50 years ago, Pink Floyd along with Adrian Maben produced one of the most iconic rock films in history, Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. In the ancient Italian ruins of the city of Pompeii, Maben videoed Pink Floyd playing inside an empty amphitheatre.
It took 45 years for David Gilmour of Pink Floyd to make his way back to Pompeii, Italy. The iconic singer and guitarist revisited the amphitheater where Pink Floyd had previously graced the stage in 1971 and performed “Comfortably Numb”. The performance has gained over 159M views on YouTube. Just watch this stunning and iconic performance below.
Their memorable performance was captured on film and released in 1972 as “Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii”. During that show, they delivered tracks from their “Meddle” album to an empty amphitheater. Recently, Gilmour brought his “Rattle That Lock Tour” to the historic Pompeii venue, delivering a performance for the ages. Before the concert, Mayor Ferdinando Uliano honored Gilmour by naming him an honorary citizen of Pompeii.
On the 29th of May, 2006, David Bowie would join David Gilmour on stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall to give his last ever live performance in the UK. The formidable duo performed two songs together at Gilmour’s three-night stand concert “On an Island Tour”.
The crowd were completely stunned when Bowie walked on stage during an encore where they got more than they bargained for. The crowd gave both musicians a standing ovation as Gilmour casually welcomed Bowie to the stage. Bowie’s performance was very unexpected as he had been lying low since his 2004 “Reality” tour was cancelled after he required an emergency angioplasty.
His presence at the concert was a massive surprise for millions of people, but a much welcomed return for the super star. He sang alongside David Gilmour’s sensational guitar solos and Richard Wright’s retro sounding keyboard.
They performed ‘Arnold Layne’ in honour of Syd Barett. Many fans saw this as a tribute to Pink Floyd’s founding member, Syd Barett, who not only wrote the song he also named the band.
Syd was also the lead singer in the band before Gilmour’s introduction as his replacement – following his tough relationship with substance abuse.
To close the concert, David Bowie sang verses of the set closing “Comfortably Numb”. People commented on his voice not quite providing the power needed throughout the first verse with lots of added echo and reverb on his vocals, however, the performance still made it on “Remember That Night, a 2007 DVD of Gilmour’s residency”.
More importantly, David Gilmour was clearly happy with the duet, saying in 2007, “David Bowie might not have worked with Pink Floyd, but it fits with me.”