David Gilmour and Roger Waters, the two main forces that drove Pink Floyd, reunited onstage for the very first time in almost five years over the weekend at an English benefit event. The team-up was unannounced and occurred in front of 200 attendees in Oxfordshire at a benefit for Hoping Foundation that was raising money to benefit young Palestinian refugees.
The four song set from the duo included “To Know Him Is To Love Him” from Phil Spector, a sound check staple for Pink Floyd according to Gilmour’s blog, as well as band classics “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” “Comfortably Numb,” and “Wish You Were Here.”
The set on Saturday night was the very first time that Gilmour and Waters had performed together on the same stage since the reunion performance by Pink Floyd at Live 8 in 2005 in London. The Hoping Foundation performance from the duo helped to raise 350,000 pounds. Waters played acoustic guitar instead of bass. Waters and Gilmour were joined by Jonjo Grisdale and Harry Waters, keyboardists, Andy Newmark, drummer, Chester Kamen, guitarist, and Guy Pratt, bassist. Ironically it was Guy Pratt who replaced Walter during Pink Floyd’s Division Bell, Gilmour-led era.
As was previously reported by Rolling Stone, Gilmour had been asked by Waters to join Water’s “The Wall” 30th anniversary tour this year. However his former band mate had declined. In May Waters said, David is not interested at all. I could probably have been interested in doing more but he isn’t interested.
When Richard Wright, keyboardist, died in 2008 hopes for a Pink Floyd official reunion tour were practically extinguished. At the time Gilmour declared, Richard Wright can’t be replaced by anyone.
The Wall tour, even without Gilmour, is one of this summer’s few outings to have been able to stave off concert industry struggles. Artists including the Jonas Brothers and Rihanna and tours such as American Idols Live and Lilith Fair have had to cancel dates, while the 30th anniversary tour for The Wall has caused Waters to double or triple or even quadruple the dates he is performing for certain markets.
