With the band out of ideas for the follow-up to the all-conquering The Dark Side Of The Moon, eventually they delivered what would become one of Pink Floyd’s defining tracks.
LITTLE OL’ WINE DRINKER ME
The 2011 ‘Immersion’ box set of Wish You Were Here includes a two-and-a-quarterminute recording of the tuned wine glasses used on Shine On You Crazy Diamond. In 2006, David Gilmour revisited the idea on his On An Island solo tour. In July that year, keyboard player Richard Wright began ‘playing’ a wine glass during his birthday meal in a hotel restaurant in Munich. This was Gilmour’s cue to use wine glasses during the following night’s performance of Shine On at the Königsplatz in the city.
Sax player Dick Parry, drummer Steve DiStanislao, bassist Guy Pratt and guitarist Phil Manzanera were tasked with the job. In Gilmour’s subsequent Remember That Night DVD, he can be seen explaining the sequence of notes – G-minor, D-minor, C-minor etc – to them before the show. The wine glasses were filled with varying amounts of liquid to produce different notes, set up on a table at the side of the stage and ‘played’ during this one-off performance of Shine On.