Legendary bassist Guy Pratt, known for working with some of the biggest names in the music industry over the years recently looked back on collaborating with Pink Floyd and David Gilmour.
Pratt had joined Pink Floyd as a session and touring member. He was present on “Pulse,” which is arguably one of the biggest live albums of all time. Not only that, he was also present in “The Division Bell” as well as 2014’s “The Endless River.” Nonetheless, taking a spot that once belonged to Roger Waters, and coming in after Tony Levin, must have been a daunting task.
In a recent interview on Vintage Rock Pod, Pratt reflected on his time with Pink Floyd. Asked how he actually met David Gilmour in the first place, he replied (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“I first imposed David’s attention because I was playing for Dream Academy, Nick Laird-Clowes band. I’ve played on some demos which I think David then went on and produced, and it’s got because Nick Laird-Clowes.”
Guy also recalled supporting David Gilmour live and how he actually got in touch with him through Nick. He also “started bumping into him in places.” However, he then went on a vacation and, after coming back, there were tons of voice messages from Gilmour. He explained:
“And I got back and there are all these messages from David, saying, ‘I’m doing this Amnesty International gig with Kate Bush. You want to come play with me?’ And then like, ‘Hi, Guy! I really want you for this gig.’, and ‘Hi, Guy! The gig is tomorrow.’, and then ‘Okay. Sorry, Guy…’ And I’m just like, ‘Oh no! That was my one chance and I blow it!'”
“But then not long after that, I saw it in Q magazine, which is brand new, it just come out, and there was this thing about them doing an album. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ Then I got a call from David out of the blue and he was in LA.
“And this actually set the scene for my relationship with David for the next 40 years. He just said, ‘Hello Guy. So I don’t know if you’ve seen but we are putting Pink Floyd back together and going on the road. So I’ve got two questions. One, would you be interested? And would you be available? It’s 13 months?’ So I’m like, ‘I think I could muster some interest, David. Yes. Yeah, yeah, I’m available.'”
During the chat, Pratt was also asked about how he approached stepping into this role. But despite being an absolute professional, Guy admits that he initially “got it all wrong”:
“I got it all wrong. I was playing all the wrong basses. I was too in my own. You know, it was the ’80s, the ’80s were about bass players. I was one of those kids. Playing bass was all about putting your stamp on stuff. And as much as I tried, it took me a long time.”
“Which I think in a lot of cases kind of worked. A lot of the stuff I hated. I’ve kind of reappraised all this at times, especially when during lockdown when I did the series of YouTube videos ‘Lockdown Licks’. There was all this stuff that I hated and have been so embarrassed about for years, like the slap break in ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, and my bass solo in ‘Money’. It turns out, the people are incredibly fond of them and attached to them. So that’s actually really, really nice.”
