David Gilmour live at the Royal Albert Hall - review

Prog rock's reigning royal heads to the Albert Hall

A photograph of David Gilmour on stage at the Royal Albert Hall

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

As the likelihood of Pink Floyd ever sharing a stage again appears to decrease with every passing year, it’s nights like these that leave us wondering what we might be missing – or if we’re missing anything at all. Roger Waters has just performed his grumpy version of the Floyd catalogue at a set of shows for Desert Fest in California, while in the other corner, David Gilmour’s doing very well with his slightly more avuncular take.

The main difference between the two sets is that Waters’ setlist was all-Floyd, and all pre-split, while Gilmour throws in a few post‑breakup tracks, as well as several from his own On An Island and Rattle That Lock albums. Otherwise, it’s a pure Pink Floyd experience in all but name: the band’s iconic ‘Mr Screen’ still dominates the backdrop as it did in 1974, and the newer songs are painted using the familiar Floyd palette.

(Image credit: Kevin Nixon)

It doesn’t always work: Gilmour’s The Girl In The Yellow Dress is a dreary jazz-lite filler, but elsewhere it’s all highlights, all the way. This starts with the guitarist gently coaxing the opening notes of 5am into life as birds tweet and dry ice swirls, before the relaxed funk of Rattle That Lock eases the show into second gear. There’s an utterly lascivious grind through What Do You Want From Me, a version of The Great Gig In The Sky featuring some frankly astonishing vocals from Lucita Jules, a loose-limbed romp through Money, and a rousing, rafter-wobbling take on Wish You Were Here.

The second half (“You’ve been a great audience… so far,” says Gilmour, in the manner of a teacher who fears his class may grow unruly) starts with a racing One Of These Days, paving the way for a truly exultant Shine On You Crazy Diamond. The ‘legendary’ Guy Pratt provides some furiously funky fingerwork on a gleeful version of Today, and sings alternate lines on a venomous Run Like Hell as bright lights burn and the band don shades. It’s extraordinary to think that he’s been playing these songs alongside Gilmour for almost as long as Waters did.

There’s something oddly comfortable about Gilmour’s show. The sound is perfect and, apart from the occasional vocal creak, the band’s performance is flawless. It’s adventurous music that lacks any sense of danger or mystery, and despite the truly spectacular setting, it never throws up any real visual surprises. And yet this music continues to possess an undeniable emotional wallop.

At the beginning of the climactic Comfortably Numb, four men in the rows in front of this reviewer instinctively encircle their partners’ waists, which is, at face value, an odd reaction to a song about alienation and sickness. But as that second solo climaxes, the audience leave their seats to move closer to the stage, the spotlights strafe the stalls, and Guy Pratt grins like a man who’d rather be nowhere else. It’s hard to look at him and disagree.

50 Years Of Pink Floyd: Gilmour vs Waters

How Wish You Were Here was the beginning of the end for Pink Floyd

Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

Latest in
Adrian Smith performing with Iron Maiden in 2024
Adrian Smith names his favourite Iron Maiden song, even though it’s “awkward” to play
Robert Smith, Lauren Mayberry, Bono
How your purchase of albums by The Cure, U2, Chvrches and more on Record Store Day can help benefit children living in war zones worldwide
Cradle Of Filth performing in 2021 and Ed Sheeran in 2024
Cradle Of Filth’s singer claims Ed Sheeran tried to turn a Toys R Us into a live music venue
The Beatles in 1962
"The quality is unreal. How is this even possible to have?" Record shop owner finds 1962 Beatles' audition tape that a British label famously decided wasn't good enough to earn Lennon and McCartney's band a record deal
The Mars Volta
“My totalitarian rule might not be cool, but at least we’ve made interesting records. At least we polarise people”: It took The Mars Volta three years and several arguments to make Noctourniquet
/news/the-darkness-i-hate-myself
"When the storm clouds clear, the band’s innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever": In a world of bread-and-butter rock bands, The Darkness remain the toast of the town
Latest in Review
/news/the-darkness-i-hate-myself
"When the storm clouds clear, the band’s innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever": In a world of bread-and-butter rock bands, The Darkness remain the toast of the town
Sex Pistols at the RAH
"Open the dance floor, you’ll never get to do it again." Forget John Lydon's bitter and boring "karaoke" jibes, with Frank Carter up front, the Sex Pistols sound like the world's greatest punk band once more
Arch Enemy posing in an alleyway
Arch Enemy promised they'd throw out the rule book for Blood Dynasty. They didn't go quite that far, but this is the boldest album of the Alissa White-Gluz era - and it kicks ass
The Darkness press shot
"Not just one of the best British rock albums of all time, but one of the best debut albums ever made": That time The Darkness added a riot of colour to a grey musical landscape
Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux Deluxe Box Set
“The live recording sees the piece come to life… amid the sepulchral gloom there are moments of real beauty”: Roger Waters' Super Deluxe Box Set of his Dark Side Of The Moon Redux
Cradle Of Filth Press Shot 2025
Twiddly Iron Maiden harmonies, thrash riffs, horror, rapping (kind of) and sexy goth allure: The Screaming Of The Valkyries is peak Cradle Of Filth