It is 9:06 PM and I hear a foghorn blowing in the dark. I hear bellowing, and a beautiful orchestra playing. No, I'm not stranded on an island (no pun intended) waiting for help in the dark. I'm actually at a concert at Chicago's Rosemont Theatre on Thursday, April 13, 2006. This is David Gilmour's solo show, featuring fellow-Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright. Chicago was one of five North American cities he toured, and this particular night in Chicago was the second show.

The pre-recorded opening of the first song, "Castellorizon", is playing just as David Gilmour walks on stage and picks up his guitar in the dark. The audience cheers. He raises his hand as if to raise more noise. As the orchestra fades away, and the spotlight shines on him, he starts the guitar solo. I have a great seat (Section 103, Row A) and a good view of him, his band, and the stage. Then the song segues into "On An Island", where the rest of the band joins in. I can clearly see Rick Wright playing keyboards and providing backing vocals. The song is slow and sets the mood for a fantastic first half of songs from Gilmour's "On An Island" album.

The song ends with a fine guitar solo outro, and Gilmour speaks to the crowd. He introduces his band, one by one, before getting to Rick. He says, "Last but not least, on keyboards, Richard Wright!" The crowd stands up and cheers, knowing exactly who this fine gentleman is! Rick, being humbled from the attention, stands up, bows, and thanks the crowd before sitting back down.

Then David introduces the next song, "The Blue", my personal favorite off this album. Even though Rick Wright didn't play any instruments on the album version, he did sing backup on it, providing the usual beautiful vocal harmonies. I was briefly disappointed at the show, because as the song began, Rick wasn't singing the first line! I was wondering why he wasn't singing. Then he abruptly stopped playing keyboards altogether, brought his hands to his face, and rubbed his constantly-blinking eyes. While blinking hard, he resumes playing keyboards right on time to sing the line, "Ceaselessly...". I remembered reading that he had cataract surgery last summer and wondered if his eyes were still bothering him. Having Usher Syndrome myself and developing cataracts as well, I know the frustration of the watering eyes and blinkings before the eyes settle down. The song finished after at least a two-minute guitar solo by David, which I recorded on my digital camera.

The stage stays dark after the end of "The Blue" and keyboards stay humming along until David plays his saxophone and the reddish colored lights shine on him. The song is "Red Sky At Night" a beautiful saxophone-driven instrumental, with Rick and Jon Carin playing organs reminiscent of the studio version of beginning of "A Saucerful of Secrets". Then drums kick in; "This Heaven" has begun! David sings wonderfully and provides excellent bluesy solo, behind Rick's keyboarding.

"Then I Close My Eyes" sees David alternating instruments from banjo, slide guitar, regular guitar, and back to a second slide guitar solo, while Rick hums along with keyboards. "Smile" comes along, sounding just like the album version, before "Take A Breath" rocks the first half. Lots of lasers and lights flash during this song, and Rick smiles and looks like he's having a good time! "A Pocketful of Stones" shows off David's vocal prowess, matching exactly the same vocal range as on the studio version. Again, I recorded the outro solo with my digital camera. Like the album, the first half closes with "Where We Start".

After a 15-minute break, the second half, containing classic Pink Floyd material, starts with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". I was disappointed again. It is just David alone on guitar, with no one else in the band supporting him. I wanted to hear Rick's excellent organ performance. Then I get my wish. Right on 'Part 3', when the drums come in just after Syd's Theme, the band joins in and both Rick and Jon provide the excellent organ performance that I had been waiting for. Then comes the verse, and it is again just David, encircled in a spotlight. He sings wonderfully and then the entire band joins in for the rest of the song, with Dick Parry joining the band onstage to provide signature saxophone solo.

With David on acoustic guitar, the Pink Floyd classic "Wots... Uh the Deal" begins--a song never performed until this solo tour! It is a pleasure hearing this favorite of mine off of Obscured by Clouds" album. And Rick provides harmony vocals as well as keyboards. As a nice tribute to Syd Barrett, the band plays "Dominoes"--a Syd Barrett solo song--as a way of honoring this madcap genius! I noticed that many audience members didn't seem to have a clue what this song was.

Next up was "Coming Back To Life", sounding just like the version from "The Division Bell" album. Then it was on to the well-known trio from Dark Side of the Moon. "Breathe" has David on the familiar slide guitar before getting up, putting on the black Stratocaster guitar and singing while Jon takes over the slide guitar. For "Time", alarm clocks could be heard ringing as Guy Pratt made tick-tocking sounds on his bass guitar. I recorded the fine guitar solo and the last verse. Rick provided excellent vocals and his voice seemed confident and strong. The Dark Side segment wraps up with "Breathe (reprise)".

A bell started ringing, signaling the beginning of "High Hopes". Rick provided excellent piano work. The song ended with David's additional ad-libbed acoustic guitar solo, before the familiar ping sounds! "Echoes"!!! The crowd cheers upon hearing this epic being performed! The entire song is performed, only slightly shortened due to time limitations. I recorded two separate video clips with my digital camera. As the song wound down nearly a half-hour later, the lights faded away on each band member as they left the stage. At the end, there was only Rick, who simply reached over and switched off the desktop lamp shining over his keyboards, before getting up and leaving the stage. The main show was over and the crowd applauded, wanting more.

The encore began with the sound of two voices on a radio--"Wish You Were Here". Phil Manzanera played the 12-string acoustic guitar, and then David joined with the lead acoustic guitar and sings. Everyone sang along. Rick and Jon's keyboards ended the song. David thanked the audience for coming and introduces final encore as "Comfortably Numb". The biggest surprise was Rick Wright's singing the part of The Doctor--originally sung by Roger Waters. He sang his parts excellently and looked like he was enjoying the performance. As usual, David provides his signature guitar solos. This is done while lasers were flashing and shining through all the smoke!

But the song--and the show--finally comes to an end. Everyone on the stage gathers together at the front. David says his trademark "Thank you very much, indeed!" Steve DiStanislao threw his drum sticks into the crowd. Phil Manzanera strolled over to his area of the stage and threw his guitar picks into the crowd. Then David walked over, reached for his guitar neck as if to pick it up, then walked back to where he was and shrugged--as if to say it wouldn't be a good idea to throw his guitar into the crowd. Everyone on the stage laughed at his antics.

It was great seeing Rick Wright on stage with David Gilmour--one-half of the classic Pink Floyd--as I had missed out seeing their 1994 world tour. They both seemed to really enjoy themselves that night. I will always remember this night and treasure my memories, including my pictures and short video clips. Thank you very much, indeed.

For someone who has always been the most anonymous member of a notoriously anonymous band, Rick Wright's presence in the online community is surprisingly robust. In some ways, it is fashionable (among hardcore online Floyd fans) to be a Wright devotee--to be madly in love with Wet Dream or Broken China, to wax eloquent about the strength of his singing or writing skills, or to claim that he provided the most important elements of the classic Pink Floyd sound.

Pink Floyd has always been known as an innovative band through the use of technology, using the latest gear. It would seem the same would be true of the band's bootleggers, and the recent David Gilmour tour proves that point.

Collectors of Recordings of Indeterminant Origin (RoIOs) now have a variety of formats to collect, trade, and download--from cellphone camera clips to streaming video, MPEG to DVD. With High Definition about to unfold, Pink Floyd recordings lead the way.

Many of the 30+ concerts of Gilmour's tour have been recorded (in part or whole) and have already found their way to the collector community, mostly on the DVD format. This can pose a problem to some, however, as the European bootlegs are in PAL format and many DVD players in the US are not multi-standard. Higher-end players in particular tend to be exclusively in our standard NTSC format. The simple solution is to pick up a cheap $30 DVD player which is intended to be sold worldwide and therefore would be able to play a disc in any television format.

Gilmour tour DVDs from Rome, Milan, and Dortmund were in circulation shortly after the performances, but are available just as short 'teaser' videos. It is expected that full-length concerts will be available in the future, but for now these short DVDs give us a glimpse of what is in the pipeline. It is just a matter of time before players, recorders, and media for the new High Definition video formats like Blu-Ray and DVD-HD. When that happens, there will be a treasure chest of Hi-Def bootlegs just waiting to be released. If you have been waiting for an excuse to buy that Hi-Def monitor or plasma screen, now you have one. Think about all the Roger Waters tour videos that will eventually surface early next year

Blank DVD media have become inexpensive enough that one would think nothing of using a disc for just one song, so collecting the teaser videos is much easier to do. The MPEG clips and streaming videos are also enjoyable. Look for On A Streaming Island as well as the session work streams for a pretty good pro-shot video while you wait for the official tour release from the recent London shows.

If you were excited about the prospect of High Definition boots but still wanted to see some new bootlegs, don't worry. The HD recordings can be converted to our current standards. Gilmour's performance at Rosemont Horizon was recorded in HD but has been recently released (one set at a time) on standard DVD. The picture and sound are outstanding in this format, so imagine how it's going to look with nearly three times the resolution on HD format.

We are at a crossroads of technology and are about to take a giant leap forward into the world of high definition. During the 1987 tour, a t-shirt was available that said "Pink Floyd - Still First In Space", and now David Gilmour is among the first in HD bootlegs. Innovation runs through all the branches of the Pink Floyd family tree... even the bootleggers.