About David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour CBE is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink Floyd had become one of the highest-selling and most acclaimed acts in music history. Following the departure of Roger Waters in 1985, Pink Floyd continued under Gilmour's leadership and released the studio albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason , The Division Bell and The Endless River .
Gilmour has released five solo studio albums: David Gilmour , About Face , On an Island , Rattle That Lock and Luck and Strange . He has achieved three number-one solo albums on the UK Albums Chart, and six with Pink Floyd. He produced two albums by the Dream Academy, and is credited for bringing the singer-songwriter Kate Bush to public attention, paying for her early recordings and helping her find a record contract.
As a member of Pink Floyd, Gilmour was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2003, Gilmour was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire . He received the award for Outstanding Contribution at the 2008 Q Awards. In 2023, Rolling Stone named him the 28th-greatest guitarist.
Gilmour has taken part in projects related to issues including animal rights, environmentalism, homelessness, poverty, and human rights. He has married twice and is the father of eight children. His wife, the novelist Polly Samson, has contributed lyrics to many of his songs.
David Jon Gilmour was born on 6 March 1946 in Cambridge, England. He has three siblings: Peter, Mark and Catharine. His father, Douglas Gilmour, was a senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Cambridge, and his mother, Sylvia , trained as a teacher and later worked as a film editor for the BBC. At the time of Gilmour's birth, they lived in Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. In 1956, after several relocations, they moved to nearby Grantchester.
Gilmour's parents encouraged him to pursue his interest in music, and in 1954 he bought his first single, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock". His enthusiasm was stirred the following year by Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", and later "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers piqued his interest in the guitar. He borrowed a guitar from a neighbour, but never gave it back. Soon afterward, Gilmour started teaching himself to play using a book and record set by Pete Seeger. At age 11, Gilmour began attending Perse School on Hills Road, Cambridge, which he did not enjoy. There he met the future Pink Floyd members Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, who attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys on Hills Road.
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