New book to lift the lid on David Gilmour's private life

Pink Floyd - David Gilmour, 1971 - KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's first wife Ginger Gilmour will publish a new book, Behind The Wall, on May 24 through New Haven Publishing, charting her life with Gilmour, with whom she had four children, and life with Pink Floyd in the 1970s.

"Behind the Wall is a unique insight into her relationship with David, Pink Floyd and the dynamics between the band members at the height of their fame," the publishers state. "This book includes many private photographs of her family and Pink Floyd on many of the tours she attended and at their homes."

American born model and artist Virginia 'Ginger' Hasenbein first met Gilmour backstage at a Pink Floyd concert in 1971 and has described it as "love at first sight". The pair married in 1975 and went on to have four children. The relationship ended during the band's A Momentary Lapse Of Reason world tour, with Gilmour later marrying author Polly Samson in 1994, with whom he also has four children. Ginger also penned Memoirs Of The Bright Side Of The Moon in 2015.

"I questioned whether there was life after David Gilmour when he left," she says. But it was the sound of my children's laughter in the garden that showed me the way."

Ginger Gilmour — (Image credit: New Haven Publishing)

The relationship between David Gilmour and former Pink Floyd bandmate Roger Waters has remained typically turbulent as of late, with a Tweet in February made by Polly Samson accusing Waters of being "misogynistic", "sick-with-envy" and "antisemitic" seemingly prompting Waters to seek legal advice. Waters described the statement from Samson as "incendiary and wildly inaccurate", while Gilmour defended his partner, claiming the descriptions in her Tweet were "demonstrably true".

Later that very same month, Waters unexpectedly leapt to the defence of his ex-Pink Floyd collaborator after an article in The New Statesman appeared to quote Waters as criticising Gilmour's guitar playing on the band's legendary 1973 album, The Dark Side Of The Moon. "Now, I don't know who [The New Stateman's Stuart Maconie] thinks he's quoting when he says GiImour's 'horrible guitar solos' but it sure as shit ain't me," Waters stated bluntly. "I was there, I love Dave's guitar solos on DSOTM, both of them, and on WYWH and on Animals and on The Wall and on The Final Cut.

"In my, albeit biased view, Dave's solos on those albums constitute a collection of some of the very best guitar solos in the history of rock'n'roll," he continued.

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Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.