David Gilmour Putting Together 1st Tour Since 2016

When David Gilmour announced his new album Luck And Strange, the first question that popped into the minds of many was “will he tour behind the record?” The Pink Floyd guitarist has confirmed he will hit the road both in an interview with Uncut and a note on his UK webstore proclaiming those who pre-order the album will “get early access to future UK live dates.”

While Uncut hasn’t posted the chat with Gilmour online, fansite Neptune Pink Floyd shared highlights. One portion indicates David Gilmour’s first tour in eight years is still in the formative stages of planning.

For the upcoming tour, rehearsals need to be scheduled and a setlist needs to be put together. The latter, says Gilmour involves an asterisk system in which all contenders are written down. Three asterisks denotes certain inclusion, while two is ‘likely’ and one indicates an outside possibility. The new album constitutes a clean sweep of triple asterisks, “but that’s about as far as I’ve got”.

Those looking to see Gilmour perform numbers from such iconic Floyd albums as Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall won’t be in luck. The guitarist indicated “an unwillingness to revisit the Pink Floyd of the ’70s.” As for Pink Floyd material from the ’60s, ’80s and ’90s? “Yeah, they might be better represented. I mean, at least one from the 60s. The one we’ve done in the past is ‘Astronomy [The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, 1967]. That’s always entertaining and fun and gets people off to a happy start. There’s songs from the Momentary Lapse Of Reason and The Division Bell albums. I mean, I think ‘High Hopes’ is as good as anything we ever did at any time.”

When queried on whether he’s excited to hit the road, he was pensive. “What do I enjoy about it? The actual moment on stage, usually. The rest of it… don’t really know why we’re doing it.” The interviewer followed up by asking if it had to do with the opportunity to “give the album its chance.”

“Yeah, I changed the band around last time for a number of reasons, one of which was it was all too robotic, and some people would have been better off in a Pink Floyd tribute band,” Gilmour explained. “So I thought we’d get people who are genuinely creative and give them a little more space. That’s the plan. So we*re going to have some of the younger guys alongside Guy and the Webb Sisters, who sang with Leonard Cohen on his last tours.” The “Guy” Gilmour noted is bassist Guy Pratt. The longtime collaborator contributed to Luck and Strange.

David Gilmour also discussed how making Luck and Strange rekindled his creative fire. It appears fans won’t have to wait nearly the nine years it took between the releases of 2015’s Rattle That Lock and Luck and Strange. “We’ve got plenty more pieces of half-formed music that we can get started on,” the guitarist revealed. “The intention is to get something else out as soon as possible.”

Luck and Strange is due for release on September 6. Watch the video for the album’s lead single, “The Piper’s Call,” below: