DAVID GILMOUR & THE JOY OF DOWNLOADING

One of the most anticipated tours of this Spring is that of David Gilmour, former guitarist/vocalist for Pink Floyd (former Pink Floyd founder/bassist/vocalist Roger Waters will also be touring soon).  As with all major tours nowadays, it's very easy to find recent shows available for BitTorrent download.

It's been especially fun collecting Gilmour's recent work; I started by downloading his new solo album, On An Island, several days before it's release (overall, I thought it was rather boring but there are some great guitar pastiches).  A few days after that brought two BBC radio broadcasts (an interview with a couple of acoustic songs performed live in the studio plus an hour-long concert), followed by three songs from the hour-long concert as a DVD since the show was filmed for a later webcast.  Now, there are audio recordings of two further full concerts (Hamburg and Paris, the latter already has FIVE different source recordings!) as well as a nice DVD of video clips from the Dortmund gig (a nice presentation that begins with a German TV news report).

What I like about these shows is that Gilmour has included a lot of Pink Floyd songs; the second set has been opening with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-6)" and ending with my favorite Floyd song, the 20-minute "Echoes" from 1970's Meddle.  In Paris, the second song on the first set was a rare performance of "The Great Gig In The Sky" with special guest Sam Brown on guest vocals.  Really cool!  I've been enjoying downloading these recent shows much more than last year's U2 and Bruce Springsteen concerts (which I rapidly tired of).

I have been furiously downloading many shows in these past weeks before I leave town.  I know I won't be able to once I'm in Thailand and my speeds have been very fast recently (except for this weekend when my DSL has either been out completely or operating at very slow speeds — weather problems, perhaps).  Not only have I been bringing down David Gilmour shows but also added some "new" U2 (including recordings of their 1981 and 1983 Kansas City concerts as well as a DVD of their recent Sao Paulo TV broadcast), some great Van Morrison shows from the early 1970's, as well as a lot of Eric Clapton soundboards (mainly from the 1974 and 1975 tours — really my favorite period of his live performances because of the unpredicability of the setlists and the length/quality of his guitar solos).

It's so much fun to discover and listen to many of these rarities, the only problem being having enough time to burn them all to CD-R before I dismantle the PC later this week.  I pretty much decided to stop downloading on Friday so I could get caught up (after I burn each disc, I then add it to my inventory program so it doesn't go into THAT stack) and also upload several of my own Rainmakers remasters (not helped due to this weekend's DSL problems, however).

Downloading new music is one thing I'll really miss when I'm in Thailand.  When I'm looking for a new house, one of the things I'm really going to look for is the availability of a broadband connection (although, truth be told, even finding a home with a phone line will be difficult).