Monday, December 20, 2010

DG - 2006-05-26 - An Island In The Bridgewater Canal

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Dr. Forrester said...

David Gilmour
"An Island On The Bridgewater Canal"
The Bridgewater Hall
Manchester
26 May 2006

Dedicated to John Hall without whose ticket acquiring skills 10 of us would not have seen
this show and you would not be enjoying this recording. Thank you from us all.

Recorded from Row N directly in front of the right hand PA using Sony PCM-M1 DAT with
AT831s Series Microphones through a Low-Z to Hi-Z Input Transformer.

Mastered from DAT to Pioneer PDR-609 Stand alone CDR > CD Wave > FLACfrontend > flac

In my humble opinion this recording came out a dream however I shall leave it up to you to decide.

CD One

Breathe/Time/Breathe (Reprise)
Castellorizon
On An Island (with Crosby and Nash)
The Blue (with Crosby and Nash)
Red Sky At Night
This Heaven
Then I Close My Eyes
Smile
Take A Breath
A Pocketful Of Stones
Where We Start

CD Two

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (with Crosby and Nash)
Wearing The Inside Out
Fat Old Sun
Arnold Layne
Coming Back To Life
High Hopes
Echoes

CD Three

Wish You Were Here
Find The Cost Of Freedom (with Crosby and Nash)
Comfortably Numb

What can I say? I knew what to expect sonically from having downloaded all the shows from the tour
posted here (thanks to all the tapers and uploaders concerned, you are brilliant). However that did
nothing to prepare my poor little brain for the visual bombardment it was about to undergo.

What a concert!!! It was everything I hoped it would be sound wise but the lighting blew me away.
It's a long long time since I've seen lighting so sympathetic to the music.

Right from the opening sound effects tape intro to Breathe to the closing Comfortably Numb 2 hours and
40 minutes later my jaw was metaphorically on the floor with amazement. And trust me I've seen a gig or
two in my life.

The first half, apart from Breathe / Time / Breathe Reprise was the entire On An Island album. I really
like the record but live it takes on a massive life of its own when given the room to breathe (pun not intended).

So many great moments in the first half that when the interval came I could have gone home satisfied.

However if I had I would have missed what is possibly (and this is a bold statement made partially out
of the euphoria still coursing threw my veins the morning after) the greatest presentation of a set of
live music I have ever witnessed.

I will not go through the second half song by song, although trust me I could.

Suffice to say in my opinion David has now refined the perfect second half. This was the same as he
played on the last three US shows. Moving Breath / Time / Breathe Reprise to the first half actually
imrpoves the flow of the second half.

The fact he played my three favourite tracks off the Division Bell was great.

Having missed the 1994 tour to see High Hopes live for the first time was a pure joy. This is in my
opinion an all time Floyd classic. I thought that would be the highlight for me and it was for the
15 seconds it then took him to follow it with Echoes.

Echoes was simply as stunning a presentation of a single piece of music as I have ever seen.
The lights, sound, performance and lasers meshed to make it a hypnotic experience.

Can't wait to see the show again in London on Monday but it can't be better than last night. Surely?

Thank you David and the band plus Messrs Crosby & Nash for a peerless example of how to deliver a
concert which after 32 years of following both Floyd and their solo projects is as good as anything
they have ever done before.

If you are going to Glasgow or London in the next few days you are in for the treat of your lives.

Enjoy

davem

December 20, 2010 at 10:16 PM

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