The second solo album of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour saw him fork out $1,000 a day to a fellow musician.
Though About Face, the second release in Gilmour’s solo discography, did not fare well, it seems to have cost him an eye-watering sum to put together. The former Pink Floyd band member shared as much in an interview given in 1990, where he explained not only was he paying $1,000 a day for the work, but using Mayfair Studios and recording songs written by Pete Townshend of The Who. Gilmour has since explained he wanted to make an album with “the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of”. This inevitably led to a pricey selection of talented instrumentalists who, in the end, were unable to fulfil Gilmour’s dream of making a “really good album”.
Among the musicians selected for the album were Jeff Porcaro, Roy Harper, and orchestral arranger Michael Kamen, who had worked with Gilmour’s ex-bandmate, Roger Waters. Another instrumentalist featured on the album was Stevie Winwood of The Spencer Davis Group. Gilmour was apparently a huge fan of the guitarist, and would pay anything to have him perform on the record, despite being a skilled instrumentalist himself.
He told Q Magazine: “I paid him good money, about $1,000 a day, and he wanted me to use his studio and pay for the studio time. It seemed perhaps a little high. But he doesn’t owe me any favours and I didn’t know him very well. I’ve always loved Stevie Winwood.
“I used to go see The Spencer Davis Group when I was 18 and he was about 16. He used to play a really great guitar as well as great piano – I really wanted to hit the little fucker he was so good!”
Gilmour is no stranger to working with acclaimed artists, having collaborated with Paul McCartney in the studio for The Beatles member’s Give My Regards to Broad Street release. McCartney recalled working with Gilmour and praised his songwriting abilities.
He wrote in his book, The Lyrics: “David Gilmour plays the solo on the record. I’ve known him since the early days of Pink Floyd. Dave is a genius of sorts, so I was pulling out all the stops. I admired his playing so much, and I’d seen him around; I think he’d just done his solo About Face album. So I rang him up and said, ‘Would you play on this?’ It sounded like his kind of thing. I wrote this song specifically for a film that I also wrote: Give My Regards to Broad Street.
“The song did better than the film. Originally, the opening of the film was me walking around Broad Street station with some sound effects played over the top.”
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
