David Gilmour Biography

Best known as the voice and guitarist of Pink Floyd, David Jon Gilmour was born in Cambridge, England in 1944. Gilmour and Roger Syd Barrett met as children and later learned to play guitar together at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology. The summer of '65 they spent in the South of France, where Syd joined Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright to form Pink Floyd. Gilmour continued to play with his own band, Jokers Wild, followed by the group Flowers, which he toured Europe with and then later Bulitt.Gilmour was finally asked to join Pink Floyd in 1967, only weeks before the band suffered the loss of Syd Barrett, who was forced to seceed his position due to struggles with mental illness. Gilmour showcased his talent as songwriter, singer and guitarist during the reign of Pink Floyd in the height of the ‘70s.As a side project, Gilmour released his self-titled solo debut album in 1978, which peaked on the Pop Albums charts at 29. As Pink Floyd took breaks, Gilmour continued to hash out his own chart topping solo albums, About Face following his debut album in 1984. When Waters left Pink Floyd a year after About Face, Gilmour assumed the leading role of the rock band, creating two more albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and 1994's The Division Bell. Both albums made the number one spot and followed international sold out tours. In 1996 Pink Floyd was inducted into the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he received the same honor in the UK in 2005.Gilmour donated £3.6 million of the proceeds from the sale of his London house to Crisis, the charity for the homeless where Gilmour is the vice-president. In 2006 he released On an Island, his third solo album that debuted on the UK Charts at number one and went platinum.