David Gilmour

At 78 years old, David Gilmour has this physical status:

David Jon Gilmour (Gilmor), an English guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was born 6 March 1946), was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd.

He joined the band as a guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1968, shortly after the departure of founding member Syd Barrett.

Pink Floyd's concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall all made international success with their concept albums.

They were one of the best-selling and most well-known acts in music history by the 1980s, with more than 250 million units sold in the United States by 2012.

Pink Floyd continued under Roger Waters' leadership until 1985, releasing three more studio albums. Gilmour has released four solo studio albums, including Dream Academy, On an Island, and Rattle That Lock.

He has also been praised for bringing songwriter Kate Bush to public notice.

He was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2005 as a member of Pink Floyd.

Gilmour was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 (CBE).

At the 2008 Q Awards, he was named Outstanding Contribution to the Outstanding Contribution category.

In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 14th in their list of the top guitarists of all time.

In 2009, Gilmour was voted number 36 in the top voices in rock by Planet Rock listeners.

He has married twice and is the father of eight children.

Early life and education

David Jon Gilmour was born in Cambridge, England, on March 6, 1946. Douglas Gilmour, his father, was a senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Cambridge, and his mother, Sylvia (née Wilson), trained as a tutor and later worked as a film editor for the BBC. They lived in Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, at the time of Gilmour's birth. They moved to Grantchester Meadows, Illinois, in 1956, after several relocations.

Gilmour's parents encouraged him to pursue their musical interests, and he bought his first album, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," in 1954. Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" and later "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers piqued his interest in the guitar, sparking his interest in the instrument. He borrowed a guitar from a neighbor but never returned it back. Gilmour started teaching himself how to play using a Pete Seeger book and record. Gilmour started attending Perse School on Hills Road, Cambridge, which he did not like at age 11. There, he met future Pink Floyd members Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, who attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys and Roger Waters, who were both based on Hills Road.

Gilmour began studying A-Level modern languages at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology in 1962. Despite not finishing the course, he eventually learned to speak fluent French. Barrett was also a student at the University, and he spent his lunchtimes with Gilmour playing guitar. Gilmour formed Jokers Wild, a blues rock band, in late 1962. Regent Sound Studio in Denmark Street, west London, made a one-sided album and a single, but only 50 copies of each were made.

Gilmour busked around Spain and France with Barrett and some others in August 1965, performing Beatles songs. On one occasion, they were arrested and destitute, resulting in Gilmour's needing medical attention in a hospital for hunger. He and Barrett later travelled to Paris, where they camped outside the city for a week and visited the Louvre. Gilmour spent time in various capacities, most notably as the chauffeur and assistant for fashion designer Ossie Clark.

Gilmour, Ben Wills and Willie Wilson, formerly of Jokers Wild, travelled to France in mid-1967. The trio appeared under the name Flowers, then Bullitt, but they were not commercially successful. Club owners were reluctant to pay them after being told that they were stealing their computers right away after they arrived in Paris. Gilmour, a French musician, contributed lead vocals to two songs on the soundtrack of the film Two Weeks in September, starring Brigitte Bardot. When Bullitt returned to England later this year, they were so ashamed that their tour bus was completely empty of gas and they had to drag it off the ferry to the landing.

Personal life

Gilmour's first marriage was to American-born model and artist Virginia "Ginger" Hasenbein on July 7, 1975. Alice (born 1976), Clare (born 1979), Sara (born 1983) and Matthew (born 1986). They enrolled in a Waldorf School, but Gilmour called their education "horrific." He married writer Polly Samson in 1994; his best man was his adolescent friend and Pink Floyd album art designer Storm Thorgerson.

Gilmour and Samson have four children: Charlie (born 1989 to Samson and Heathcote Williams, Jr.) and Gabriel (born 1995) and Romany (born 2002). At the end of "High Hopes" from The Division Bell, Charlie's voice can be heard on the telephone to Steve O'Rourke. On his debut album "In Any Tongue," Gabriel performed piano on the track "In Any Tongue" from the 2015 album Rattle That Lock. During a London riot against tuition charges, Charlie was sentenced to 16 months in 2011 for violent infighting.

Gilmour does not believe in an afterlife and is an atheist. He has said he is left-wing. His parents, according to him, were "Proper Manchester Guardian readers." Some of their acquaintances went on the Aldermaston Marches. Mine never did to my knowledge, but Labour Party members were all committed to voting for the Labour Party." "Even if I can't quite stick with party politics," he said. Gilmour was one of 200 public figures to write a letter to The Guardian in August 2014, expressing their hope that Scotland will vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in the Scottish independence referendum. In May 2017, Gilmour supported Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 UK general election. "I'm voting Labour because I believe in social justice," the narrator tweeted.

Gilmour is a veteran pilot and aviation enthusiast. He amassed a series of historic aircraft under the auspices of his company, Intrepid Aviation. He later sold the company, feeling that it had become too commercial for him to enjoy; he also kept an old biplane that he flew occasionally. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2018, Gilmour's net worth is £115 million.

Gilmour lives in Wisborough Green, Sussex, England. He bought Medina House, a derelict Turkish bathhouse in Brighton and Hove, in 2015 and had it redeveloped. Gilmour also spends time at Astoria, his recording studio houseboat near Hampton Court.

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