, you will love this DVD. Also, for those of you who support Waters over Gilmour, remember that even though Waters was responsible for many of the Floyd's compositions, Gilmour (and Wright) was the best musician in the band and also the best singer. He's the one who played all those brilliant guitar parts and he's the one who sang classics like Time (with Wright), Money, Breathe, Welcome to the Machine, Us and Them, Wish You Were Here, Echoes (with Wright), and many more. Buy this DVD. It is absolutely incredible.

I saw the Simulcast theatrical launch of this DVD last weekend at a local movie theater. It was fantastic. They live Satellite Simulcast an opening and closing interview set piece with David and band mates in a movie house in England, wrapping around a 'theatrical' cut of the DVD. The concert footage and music were spectacular. But I have to say that I almost enjoyed the 'On Island Tour' documentary footage even more than the show footage. Great interviews and wow what great locations for the tour shows.

A must for Floyd/Gilmour fans.

Irony is the spice of life footnote:

Turns out that completely coincidentally and unbeknownst to each other, David and Roger both booked separate studios in the same Music Studio in England, when David was rehearsing for his tour. There is a small piece where they meet and talk briefly on the grounds of the studio.

Enjoy everyone.