Bankrate: Before this tour, you never played live with an orchestra. How did it feel having all that musical power behind you?
David Gilmour: It was fantastic -- really great. Songs like "Comfortably Numb," we used to do with an orchestral tape in the old days, and in more modern times did with more modern set-ups. But we had never done "Comfortably Numb" with an orchestra before. It also gave us a chance to dust off and do things like "High Hopes" and "A Great Day for Freedom," which had all been done with orchestras on the record but had never been used that way live. So it was fantastic.
Bankrate: When you're playing a guitar lead and they're playing in the background, how is the interplay different from when it's just a band?
David Gilmour: To be honest, when the electric guitar is thrashing out at full volume, the only thing you're really hearing apart from the electric guitar is the drums and the other stuff. The orchestra doesn't have a chance. You just hope the guys mixing sound out front can bring it off.
Bankrate: Do you get the same thrill from playing Pink Floyd songs now that you did when you were with the band?
David Gilmour: On this tour, the choices were entirely up to me, so I didn't feel that I had to do anything I didn't want to do. So I didn't have to do anything because the audience expected it, since it was out under my name, not under the Pink Floyd name. I still was getting a thrill because the songs I was doing were songs that I love, and that I love to play.
Bankrate: At the Live 8 Pink Floyd reunion you played with Nick, Rick and Roger Waters, Roger seemed overjoyed. You looked less so. Was that as joyful a moment for you, or was that more of an obligation?
David Gilmour: It was fantastic. We had a few days of rehearsing beforehand which went pretty well, and everyone was very friendly and happy and jolly. It was lovely to do that, and I realized that we're still playing very well together, but it also convinced me that I didn't think it was realistic to suppose that we would ever want to go and do that on any scale other than that one-off sort of show.
Bankrate: So you're squashing right now the hopes of a full-on Pink Floyd reunion.
David Gilmour: Yeah. Forget it.
Bankrate: Are you and Roger in touch in any way?
David Gilmour: We email each other occasionally.
Bankrate: Would you say that the legendary animosity between the two of you has thawed?
David Gilmour: We haven't really seen each other since Live 8. We're not in constant communication, but if anything came up that we wanted to talk about, I think it would be easier to do so now than before Live 8.