| Live in Gdańsk | |
| Type: | live |
| Artist: | David Gilmour |
| Cover: | liveingdansk.jpg |
| Released: | 22 September 2008 |
| Recorded: | 26 August 2006 |
| Venue: | Gdańsk Shipyard (Gdansk, Poland) |
| Genre: | Progressive rock |
| Length: | 148:58 (2-CD version) 460:58 (4-disc 2-CD/2-DVD version) 538:24 (5-disc 3-CD/2-DVD version) 138:47 (iTunes version) |
| Label: | EMI |
| Director: | Gavin Elder |
| Producer: |
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| Prev Title: | On an Island |
| Prev Year: | 2006 |
| Next Title: | Metallic Spheres |
| Next Year: | 2010 |
Live in Gdańsk is a live album by David Gilmour. It is a part of his On an Island project which includes an album, tour, DVD, and live album. It was released on 22 September 2008. A David Gilmour Signature Series Fender Stratocaster was released at the same time.
It is a recording of the final show of his On an Island Tour in 2006, where he played to an audience of 50,000 at the Gdańsk Shipyard to celebrate the founding of the Solidarity trade union. The show featured the song "A Great Day for Freedom", from the Pink Floyd album The Division Bell (1994) and was the only show of the tour to feature it. It was last performed by Gilmour during his semi-acoustic shows in 2002.
Gilmour played the entire On an Island album during this concert.
It's the final Pink Floyd-related recording to feature Richard Wright, who died on 15 September 2008, one week before the album's official release. Also notably, this concert took place approximately one month following the death of Syd Barrett. Gilmour and his band were backed by the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zbigniew Preisner. Leszek Możdżer was featured on piano as a special guest.
The six different available editions of Live in Gdańsk are:
The DVD that comes with the three-, four-, and five-disc sets allowed the purchaser to download 12 additional tracks free of charge via a web-pass. (As of May 2010, this content is no longer accessible.) These tracks included all 12 tracks on the bonus CD included with the five-disc version, and the song "Wot's...Uh the Deal?" that was performed at the concert but not included on the album itself. The bonus tracks were released one per month as follows:
Below are the official track listings for the different editions of the album.
The standard two-CD edition is the most basic form of the album and is simply the recording of the Gdańsk show, omitting "Wot's... Uh the Deal?":
Disc 1
Disc 2
UK Television
Gilmour guested on Jools Holland's live TV show Later! Live.... with Jools Holland on BBC2 on 23 September 2008, originally to promote the new live album, performing the songs "Astronomy Domine", "The Blue" and "Fat Old Sun" but with the death of Richard Wright on 15 September he changed his set to "Remember a Day" (one of Rick Wright's contributions to the A Saucerful of Secrets album) and "The Blue" (a track from On an Island to which Wright contributed organ and vocals).
On Friday 26 September 2008, BBC Four held a David Gilmour Night, showing part of the Gdańsk concert and "Gdańsk Diary" documentary.
US Television
VH1 Classic ran parts of the Gdańsk concert on several nights in late October. The programme includes songs omitted from the DVD: "Speak to Me" / "Breathe", "Time", "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", and "Wish You Were Here".
US Cinemas
Selected US cinemas gave showings of the "Gdańsk" concert during release week. This showing also included songs omitted from the DVD: "Speak to Me" / "Breathe", "Time", "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", and "Wish You Were Here", though the theaters' did not show "Echoes".
US Radio
Westwood One aired a world première of the "Gdańsk" concert the weekend before release and included new interviews with David Gilmour.
DavidGilmour.com
Since the announcement of the sets release, Gilmour has had certain songs up on his site that vary, including "Fat Old Sun" and "Wot's... Uh the Deal?" in low quality.
Tour personnel
Musicians
Other
| Chart (2008–2020) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Argentinian Albums (CAPIF)< | --Shipments Chart: September 2008--> | 7 |
| Croatian International Albums (HDU)< | --Week 5, 2008--> | 3 |
| Dutch Alternative (Album Top 30)[3] | 26 | |
| Greek Albums (IFPI)< | --Chart: 3 November 2008--> | 13 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[4] | 122 | |
| Japanese International (Oricon)[5] | 62 | |
| UK Physical Albums (OCC)[6] | 9 | |
| US Top Current Album Sales (Billboard)[7] | 26 | |
The release dates for the album are as follows: