David Gilmour will release his first solo live album, the double-disc CD and DVD set Live In Gdansk, on September 16. The concert souvenir captures the final night of Gilmours 2006 On An Island tour, which took place in front of 50,000 at Polands Gdansk shipyards. Former President of Poland Lech Walesa and Mayor of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz invited Gilmour and his band to play this special concert to mark the 26th Anniversary of the founding of Trade Union Solidarity.

‘This was the first time I have played in Poland and it was a thrill to be there helping to mark one of the most important anniversaries in recent European history, the guitarist said in a statement. The Gdansk shipyard is a deeply symbolic place and it was an honor to perform our music there. It was particularly exciting to have my friend Zbigniew Preisner there conducting the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and to be able to perform my album for the first time as it was intended.’
For this performance, Gilmour was backed by a number of familiar faces, including founding Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright and Crosby & Nash drummer Steve Di Stanislao, as well as Pink Floyd sidemen Guy Pratt (bass), Jon Carin (keyboards) and Dick Parry (saxophone). The six-piece band was also accompanied for the only time on the tour by an orchestra: the 40-strong string section of the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zbigniew Preisner, the orchestral arranger on Gilmour’s On an Island. It also features the first ever live recording with an orchestra of Pink Floyd’s High Hopes and A Great Day For Freedom, the latter performed here as a one-off for the Solidarity anniversary.