David Gilmour on “unforgettable” experience with Paul McCartney
Like most British rock groups of the 1960s, Pink Floyd began as a rhythm and blues band, following in the footsteps of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other 1950s pioneers from across the Atlantic. David Gilmour was an old school friend of founding members Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, but he wasn’t welcomed to join Pink Floyd until the autumn of 1967, a time when Barrett’s mental health issues had begun to take a severe turn for the worse, and they required guitar support.
As well as learning his guitar skills from the likes of Hank Marvin, Lead Belly, and B.B. King, Gilmour and his Pink Floyd bandmates had the angst-ridden plasticity of their adolescent years soundtracked by The Beatles. “I really wish I had been in the Beatles,” Gilmour told Mojo in 2016. “[They] taught me how to play guitar; I learnt everything. The bass parts, the lead, the rhythm, everything. They were fantastic.”
In the late 1960s, Pink Floyd would acquaint with The Beatles, having first met in 1967 at Abbey Road Studios while the former were recording their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and the latter were laying down tracks for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. If you told Gilmour, even in the late 1960s, that he would perform alongside Paul McCartney at Liverpool’s famed Cavern Club in 30 years, he would have told you to lie down and mind what you smoke.
“I’m a kid, really,” Gilmour continued n his conversation with Mojo. “You get into Studio Two at Abbey Road, you’re sitting there with Paul McCartney, and your guitar is plugged in. You think that’s an ordinary day’s work, but of course, it isn’t; it’s magical! Managing to persuade him to sing ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ at the Cavern, with me doing the John Lennon parts, was absolutely fantastic.”
“I’ve been in The Who, I’ve been in The Beatles, and I’ve been in Pink Floyd,” Gilmour jested. “Top that, motherfucker!”
In a conversation with French Guitarist magazine in 2002, Gilmour expanded on his long-lived admiration for McCartney. “He is a musician in the broadest sense of the word,” he opined. “He can play everything: bass, guitar, piano, drums … And on all these instruments, he’s at a very good level. We cannot, therefore, mystify him, he knows exactly what he wants. We owe him certain productions which were not of the greatest interest. But he definitely deserves the success and respect he enjoys.”
Since the dissolution of The Beatles in 1970, Gilmour has joined McCartney in the studio on a number of occasions. In 1979, David played guitar on The Wings’ single ‘Rockestra Theme’ and then later on the 1984 solo album Give My Regard To Broadstreet, 1989’s Flowers In The Dirt and 1999’s Run Devil Run.
In his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney discussed his decision to enlist Gilmour’s guitar talents for Give My Regard To Broadstreet. The former Beatle labelled the Pink Floyd guitarist as “a genius”. Detailing further, he added: “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, 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.”
In 1999, McCartney organised a special return gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, which The Beatles made a musical Mecca thanks to their famed gigs of the early 1960s. Assembling his supergroup for the show, McCartney brought in Gilmour, Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, guitarist Mick Green, keyboardist Pete Wingfield and Chris Hall on accordion duties.
Later, in 1999, Gilmour answered questions from some of his fans in an MSN webcast. Regarding the recent Cavern performance with McCartney, Gilmour discussed the likelihood of any further collaborations. “I’ve completed all the stuff that Paul has so far asked me to do with him,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s doing anymore, but it was really good fun to get back to that kind of music for a change. Getting to be a Beatle for that night at the Cavern was unforgettable.”
Watch Paul McCartney and David Gilmour perform The Beatles’ ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, in 1999 below.