David Jon Gilmour

David Jon Gilmour (born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a longtime member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He joined the group as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1968, effectively as a replacement for founder member Syd Barrett, who was dismissed from the band shortly afterwards.

In late December 1967, drummer Nick Mason approached Gilmour and asked him if he would be interested in joining Pink Floyd. He accepted and soon afterward became their fifth member; they initially intended to continue with Barrett as a non-performing songwriter. One of the group's business partners, Peter Jenner, commented: "The idea was that Dave would ... cover for Barrett's eccentricities and when that got to be not workable, Syd was just going to write. Just to try to keep him involved". By March 1968, working with Barrett had become too difficult, so Pink Floyd met with business partners Jenner and Andrew King to discuss the situation. During the meeting, Barrett agreed to leave the band and the others committed to moving on without him. Waters later admitted: "He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him". Jenner and King, who believed Barrett to be the creative genius of the band, decided to represent him and end their partnership with Pink Floyd.

After Barrett's departure, Gilmour sang much of Pink Floyd's lead vocals; Waters and keyboardist Richard Wright also occasionally sang lead. After the successes of The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, Waters took greater control of the band, writing and singing lead on most of Animals and The Wall. Wright was fired during the sessions for The Wall, and the relationship between Gilmour and Waters would further deteriorate during the making of the eponymous film, and later during recording sessions for The Final Cut. The last band performance of The Wall took place on 16 June 1981, at Earl's Court, London; it was Pink Floyd's last appearance with Waters until the band's reunion on 2 July 2005, at the Live 8 concert in London's Hyde Park, 24 years later.

Gilmour is primarily regarded as a lead guitarist. His own solo style is often characterised by blues-influenced phrasing, expressive note bends and sustain. In 2011, Gilmour was rated the 14th greatest guitarist by Rolling Stone magazine. In January 2007, Guitar World readers voted Gilmour's solos, "Comfortably Numb", "Time" and "Money" into the top 100 Greatest Guitar Solos ("Comfortably Numb" was voted the 4th, "Time" was voted the 21st and "Money" was voted the 62nd greatest solo of all time).

Early in his career with Pink Floyd, Gilmour played a multitude of Fender Stratocasters. He recorded one of his guitar solos, for "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2", in one take using no editing or mixing using a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar equipped with P-90 pick-ups. In 1996, Gilmour was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd. Gilmour's solo on "Comfortably Numb" was voted as one of the greatest guitar solos of all time in several polls by listeners and critics.

Although mainly known for his guitar work, Gilmour is also a proficient multi-instrumentalist. He also played bass on a portion of Pink Floyd tracks, keyboards, synthesiser, banjo, lap steel, mandolin, harmonica, and drums on the Syd Barrett solo track "Dominoes". He can also play the saxophone.

Many critics have been very favourable towards Gilmour and his style, music critic Alan di Perna has praised Gilmour's guitar work as being an integral element of Pink Floyd's sound. Di Perna described him as the most important guitarist of the 1970s, and also referred to Gilmour as "the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and Van Halen." In a 2006 interview with Gilmour, he commented on his playing technique: "My fingers make a distinctive sound... they aren't very fast, but I think I am instantly recognisable... The way I play melodies is connected to things like Hank Marvin and the Shadows".

In 2006, a writer for Guitar World, Jimmy Brown, described Gilmour's playing style as "characterised by simple, huge-sounding riffs; gutsy, well-paced solos; and rich, ambient chordal textures". According to Brown, Gilmour's solos on "Money", "Time" and "Comfortably Numb" "cut through the mix like a laser beam through fog". Brown described the "Time" solo as "a masterpiece of phrasing and motivic development... Gilmour paces himself throughout and builds upon his initial idea by leaping into the upper register with gut-wrenching one-and-one-half-step 'over bends', soulful triplet arpeggios and a typically impeccable bar vibrato." Brown described Gilmour's sense of phrasing as intuitive, singling it out as perhaps his best asset as a lead guitarist.

Gilmour has been associated with various charity organisations. In May 2003, Gilmour sold his house in Little Venice to theninth Earl Spencer and donated the proceeds worth £3.6 million to Crisis to help fund a housing project for the homeless. He has been named a vice-president of the organisation. Other charities to which Gilmour has lent support include Oxfam, the European Union Mental Health and Illness Association, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, The Lung Foundation, Nordoff-Robbins music therapy, Teenage Cancer Trust, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He also donated £25,000 to the Save the Rhino foundation in exchange for Douglas Adams's name suggestion for the album that became The Division Bell.