Pink Floyd know the dedication of their fanbase, and it’s a real testament to the ability of the band (and its many arms) to continually inspire throughout the world, who gasps as the merest mention of the psychedelic British act even thinking about getting back together again. But the fan literati know the closest thing these days is seeing guitarist David Gilmour live, who recently had an excellent solo release, On An Island, to tour behind along with recently passed Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright.
In keeping with that dedication, Gilmour went overboard with the editions of this Live At Gdansk set. There’s a standard double disc release, a double-disc plus DVD version, a four-disc version with all the above plus a 5.1 mix of On An Island as well as various other rare live cuts and a downloadable extra CD worth of material, and a deluxe five- disc version with all the above and a physical CD of that downloadable version. Oh, and the vinyl version. Take that, completists.
The other kicker is that the setlist is almost entirely unchanged from the Live At Royal Albert Hall DVD released this time last year, but here, he’s backed by the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra. The major changes here are a track or two reshuffled, and no guest appearances to speak of (We miss you, David Bowie.).
What’s so frustrating about all this is it’s still totally worth buying and owning. It’s a hell of a performance, and the added orchestration really does make it a different experience, and totally worth it. Damnit.
In A Word: Serenity
