David Gilmour – Luck And Strange Tour – Rome CIRCO MASSIMO 1 October 2024

Going to see a favourite artist David Gilmour perform overseas has the sense of going on a pilgrimage. Particularly apt since this show (the 4th of 6) was being performed in the eternal city of Rome, and because having had the bonus of seeing the rehearsal performance in Brighton two weeks previously, there was the added fascination of seeing how a big show on a small stage would translate to a big show on a big stage.

Warm weather, clear blue skies and an afternoon visit to St Peters square added to the anticipation that DG was going to play a very special gig in a very special place. Preshow excitement reached fever pitch when, arriving at the outskirts of the venue some 3 hours before the show, the intro to Time could heard loud and clear and in high quality. The band were performing a sound check, and it was great to hear David play the solo through the trees on the edge of the site.

David Gilmour – Luck And Strange Tour

The Circo Massimo is an ancient Roman venue, 2000 years old and originally a 1 mile long stadium used for chariot racing and said to house 250000 spectators. The original stands no longer exist and the Circo is mainly parkland, with a colossal stage erected at one end, together with seating for the show. Spectators approach from the far end and walk past various food and merchandise stalls before entering the (very open) arena. The capacity for this evening, mainly on floor seating with some temporary stands, was about 15000.

David Gilmour Tour – David Gilmour Live

The band on stage was the same as Brighton, but everything else was enormous. The stage and the rig on stage, the sound system, the mixing desk, the lighting, the TV cameras. All massive. TV cameras because it was announced that this night was going to be recorded for a film.

The sound quality was extraordinary. With an open venue there were no stray echoes or reverb, and as the gig started with the opening notes of 5 am, David filled the night air with the beautiful and moving tone of his guitar.

Stunning sound quality with David’s solo guitar, and equally the case with the full band, soon to be heard in the Dark Side sequence of Breathe/Time/ Breathe (reprise). David’s vocals struggled a little on the top notes of Time, but this was more than made up for by the excellent guitar solo.

The set list (the same as Brighton’s rehearsal bar one additional song) was perfectly structured and ebbed and flowed, with many highlights. One of these in the first half was Between Two Points, beautifully sung by Romany (David’s daughter) and augmented by harp, excellent acoustic strumming by Ben Worsley and the upright bass of Guy Pratt.

At the rehearsal, David had referred to Ben as his apprentice. He now referred to him as his work experience guitarist! Well Ben was excellent on Wish You Were Here, playing the first guitar part standing face to face and very close to David on second guitar. If that that was a pressure moment, Ben didn’t show it.

The first half ended with High Hopes, complete with Pink Floyd graphics on the giant circular screen, and large bouncing balls in the audience. And the a “show must go on” moment – when David sat down to play his slide guitar solo, there was no sound. The band kept playing around the chords, the technical hitch was fixed, and then David launched into his fabulous and iconic solo.

The second half started with the excellent Sorrow, a fine song to showcase David as a guitar virtuoso. At this point the splendid light show playing into the Rome night sky was really coming into its own. Some great songs to follow, including a gospel like and harmonised version of Great Gig in the Sky, and a favourite of mine from the later Floyd catalogue, Coming Back to Life.

But the highlight for me in the second half, probably in the whole show, was the final song in the main set – Scattered. An epic song from the new album, a wonderful complexity to its structure, poignant lyrics and a soaring guitar solo, itself in 3 parts, in my opinion up there with Comfortably Numb, and accompanied by a fantastic light show.

No David Gilmour show would be complete without Comfortably Numb, and of course that was the encore with its fabulous solos and a laser light show to match. The show finished at midnight, a mesmerizing performance. All we had to worry about was how to get back to the hotel, but we didn’t care!

Paul Allen

11 October 2024