Brit Floyd guitarist agrees with Roy Buchanan that Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour is just a bluesman at heart

Brit Floyd’s Damian Darlington

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 5, 2023

By Steve Newton

Back in April of 1988 I did my second and final interview with American blues-guitar great Roy Buchanan, just four months before he was found dead in a jail cell in Fairfax County, Virginia.

At one point in the conversation I asked Buchanan about his recent tour in Australia, which saw him jamming with David Gilmour and other members of Pink Floyd at a bar one night. He described Gilmour as “just a bluesman at heart.”

Then just yesterday I interviewed Damian Darlington, guitarist-vocalist and musical director of Brit Floyd, the world’s top Pink Floyd tribute band. We were chatting about his group’s upcoming concert at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre on July 31, and I asked him what he thought of Buchanan’s take on Gilmour.

“Yeah, he is [a bluesman],” agreed Darlington, “fundamentally that’s what he is. But he’s a blues guitarist who dressed up his sound with a lot of effects. Basically, he wasn’t afraid to explore all that side of guitar sounds, but underneath all the voiceboxes and the phasers and delay and all the rest of it there’s a wonderful solid, melodic blues guitarist.”

So there ya go. As someone who has played over 2,500 concerts of Pink Floyd material, Darlington knows more about David Gilmour’s inherent bluesiness than most anyone.

To hear more from Darlington about Gilmour, his love of Pink Floyd, and the Brit Floyd experience, see my feature story here.

To hear the full audio of my 2023 interview with Damian Darlington–and my interviews with Roy Buchanan and David Gilmour as well–subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 500 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with musicians since 1982.