Live in Gdańsk

2008 live album by David Gilmour

Live in Gdańsk

Live album by

David Gilmour

Released| 22 September 2008
Recorded| 26 August 2006
Venue| Gdańsk Shipyard (Gdansk, Poland)
Genre| Progressive rock
Length| 148:58 (2-CD version)
460:58 (4-disc 2-CD/2-DVD version)
538:24 (5-disc 3-CD/2-DVD version)
138:47 (iTunes version)
Label| EMI (UK)
Columbia Records (US)
Director| Gavin Elder
Producer|

* David Gilmour
* Phil Manzanera

David Gilmour chronology
| On an Island
(2006)  | Live in Gdańsk
(2008)  | Metallic Spheres
(2010)

|
|

David Gilmour video chronology
| Remember That Night
(2007)  | Live in Gdańsk
(2008)  | Live at Pompeii
(2017)

|
|

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [1]
BBC| (favourable)[2]
Classic Rock| [3]
ChartAttack| [4]
The Guardian| [5]
IGN| 8.4/10[6]

Live in Gdańsk is a live album by David Gilmour. It is a part of his On an Island project which includes an album, tour, DVD, and live album. It was released on 22 September 2008. A David Gilmour Signature Series Fender Stratocaster was released at the same time.

## Recording

[edit]

It is a recording of the final show of his On an Island Tour in 2006, where he played to an audience of 50,000 at the Gdańsk Shipyard to celebrate the founding of the Solidarity trade union. The show featured the song "A Great Day for Freedom", from the Pink Floyd album The Division Bell (1994) and was the only show of the tour to feature it. It was last performed by Gilmour during his semi-acoustic shows in 2002.

Gilmour played the entire On an Island album during this concert.

It's the final Pink Floyd-related recording to feature Richard Wright, who died on 15 September 2008, one week before the album's official release. Also notably, this concert took place approximately one month following the death of Syd Barrett. Gilmour and his band were backed by the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zbigniew Preisner. Leszek Możdżer was featured on piano as a special guest.

## Editions

[edit]

The six different available editions of Live in Gdańsk are:

* Two-disc edition containing the concert on CD
* Three-disc edition containing the above plus a DVD featuring 114 minutes of concert footage, plus a 36-minute documentary
* Four-disc edition containing the above plus a 5.1-surround sound mix of On an Island and 11 extra audio-visual tracks taken from various TV appearances[7]
* Five-disc deluxe edition containing the above plus an extra CD containing 12 bonus live tracks from the 2006 tour[8] as well as a wallet of memorabilia.
* Five-LP vinyl edition containing the whole Gdansk show, including "Wot's... Uh the Deal?" and a bonus LP containing 2 Barn Jams, "On the Turning Away" and two songs from Live at Abbey Road.
* iTunes edition containing the entire album, plus various region-dependent audio and video extras.

The DVD that comes with the three-, four-, and five-disc sets allowed the purchaser to download 12 additional tracks free of charge via a web-pass. (As of May 2010, this content is no longer accessible.) These tracks included all 12 tracks on the bonus CD included with the five-disc version, and the song "Wot's...Uh the Deal?" that was performed at the concert but not included on the album itself. The bonus tracks were released one per month as follows:

* September 2008: "Wot's...Uh the Deal?" (Gdańsk)
* October 2008: "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" (Venice and Vienne)
* November 2008: "Dominoes" (Paris)
* December 2008: "The Blue" (Vienne)
* January 2009: "Take a Breath" (Munich)
* February 2009: "Wish You Were Here" (Glasgow)
* March 2009: "Coming Back to Life" (Florence)
* April 2009: "Find the Cost of Freedom" (Manchester)
* May 2009: "This Heaven" (Vienne)
* June 2009: "Wearing the Inside Out" (Milan)
* July 2009: "A Pocketful of Stones" (Vienne)
* August 2009: "Where We Start" (Vienne)
* September 2009: "On the Turning Away" (Venice)

## Track listing

[edit]

Below are the official track listings for the different editions of the album.

### Standard edition

[edit]

The standard two-CD edition is the most basic form of the album and is simply the recording of the Gdańsk show, omitting "Wot's... Uh the Deal?":

Disc 1

1. "Speak to Me" – 1:23
2. "Breathe" – 2:49
3. "Time" – 5:38
4. "Breathe (Reprise)" – 1:32
5. "Castellorizon" –3:47
6. "On an Island" – 7:26
7. "The Blue" – 6:39
8. "Red Sky at Night" – 3:03
9. "This Heaven" – 4:33
10. "Then I Close My Eyes" – 7:42
11. "Smile" – 4:26
12. "Take a Breath" – 6:47
13. "A Pocketful of Stones" – 5:41
14. "Where We Start" – 8:01

Disc 2

1. "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" – 12:07
2. "Astronomy Domine" – 5:02
3. "Fat Old Sun" – 6:40
4. "High Hopes" – 9:57
5. "Echoes" – 25:26
6. "Wish You Were Here" – 5:15
7. "A Great Day for Freedom" – 5:56
8. "Comfortably Numb" – 9:22

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## Promotion

[edit]

UK Television
Gilmour guested on Jools Holland's live TV show Later! Live.... with Jools Holland on BBC2 on 23 September 2008, originally to promote the new live album, performing the songs "Astronomy Domine", "The Blue" and "Fat Old Sun" but with the death of Richard Wright on 15 September he changed his set to "Remember a Day" (one of Rick Wright's contributions to the A Saucerful of Secrets album) and "The Blue" (a track from On an Island to which Wright contributed organ and vocals).

On Friday 26 September 2008, BBC Four held a David Gilmour Night, showing part of the Gdańsk concert and "Gdańsk Diary" documentary.

US Television
VH1 Classic ran parts of the Gdańsk concert on several nights in late October. The programme includes songs omitted from the DVD: "Speak to Me" / "Breathe", "Time", "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", and "Wish You Were Here".

US Cinemas
Selected US cinemas gave showings of the "Gdańsk" concert during release week. This showing also included songs omitted from the DVD: "Speak to Me" / "Breathe", "Time", "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", and "Wish You Were Here", though the theaters' did not show "Echoes".

US Radio
Westwood One aired a world première of the "Gdańsk" concert the weekend before release and included new interviews with David Gilmour.

DavidGilmour.com
Since the announcement of the sets release, Gilmour has had certain songs up on his site that vary, including "Fat Old Sun" and "Wot's... Uh the Deal?" in low quality.

## Personnel

[edit]

Tour personnel

Musicians

* David Gilmour – guitars, lead and backing vocals, console steel guitar, acoustic lap steel guitar, alto saxophone ("Red Sky at Night"), Cümbüş ("Then I Close My Eyes"),
* Richard Wright – piano, Hammond organ, Farfisa organ, lead and backing vocals
* Jon Carin – keyboards, synthesiser, backing vocals, lap steel guitar, programming
* Guy Pratt – bass guitars, backing vocals, double bass, guitar ("Then I Close My Eyes"), glass harmonica ("Shine on You Crazy Diamond")
* Phil Manzanera – guitars, backing vocals, glass harmonica ("Shine on You Crazy Diamond")
* Dick Parry – tenor and baritone saxophones, electronic organ, glass harmonica ("Shine on You Crazy Diamond")
* Steve DiStanislao – drums, percussion, backing vocals
* Zbigniew Preisner – conductor, orchestra arrangements
* Leszek Możdżer – piano
* Polish Baltic Philharmonic – orchestra ("Castellorizon", "On an Island", "The Blue", "Red Sky at Night", "This Heaven", "Then I Close My Eyes", "Smile", "Take a Breath", "A Pocketful of Stones", "Where We Start"; orchestra arrangements by Zbigniew Preisner except those by Michael Kamen below)
* Michael Kamen – orchestra arrangements ("High Hopes", "A Great Day for Freedom" and "Comfortably Numb")
* Igor Sklyarov – glass harmonica ("Shine on You Crazy Diamond", Venice performance only)
* David Crosby and Graham Nash \- vocals ("Find the Cost of Freedom")

Other

* Polly Samson – tour photographer
* Anna Wloch – tour photographer
* Steve Knee – package design and artwork
* Andy Jackson, Devin Workman, Damon Iddins – audio mix
* Peter Robson "FEd" – davidgilmour.com
* Marc Brickman – visual design
* David McIlwaine – wire-man sculpture
* Piotr Skonieczny – backstage pass and artist's pass designs and poster design (found in Deluxe Edition)

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## Charts

[edit]

### Weekly charts

[edit]

| Chart (2008–2020)  | Peak
position

|

Argentinian Albums (CAPIF)[citation needed] | 7
Australian Albums (ARIA)[9] | 30
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[10] | 28
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[11] | 22
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[12] | 5
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[13] | 19
Croatian International Albums (HDU)[citation needed] | 3
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)[14] | 29
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[15] | 38
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[16] | 14
Dutch Alternative (Album Top 30)[17] | 26
French Albums (SNEP)[18] | 15
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[19] | 12
Greek Albums (IFPI)[citation needed] | 13
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[20] | 20
Irish Albums (IRMA)[21] | 22
Italian Albums (FIMI)[22] | 7
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[23] | 122
Japanese International (Oricon)[24] | 62
Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico)[25] | 52
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[26] | 20
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[27] | 34
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[28] | 5
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[29] | 5
Scottish Albums (OCC)[30] | 8
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[31] | 24
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[32] | 14
UK Albums (OCC)[33] | 10
UK Album Downloads (OCC)[34] | 10
UK Physical Albums (OCC)[35] | 9
US Billboard 200[36] | 26
US Top Album Sales (Billboard)[37] | 26
US Top Current Album Sales (Billboard)[38] | 26
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[39] | 12
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[40] | 6

### Year-end charts

[edit]

| Chart (2008)  | Position

|

UK Albums (OCC)[41] | 189

## Certifications

[edit]

Sales certifications for Live in Gdańsk Region  | Certification | Certified units/sales

|
|

Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[42] | Gold  | 30,000*
Poland (ZPAV)[43] | Platinum  | 20,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[44] | Gold  | 100,000^
United States  | —  | 19,000[45]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

## Release schedule

[edit]

The release dates for the album are as follows:

* Europe, Brazil, Israel, New Zealand \- 22 September 2008[46][47]
* North America, Argentina, Chile \- 23 September 2008[46]
* Australia \- 27 September 2008[48]
* Japan \- 8 October 2008[48]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ AllMusic review
2. ^ BBC review
3. ^ Clerk, Carol (September 2008), David Gilmour - Live in Gdansk, Classic Rock
4. ^ ChartAttack review[usurped]
5. ^ "CD: Rock review: David Gilmour, live in Gdansk". The Guardian. 11 October 2008. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022.
6. ^ IGN review Archived 8 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ On an Island blog page at David Gilmour website Archived 11 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ Page about the bonus tracks at David Gilmour website Archived 14 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
9. ^ "Australiancharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
10. ^ "Austriancharts.at – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
11. ^ "Ultratop.be – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
12. ^ "Ultratop.be – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
13. ^ "David Gilmour Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
14. ^ "Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 41.Týden 2008 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
15. ^ "Danishcharts.dk – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
16. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
17. ^ "Dutch Alternative Top 30". Dutch Charts. 5 June 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
18. ^ "Lescharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
19. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
20. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2008. 42. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
21. ^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography David Gilmour". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
22. ^ "Italiancharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
23. ^ "狂気の祭典～ライヴ・イン・グダニスク – デヴィッド・ギルモア" (in Japanese). Oricon Entertainment. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
24. ^ "デヴィッド・ギルモア – でびっどぎるもあ" (in Japanese). Oricon Entertainment. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
25. ^ "Mexicancharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
26. ^ "Charts.nz – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
27. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
28. ^ "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
29. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
30. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
31. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
32. ^ "Swisscharts.com – David Gilmour – Live In Gdańsk". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
33. ^ "David Gilmour | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
34. ^ "Official Album Downloads Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
35. ^ "Official Physical Albums Chart Top 100: 28 September 2008 – 04 October 2008". Official Charts Company. 28 September 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
36. ^ "David Gilmour Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
37. ^ "David Gilmour Chart History (Top Album Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
38. ^ "David Gilmour Chart History (Top Current Album Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
39. ^ "David Gilmour Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
40. ^ "David Gilmour Chart History (Top Tastemaker Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
41. ^ "2008 UK Albums Chart" (PDF). ChartsPlus. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
42. ^ "Brazilian album certifications – David Gilmour – live in Gdansk" (in Portuguese). Pro-Música Brasil. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
43. ^ "Wyróżnienia – Platynowe płyty CD - Archiwum - Przyznane w 2008 roku" (in Polish). Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on 27 November 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
44. ^ "British album certifications – David Gilmour – Live In Gdansk". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
45. ^ Metallica Are #1 For Third Week In A Row, As Death Magnetic Nears Million-Sold Mark — MTV at the Wayback Machine (archived 9 August 2014)
46. ^ a b Gdansk album page at David Gilmour website
47. ^ web pass blog page at David Gilmour website Archived 20 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine
48. ^ a b Blog page at David Gilmour website Archived 22 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine

## External links

[edit]

* Live In Gdańsk at davidgilmour.com

* v
* t
* e

David Gilmour

Studio albums|

* David Gilmour (1978)
* About Face (1984)
* On an Island (2006)
* Metallic Spheres (2010, with the Orb)
* Rattle That Lock (2015)
* Luck and Strange (2024)

Live albums|

* Live in Gdańsk (2008)
* Live at Pompeii (2017)

Singles|

* "Love on the Air"
* "Smile"
* "Arnold Layne (live)"
* "Chicago – Change the World"
* "Faces of Stone"
* "One of These Days (live)"
* "Run Like Hell (live)"

Videos and DVDs|

* David Gilmour Live 1984
* David Gilmour in Concert
* Remember That Night
* Live in Gdańsk
* Live at Pompeii

Concert tours|

* On an Island Tour
* Rattle That Lock Tour
* Luck and Strange Tour

Guest appearances|

* Back to the Egg
* Boys and Girls
* Brother Where You Bound
* Count Three & Pray
* The Dreaming
* Flowers in the Dirt
* Headline News
* HQ
* No More Lonely Nights
* Once
* Run Devil Run
* The Sensual World
* So Red the Rose
* The Unknown Soldier
* White City: A Novel

Related articles|

* Discography
* Pink Floyd
* Roger Waters
* Deep End
* Jokers Wild
* The Law
* Ginger Gilmour
* Polly Samson
* Astoria
* Hookend Recording Studios
* Roy Harper
* The Black Strat
* The Madcap Laughs
* Barrett
* Two Weeks in September

* Category

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

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