How old is david gilmour now

Contrary to popular belief, he did not replace Syd Barrett as a member of Pink Floyd. He was asked by the band's members to join in order to supplement the guitar work of the increasingly erratic Syd Barrett.

For a brief time he and Syd were both members of Pink Floyd at the same time. When Barrett's mental breakdown made it impossible for him to continue with the group, Gilmour became a permanent contributing member in time for their second album, 's "A Saucerful of Secrets". Barrett also contributed one track to "A Saucerful of Secrets", his last with the band.

He departed soon after that. Hobbies include car racing, flying airplanes, collecting guitars and vintage aircraft. Had a famously tempestuous relationship with his Pink Floyd bandmate Roger Waters , who left the band after the album "The Final Cut" and attempted to sue to stop Gilmour continuing the band without him. Lists Jimi Hendrix as a major influence. When he saw Hendrix perform at a London nightclub in , he said that nobody who saw the performance that night left the club not thinking that Hendrix would go all the way to the top.

On 16 November he was inducted as part of Pink Floyd into the UK Music Hall of Fame for their outstanding contribution to British music and as integral part of British music culture. Owns numerous airplanes and is a licensed pilot. He started a flying museum called Intrepid Aviation. In he was so low on funds that he was eventually hospitalized for malnutrition.

In March he was a member of the Paul McCartney group. It's crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of its GNP to the starving nations. Any squabbles Roger and the band have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if re-forming for this concert will help focus attention then it's got to be worthwhile. After Dark Side we were really floundering around. I wanted to make the next album more musical, because I felt some of these tracks had been just vehicles for the words.

We were working in in this horrible little rehearsal room in Kings Cross without windows, putting together what became the next two albums, 'Wish You Were Here', and 'Animals'. For me, 'Wish You Were Here' was very satisfying. I think we achieved a better balance of music and lyrics.

And sometimes the tunes were neglected. I suppose I agree that we have had an influence on modern popular music. No-one can replace Richard Wright - he was my musical partner and my friend. In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd , Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.

Everything in moderation, that's what I live by. I'm just not a tortured, frustrated person who has to pour all these things out of his soul. None of that is a prerequisite to being good at rock 'n' roll. I've never had any religion. I'd prefer it if I did really. Even as a boy I just couldn't make myself believe. Mortality has been on my mind since I was thirteen.

I had some criticisms of Dark Side of the Moon. It's kind of ludicrous in a way to have criticisms of an album that was so successful but I did voice them at the time. I thought that one or two of the vehicles carrying the ideas were not as strong as the ideas that they carried. I thought we should try and work harder on marrying the idea and the vehicle that carried it, so that they both had an equal magic, or whatever, to them.

Before I went in I thought that [the possibility of being raped or worse] was going to be a real problem. What I found very inspiring was the solidarity that exists between inmates generally. I am still friends with lots of the people I met in there. I was extremely lucky when I was in prison because I had this huge support network of family and friends and total strangers.

That was one of the best things you can have in prison just to get you through. There was one cellmate who had been given four years. His mother had written to him once and that was to tell him not to write — he kept that letter under his bed and would occasionally just get it out and re-read it.

I was getting 20 letters a day — my uncle sent a postcard every single day. It felt very unfair. For me, prisons are more or less unremittingly depressing — people just being made worse. So when I came in and saw the Liberty Choir — something positive happening in prison — I was really shocked and quite inspired.

David and Polly have strong views about the prison system and they asked me if I thought it was worth supporting the choir. I said yes. And our involvement — me seeing some joy in prison, my parents knowing that such a programme exists in a prison — has been healing for all of us.

I came on to the scene when Charlie was two. My ex-wife and I had been separated and on the road to divorce — I had been gone for four years. I was then 46 [he is now 70].

I loved Polly and I also loved her little boy. He was fantastic. He liked me at first, but when he realised that it was getting serious, he had a little change of heart.

He was used to having just his mum — and me being there, well, he did a dirty protest once and said that I smelled, things like that. He would always be very wary of people. But then Polly and I are like that, too. Polly was quite ill at the beginning. She had glandular fever and was weak and was never that great at getting up in the mornings. I was an early bird — always happy to get up, always happy to make breakfast and nothing a kid could do could faze me.

So I would be getting up, taking Charlie to school in Highgate — when he was two — before we even moved in together. After Charlie was around, and before Polly and I had children, I did another Pink Floyd tour for six months or so in Then I made an album.

So the work is compatible with the family thing. I love being a dad. They are lovely. There are those moments, and have been with all of my children. We thought I should adopt Charlie as soon as possible.

I thought the chances were that Polly and I would have children together and that I should go on and adopt him to put him firmly in the whole thing. There was some trouble with the older siblings and there was sometimes a little bit of ganging up on Charlie.

I have been asked whether they made an example of Charlie [going to prison] because he had a rock star father. Because the picture of him swinging on the Cenotaph, with his long hair made them think he was a girl. We were very concerned about his welfare. So I had to dig into my compartmentalisation skills and insist to myself that there was no danger to him and that everything was fine, and to try to keep our family sanity together. What is clear is that Charlie has tried to do something good with his experience.

If you are interested in donating, helping to reduce reoffending and offering prisoners a lifeline, find out more at libertychoir. David and Charlie Gilmour at the family farm in West Sussex. Topics Family Prisons and probation David Gilmour features.