David’s Tribute to Peter Green

As previously announced, David performed last night as one of the special guests assembled by Mick Fleetwood to celebrate the life and music of Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green at The London Palladium. Although Peter Green’s time with the band was to be short-lived, his songs and performances attracted much acclaim, and the regard in which they are still held was reflected in the musicians chosen to perform them.

A stellar lineup excelled themselves: John Mayall, Jonny Lang, Rick Vito, Billy Gibbons, Christine McVie, Steven Tyler, Kirk Hammett, Pete Townshend, and Noel Gallagher gave inspiring renditions of the mostly blues-based early Mac material, while Neil Finn was moving on the emotional Man Of The World.

Surprise appearance of the night was fourth original member Jeremy Spencer, appearing on stage with Mick Fleetwood for the first time in fifty years. His slide guitar and vocals, undiminished by time, elicited a great response from the crowd.

Another first was David Gilmour’s rendition of Oh Well Part 2, apparently the only time it had ever been performed live by Fleetwood Mac. Backed by the house band of Mick Fleetwood, Andy Fairweather Low, Rick Vito, Dave Bronze and Ricky Peterson, David reproduced the reverberant guitar from the original for the first part of the tune. He then paid tribute in his own style, with a superb bluesy sequence of phrases, playing from the heart – a perfect summation of the spirit of the evening.

David returned on lap steel guitar, duetting with Rick Vito on slide for the penultimate song of the show, the instrumental Albatross. David’s distinctive tone, with volume swells, carried the set to sublime heights before the final ensemble closing rendition of Shake Your Moneymaker, the Elmore James classic from the first Fleetwood Mac album.

The concert was designed by Mick Fleetwood to ‘recognize the profound impact Peter and the early Fleetwood Mac had on the world of music’ and it certainly achieved that goal. It was filmed and recorded for future release.