4 of David Gilmour’s Most Impactful Musical Contributions Outside of Pink Floyd

Most music fans know about the contributions that David Gilmour made throughout the years as a major part of Pink Floyd’s monumental success. But Gilmour has occasionally picked up some significant side gigs in the music world.

In between his duties with Floyd, he stayed quite active. Here are four contributions to music that he made away from his legendary band.

Helping Solo Syd Barrett

David Gilmour essentially replaced Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd in 1968, although technically, Barrett wasn’t fired by the band until after Gilmour joined. Before there even was a Pink Floyd, Gilmour and Barrett were school chums. When Barrett tried to cultivate some semblance of a solo career, Gilmour was there. He contributed to both of Barrett’s solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, which were both released in 1970. Other Floyd members, including Roger Waters and Rick Wright, appeared on those LPs as well. But Gilmour was all over both records as player and producer. His musical sensibilities helped bring a little bit of cohesion to Barrett’s bizarre but compelling songcraft.

Championing Kate Bush

In 1973, David Gilmour was pretty busy helping Floyd with the release of The Dark Side Of The Moon, which was released in March of that year, and the touring to support it. But he also had the time to listen when a friend of his played a demo of a 14-year-old singer-songwriter who had an unusual, striking style even at that tender age. Her name was Kate Bush. Gilmour loved what he heard so much that he paid for Bush to record a demo that was a bit more professional than your typical homemade tape. That was the demo that landed Bush her recording contract at EMI. In other words, without Gilmour’s intercession, who knows if and when we would have first heard Bush’s brilliance?

Guesting with Paul McCartney

The paths of David Gilmour and Paul McCartney crossed many times. McCartney was one of the folks interviewed by Pink Floyd for quotes that might be used on The Dark Side Of The Moon. (Floyd decided not to use him in the end.) In 1979, Gilmour was one of the all-star musicians guesting on Wings’ “Rockestra Theme”. Five years later, McCartney made the movie Give My Regards To Broad Street, which turned out to be a flop. But the soundtrack to the film included the single “No More Lonely Nights”, which landed as a big hit for Macca. And that’s Gilmour playing lead guitar on the song, bringing a bit of Floydian spaciness to the proceedings.

Producing The Dream Academy

It never hurts to have good friends who also happen to be renowned musicians. The Dream Academy was a struggling band from England until they decided, quite at random one day, to try a song with a kind of chanting chorus. That song, “Life In A Northern Town”, brought a bit of 60s-style baroque pop to the bombastic 80s and gave the band a big hit in 1985. When it came time to produce the track, Nic Laird-Clowes, the singer for The Dream Academy, called Gilmour, who was a friend, for his help. Almost a decade later, Laird-Clowes returned the favor, co-writing the lyrics to a couple of Pink Floyd songs off the 1994 album The Division Bell.

(Photo by Brian Rasic/WireImage)