David Gilmour.
I've been a bigtime Pink Floyd fan since the late 1970s, to the point where I think others consider me to be somewhat obsessed- I have a load of old bootlegs as well as all of their released stuff.

Geek? You have no idea.

Anyway- when they did the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, for a variety of reasons I couldn't go. (Okay, the tickets were $80 and Nurse Ratched screamed about me wanting to spend that much on a stupid concert.) The Division Bell tour never came anywhere near me. Gilmour had made comments about rock 'n' roll being a young man's game, so I figured that was the end of that.

So imagine my reaction when I heard about the On An Island tour.

All the venues sold out within about twenty minutes of opening ticket sales. I missed on the NYC show, so my only real hope was LA. I got on there the moment it opened- and got one of the few remaining tickets.

In case you didn't know, LA is over 3000 miles away from here.

Foaming at the mouth, I whipped out my credit card and contacted a friend who's a travel agent. She made out through my raving what my needs were and booked me a flight out the day of the show, returning early the next day, and got me a room near LAX.

The concert was in Studio City, on the other side of LA.

I took the trains to get there- which meant that I had to walk to the stations. No prob, got there and got in to the concert. No fucking idea how to get back that late at night, but who cares? I'm gonna get to see DAVID GILMOUR.

The concert was... well, almost a religious experience for me. He had Richard Wright with him, and they performed "Echoes", my overall favorite song of theirs. When I left I was almost in a state of ecstasy.

I got out of the theater and realized I had no idea where the train terminal was that I had come in on, because I had followed the crowd. Somehow I managed to get a load of guys about my age to drive me to it- I'm still not sure how- and I got on the train back toward my hotel. I got to the place where we were to switch trains- and found that I had just gotten off of the last train of the night.

The buses were still running, however. I got directions to the nearest stop- and missed it by fifteen seconds, as did a teenage kid who had been following along with me and now looked lost and scared. As well he should have been- we were alone in downtown LA at midnight with no idea where either of us was going.

By sheer luck there was an inspector for the bus lines nearby. I explained the problem, he got on the radio with the driver of the bus, and drove us to the next stop to get on it.

By now the kid was looking less terrified and more like he was about to worship at my feet for somehow rescuing us both. We got him dropped off at his stop, and the driver informed me that he could only go to his final stop- about two miles from my hotel. Fine, I told him- I can handle it from there.

Ever seen someone utter something completely insane, and seen the expressions of people around them? That was the look he gave me.

I walked two miles through LA at about one in the morning, through areas with buildings under construction, stepping over a couple of homeless people in the process, and got to my room at about two. I got up a few hours later, got to the airport and flew home, arriving exhausted and still somewhat smelly- but intact.

And I had gotten to see DAVID GILMOUR.

To anyone else the experience probably would have seemed fantastically idiotic- paying an enormous sum for a single ticket, flying across the continent for one overnight, getting lost in a strange city- but to me it was worth every penny and every moment.

Because I got to see DAVID GILMOUR.

Fuck yeah.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 16 Apr 2009, 21:26, 14 replies)

Awesome
Sometimes there are moments like that that transcend the venue or the circumstances. They should rightly be treasured.

Did he play anything from Atom Heart Mother?
(pacman_40 Pocket Kleenex: for the wanker on the go, Thu 16 Apr 2009, 21:36, closed)

YES!
He played "Fat Old Sun"! God, when he started wailing on the electric guitar at the end I thought my head would explode. And "Wot's... Uh The Deal" was an unexpected gem.

Even now I'm still getting goosebumps remembering it...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 16 Apr 2009, 21:41, closed)

Fat Old Sun is great, but IMO the title track and Summer 68 are better. Still, can't beat a bit of the old orchestral stuff eh?

ooh, just thought of another. How about 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'?
(pacman_40 Pocket Kleenex: for the wanker on the go, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 18:21, closed)

Good choices, all
but Gilmour has said outright that he hated AHM Suite, and Set The Controls is, I believe, a Roger Waters tune that he doesn't have rights to.

Summer 68 is one of my favorites, and I would have loved to hear them do that one. I also was really hoping for One Of These Days, but that was mainly Nick Mason's, and he wasn't there.

They did Arnold Layne, though. Woo!
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 17 Apr 2009, 18:53, closed)

I went through...
A hell of a lot less to see Broken Social Scene (I love this band to a fairly ridiculous extent), but I totally understand the feeling of euphoria when everything works out and you get to see 'em

:)
(Scritty Bakerman., Tue 21 Apr 2009, 6:21, closed)

Well so far....
You win.
( girlinthehole, Thu 16 Apr 2009, 21:43, closed)

Hmmm...
Spending almost a thousand bucks to go to a single concert that was being held 3500 miles away, eating questionable food, risking life and limb in a trek across a city I had never seen before in the wee hours of the morning, all to see a live performance by a guy who's in my parents' generation...

Yeah. Beat that one, folks. Even I question my sanity.

(Gotta say, though, his voice is almost unchanged after 40 years, and his guitar playing has only improved with time. Hero? Seriously, you have no idea.)
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 16 Apr 2009, 21:50, closed)

I saw them 4 times
the last one being at Live 8. I won tickets !

I must have watched "Pulse" 784 times by now.

Shine on...
( I_Was_Mordred, Thu 16 Apr 2009, 22:11, closed)

The Floyd
I saw Pink Floyd on August 6th 1988 at Wembley Stadium in London on the eve of my 21st birthday. About as close as I've ever been to a religeous experience. I fully understand your committment to getting to the gig. On a more recent note, I paid silly money to see Leonard Cohen, best of all he was playing in my home town. The ticket price brought a tear to my eye, but then so did the concert. Sometimes you've gotta say "fuck it" and part with the cash. Good on ya Loon
( slapdash flying through the cool clean air since, Thu 16 Apr 2009, 23:00, closed)

oddly enough
my only official flirtation with illegality was when i was to see PF do the Wall at Earl's Court in 1981 ... getting home the next day? hitch hike - easy, surely? and i did actually make it from london to edinburgh but this entailed a short period of walking along the hard shoulder on the M6 which resulted in a lecture from Mr Plod and a summons ... fined £10 which in retrospect was actually ok ... although did the Plods take me to the next junction? did they buggery ... they just told me to "walk through the fields" for a mile or two ... meh
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 0:00, closed)

Echoes
fucking brilliant

I'm pretty damn envious. The closest I've come is seeing the Australian Pink Floyd Show. who are admittedly incredibly good, but it's just not quite the same...
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 10:10, closed)

I was stunned
when Rick Wright made the ping on his keyboard. I had no idea what to expect for a playlist, but it had been a fantasy of mine for years to see them perform that live. When they actually started playing it, I nearly wept.

That song contains some of his most brilliant guitar work.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 17 Apr 2009, 14:40, closed)

Do you mean The Pink Floyd Experience?
They're from New Zealand. I'm going to see them here/there within the month.
(Arsenic, Fri 13 Jul, 2:73 and, Tue 21 Apr 2009, 17:34, closed)

I hear you
I felt like that on Tuesday after finally getting to see AC/DC live. Not quite the same type of experience, but I'd been waiting many, many years...
(rockdoctor, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 16:01, closed)