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David Gilmour Guitar Collection auction raises $21.5million for climate crisis charity

As you’ll have seen from our coverage of the event yesterday, the sale of the David Gilmour Guitar Collection at Christie’s New York, in aid of the charity ClientEarth, was wildly successful, with every item selling easily, raising $21,490,750 / £16,935,185/ €19,035,147. It was the most valuable musical instrument sale in auction history, and took place in a pair of packed salesrooms (a second room opening due to sheer volume of people). The numbers attempting to be involved with the sale meant that Christie’s were forced to move the start time by an hour, to better accommodate everyone. Of the 126 lots sold, there were a few record breakers. In particular, the Black Strat achieved $3,975,000, setting a world auction record for any guitar. At the foot of this news item we have the list of top ten items based on final sale price yesterday. Here’s the moment that the Black Strat sold: On hearing how much the sale of David’s instruments had raised for them, ClientEarth CEO James Thornton said: This is a truly humbling and extraordinary gift, which goes beyond our wildest expectations. It’s difficult to express just how deeply grateful we are to David for choosing ClientEarth as the beneficiary of this historic auction. The law is one of the most powerful tools we have to tackle the world’s increasing environmental problems. This gift is a phenomenal boost to our work using the law to tackle climate change and protect nature. It will allow us to play an even greater role in addressing the climate crisis and securing a healthy planet for future generations. Christie’s note that, in the lead up to the auction, over 12,000 fans booked hour-long time slots at the tour stops in London, Los Angeles and New York to get up-close to the guitars. In excess of 500,000 people viewed the content around the sale on Christies.com, and more than 2,000 bidders from 66 countries registered for the sale. 97 percent of all guitars in the sale were sold to or directly underbid by online registrants. 38 percent of the lots were purchased by online bidders.

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At Christie’s: Something Bittersweet

The Christie’s David Gilmour Guitar Collection exhibit has made its way through London and Los Angeles and has now landed in New York City… where all the David Gilmour guitars you have seen played live over the years or that you have listened to an endless amount of times on albums are about to sojourn into an entirely new existence. Yesterday, at 11:00am Eastern Standard Time, a small group of guitar and Pink Floyd enthusiasts waited patiently in the lobby at Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza exhibition space to enter what may be the last glimpse anyone will get of some of David Gilmour’s most famous guitars. And just like that, as Christie’s musical instrument specialists and hosts invited everyone in, the small crowd trickled into different parts of the exhibit: some looking to take each guitar in throughout the exhibit’s layout, others going straight for “The Black Strat,” “The Red Stratocaster,” or #0001. These guitars were all on display in separate rooms, songs that were performed on these over the years piping through speakers directly underneath and around them.

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Floydian Slip Turns 30: An Interview with Host Craig Bailey

Floydian Slip reached its 30th year on the air this past January. Host Craig Bailey sat down for a celebration, a toast, and a few questions… Brain Damage: Craig: 30 years… what keeps you going? Craig Bailey: At this point, working on the show is such a routine part of my daily life I couldn’t imagine not doing it. While producing each week’s show only takes a couple hours, I spend time every day marketing the show — trying to grow the network, renewing affiliate contracts, helping stations with technical stuff. And, believe it or not, I still really enjoy doing it. BD: How many stations are you on now? CB: Today it’s 103. That gets a little squirrelly when you try to suss out exactly what constitutes a station. Many stations broadcast on multiple frequencies in multiple locations. Do you call those one station? Or more than one station? For the most part, 103 is a conservative number. BD: Which came first for you: acting or radio and are you still doing any acting? CB: I started acting in a 5th grade school play, so acting beat radio by about eight years. A lot of the quality time I spent in high school involved drama, and I did a good amount of community theatre after college. Over the last several years most of my acting’s been in local TV commercials and only rarely. I played a bit part in a feature film shot in Los Angeles a few years ago. Nice bucket-list item there. But I’ve just recently started to think about getting more involved. I played a part in a community theatre production in March and think I might like to do more. BD: You’re originally from Vermont and returned to live in Vermont after college in New York, where you had started hosting Floydian Slip: did the acting bug or your enthusiasm for music ever make you curious about living in LA or NYC or did you always know you’d want to return to Vermont?

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David Gilmour guitars: Christies, London – book viewing slot now

As you know, Christie’s New York is handling the upcoming sale of a significant chunk of the personal guitar collection of David Gilmour. With more than 120 guitars, including his preferred Fender models of Broadcasters, Esquires, Telecasters and Stratocasters, the auction on 20th June marks a rare opportunity for guitar aficionados, musicians and collectors to explore one of the world’s most comprehensive groupings of guitars that hooked a generation. As we noted, prior to the sale, the entire David Gilmour Collection will be on display at Christie’s London between 27th – 31st March, followed by highlights of the collection on display in Los Angeles from 7th – 11th May, and will conclude with a full preview in New York from 14th – 19th June. You can book your viewing slot for the London staging now – visit this page at Christie’s website to select your preferred time (https://a.flexbooker.com/widget/34ee144d-e3ee-4663-83b3-101464fd20a7?fbclid=IwAR2MllKSAB_jr3k5oZXI21WgMw6AQaBnXcREHn-C7iQN-u80xGpEm6WbfKI#calendar). Reservations are free of charge, but necessarily limited to reduce congestion, so don’t delay. At time of writing this, most time slots are still available, although some of the later slots each day are gone. For those unable to attend, the auction house had created an incredible virtual tour of the upcoming George Michael collection – hopefully they will create the same for David’s guitars… We have no idea if photography will be permitted at the viewing (a question we’ve had a number of times already) although if you pre-order the catalogue for The David Gilmour Guitar Collection, direct from Christies (https://catalogues.christies.com/christies-shop/Product.aspx?offerId=52694), you should have great pictures of every item on offer. The catalogues are priced at £30/$50/€45 each plus postage, and please note that catalogues will not be despatched until the week commencing 13th May, so it is unlikely to be available to purchase at the London or LA preview events.