Thanks Mum!  You didn’t know it, but you gave me the new David Gilmour Live in Gdansk CD/DVD set for my birthday.  I went into HMV straight after banking the cheque.  While I was there I also treated myself to Death Magnetic.

I was going to listen to Metallica on the way home, but got in the car and realised that I didn’t have the required power tools to get past the security sticker that CDs have these days.  It worked out well though, because I continued listening to the Pink Floyd CD that was already in there and it had got as far as Echoes, which is on the David Gilmour concert, so the original was fresh in my mind when I got home.

It is a good job I didn’t try to play the Gilmour CD in the car.  It is a nice set, with 2 CDs from the concert.  The first starts with a few Dark Side of the Moon tracks before going into the whole of the On An Island album.  The second CD features various Floyd songs from Fat Old Sun, all the way up to High Hopes, ending with (of course) Comfortably Numb.  The only slight problem with them is that they really don’t like to come out of the packaging.  I am hoping it gets easier when the cardboard relaxes a bit.

The DVD is as you would expect – an expanded version of what was on the TV last week with better sound.  Not the whole concert, unfortunately – it does not include the opening Floyd songs (Speak to me, Breathe, Time, and Breathe reprise) or Shine On, Fat Old Sun and Wish You Were Here from the later part.  I have not had time to watch it all yet – I just dipped in and watched Echoes and Comfortably Numb. Great stuff: a full 25-minute version of Echoes.

Funny thing about watching Gimour though, or rather about my attitude to him.  When I first saw Pink Floyd it was 1988 when he would have been 42.  At that time my image of the band was from 70s footage, especially the Pompeii film, so I was a bit shocked when I saw them – they looked so old to me.  Of course they were younger then than I am now… If I watch the film of that tour again now I have a different opinion!  Gilmour is now (just) into his 60s but when I see him I just think he looks good for it.

I can’t see any Pink Floyd fan being too disappointed by Live in Gdansk, or any Metallica fan being disappointed by Death Magnetic.  It’s been a good day for me today:)