Flashback: David Gilmour Plays an Epic ‘Echoes’ in 2006
Pink Floyd fans were hoping for a reunion tour in 2006 following the group’s triumphant performance at Live 8 the previous year, but they wound up with the next best thing.
David Gilmour supported his solo LP On An Island with a tour that featured Richard Wright on keyboards, and Roger Waters hit the road and played Dark Side of the Moon straight through, with Nick Mason playing drums in select cities.
Waters opted to play 119 shows, sticking largely to arenas and other enormous venues. Gilmour had a far-less ambitious plans, doing just 32 shows and sticking mostly to theaters. His show featured every track from On An Island along with numerous Floyd classics like “Breathe,” “Time,” “Wish You Were Here” and “Comfortably Numb.” For much of the night it really felt like a Pink Floyd show from 1994, only with a different drummer.
The highlight of the Gilmour show was “Echoes,” which regularly closed out the main set. Cameras were rolling on August 26th, 2006 when the tour wrapped up with a gig in Gdańsk, Poland. With the exception of a brief performance at a Syd Barrett tribute show the next year, it was the last time that Gilmour and Wright played together.
“Rick really enjoyed that tour so much,” says guitarist Phil Manzanera. “When they played ‘Echoes’ in Gdańsk, the middle part was like a musical conversation between David and Richard. I listened to all 35 concerts when I mixed the live album album, and that version of ‘Echoes’ was the longest one and the best one. Life is funny. It’s cosmic. It’s like Richard knew something was up, and he stayed on longer. It’s a magical song.”